French literature of the XVIIth century

In the article the correlation of the private and the public in the French court society of the second half of the XVIIth century is considered; the changes in the share of the themes touching upon private life are traced; the means of its depiction are analyzed.

The article considers the protagonist image in Memoires by Mlle de Montpensier, related to the description of her life in exile after the Fronde events. The author analyzes how the royal disfavor impacts the changes in the views and inner world of the heroine. Comparing the text extracts written in exile with those written after it was over allows to show how the introspection deepens, and to draw the conclusion on the meaning of the memoire genre in the fate of the disgraced princess.

The article considers Mlle de Montpensier’s approach to depicting childhood on the materials of her «Memoires». The viewpoint of the memoire writer is analyzed as compared to the image of the protagonist; the significance of the ‘childhood’ piece in the context of the whole book is determined.

The article considers instances of heroics in Memoires by Mlle de Montpensier on the example of the Fronde events. Her ideas of heroic behavior are analyzed as well as the development of the heroic content of the protagonist image under the influence of historic, ethical, and literary factors.

The author considers how Nicollo Machiavelli’s ideas influenced Cardinal de Retz as the hero and the creator of the Memoirs (published in 1717). The author reveals the discrepancy between the memoir-writer’s proclaimed anti-Machiavellianism and his adoption of the ideas of the treatise Sovereign (1532). This discrepancy manifests itself on the level of the judgments and evaluations of the narrator, figures of speech, concept of the autobiographic hero.