Defense et illustration du "petit" : la vie et l'oeuvre de charles-francois pannard auteur dramatique et poete (1689-1765)
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Abstract EN:
Charles-francois pannard was one of the most famous authors of his time. As a poet-philosopher, as a sharp observer and a shrewd denouncer of his century's failings, pannard set out an art of happiness in all his poetic and dramatic writings. His ethics is close to that of the epicureans, echoes montaigne or pascal, and at times anticipates rousseau's ideas. Pannard's esthetic values forcefully assert themselves through the defense and illustration of "smallness" and by rebound, of what is "simple", "natural" and "true". Granted that dramatic parody is the most evident vehicule for satire in his work, one notes that a critical dimension can be found in almost his entire repertory : by putting theatre on the theatre, by choosing the theatre itself as the subject of his plays, he dismantles the theatrical machine, breaks down dramatic illusion, and calls upon the critical conscience of the spectator. Pannad preferred the principle of pleasure and the freedom of creation to social integration and to recognition by posterity. He preferred the "foire" to the privileged theatres. He preferred liberty of writing and unbridled creativity to classical rules. The esthetic and literary choices made by pannard anchor his work in the rococo period which, in france, covers the first half of the 18th century and embraces such figures as boucher and chardin. Studying the process which has led his work to fall into oblivion amounts to reassessing values rejected by the neoclassic second half of the 18th century, and opens on to the question of the place pannard might once again occupy in the esthetics, the ethics and the history of "genres" in the same period. It leads one to raise the question of the perennity of his work and its possible resonance today.
Abstract FR:
Charles-francois pannard fut un auteur des plus celebres en son temps. Poete philosophe, observateur aigu et denonciateur perspicace des travers de son siecle, pannard a pose les conditions d'un art du bonheur dans l'ensemble de ses ecrits poetiques et dramatiques. Son ethique jouxte celle des epicuriens, n'est pas sans faire echo a montaigne ou a pascal et devance parfois la pensee de rousseau. Les valeurs esthetiques pronees par pannard s'affirment avec force a travers la defense et l'ullustration du "petit" et, par ricochet, du "simple", du "naturel" et du "vrai". Si la parodie dramatique est, chez lui, le vehicule le plus manifeste de la satire, on remarque que presque tout son repertoire comporte cette dimension critique : en mettant le theatre sur le theatre, en faisant du theatre le sujet meme de ses peices, il demonte la machine theatrale, denonce l'illusion dramatique, en appelle a la conscience critique du spectateur. Pannard a prefere le principe de plaisir et la liberte de creation a l'integration sociale et au souci de la posterite ; il a prefere la foire aux theatres privilegies, la liberte de l'ecriture et l'invention debridee, aux regles classiques. Par les choix esthetiques et litteraires qui la fondent, son oeuvre s'ancre dans la periode rococo qui, en france, couvre la premiere moitie du 18e siecle et comprend, dans le domaine pictural, les noms aussi bien de boucher que de chardin. Etudier le processus d'oubli dont cette oeuvre a ete frappee, revient plus largement a reevaluer des valeurs rejetees par la seconde moitie du 18e siecle neoclassicisant, et a poser la question de la place que pannard pourrait de nouveau occuper dans l'esthetique, la pensee morale et l'histoire des genres de la meme epoque. C'est surtout poser la question de la perennite de son oeuvre et de sa resonance possible aujourd'hui.