Knowra Jean Racine Jean Racine Jean Racine (1639–1699) was a French playwright and poet whose tightly structured tragedies, written in alexandrine verse, probe passion, power, and moral conflict.
Phèdre : A tragedy by Jean Racine in which Phaedra confesses forbidden love for her stepson Hippolytus. Its doomed confession is Racine’s starkest study of desire entangled with guilt.
French alexandrine : A twelve-syllable French verse line, conventionally divided into two six-syllable halves. Racine uses its measured rhythm to give emotional confrontations formal control.
Port-Royal-des-Champs : A Jansenist abbey and educational center near Paris, associated with influential theologians and scholars. Racine studied with its scholars, whose religious rigor marked his early intellectual life.
Molière : A French actor, playwright, and theater director whose comedies include Tartuffe and The Misanthrope. Racine’s early work reached the stage through Molière’s company before their relationship broke down.
Comédie-Française : A French national theater company founded in 1680 through the merger of Paris theater troupes. It has kept Racine’s plays central to the French theatrical repertory since its founding.
Andromaque : A tragedy by Jean Racine about captive Andromache, whose choices entangle Pyrrhus, Hermione, and Orestes. The play established Racine’s tragic pattern of desire passed along an unreturned chain.
Three unities : A neoclassical dramatic doctrine prescribing unity of action, time, and place. Racine’s concentrated plots largely conform to these rules of French classical theater.
Jansenism : A Catholic theological movement emphasizing human sinfulness, divine grace, and predestination. Its severe account of human nature offers context for Racine’s treatment of passion and guilt.
Jean-Baptiste Lully : An Italian-born French composer who dominated music at the court of Louis XIV. Racine collaborated with Lully on the opera-ballet La Grotte de Versailles.
Sarah Bernhardt : A French stage actress celebrated internationally for her performances in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her portrayal of Racine’s Phèdre became one of the most celebrated modern interpretations.
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