Theresa Varney Kennedy Books

Focusing on the concept of the 'deliberative heroine,' the book explores how early modern French women playwrights utilized their characters to challenge conventional perceptions of women. Through the lens of Enlightenment ideals, the author highlights the importance of rationality and the nuanced relationship between reason and emotion, demonstrating how these elements empower female characters and offer a critique of their historical roles.

Written at the end of the Counter Reformation, Françoise Pascal’s first play, Agathonphile martyr, tragi-comédie (1655), is an important transitional piece, marking the passage from religious drama as a moralizing device to that of a diversion, prompted by the growing influence of the société mondaine in Lyon. In her introduction, Kennedy examines how this play is characterized by a unique merging of two genres; the tragicomedy and the martyr play. This play also merits our attention in terms of new female characterization. Kennedy demonstrates how Pascal’s female martyr Triphine diverges from the traditionally „cold-hearted“ female martyr, as an independent thinker who speaks her heart, proclaiming the virtues of 'constant' love.