Bibliocollège - Iphigénie - Racine

by Jean Racine

Les plus grands chefs grecs se sont réunis autour d'Agamemnon et lui ont fait l'honneur de le choisir pour les mener en guerre contre Troie. Mais les dieux bloquent la flotte au port : ils ont soif du sang d'une jeune innocente et réclament le sacrifice d'Iphigénie, sa fille ! En tant que chef des chefs, Agamemnon ne peut refuser ; en tant que père, il ne peut accepter. Ainsi se resserre le noeud tragique sur lui et sa famille.
Créée à Versailles en 1674, Iphigénie, qui fut l'un des plus grands succès de Racine, continue de nous émouvoir. Car c'est l'innocence sacrifiée à la raison d'Etat que l'auteur nous donne à lire.

Le texte intégral annoté ;
Des questionnaires au fil du texte ;
Des documents iconographiques exploités ;
Une présentation de Racine et de son époque ;
Un aperçu du genre de la tragédie classique ;
Un groupement de textes : "La jeunesse sacrifiée dans la guerre".

224 pages, Pocket Book

Published February 19, 2014

About the author

Classical Greek and Roman themes base noted tragedies, such as Britannicus (1669) and Phèdre (1677), of French playwright Jean Baptiste Racine.

Adherents of movement of Cornelis Jansen included Jean Baptiste Racine.


This dramatist ranks alongside Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin) and Pierre Corneille of the "big three" of 17th century and of the most important literary figures in the western tradition. Psychological insight, the prevailing passion of characters, and the nakedness of both plot and stage mark dramaturgy of Racine. Although primarily a tragedian, Racine wrote one comedy.

Orphaned by the age of four years when his mother died in 1641 and his father died in 1643, he came into the care of his grandparents. At the death of his grandfather in 1649, his grandmother, Marie des Moulins, went to live in the convent of Port-Royal and took her grandson Jean-Baptiste. He received a classical education at the Petites écoles de Port-Royal, a religious institution that greatly influenced other contemporary figures, including Blaise Pascal.

The French bishops and the pope condemned Jansenism, a heretical theology, but its followers ran Port-Royal. Interactions of Racine with the Jansenists in his years at this academy great influenced the rest of his life. At Port-Royal, he excelled in his studies of the classics, and the themes of Greek and Roman mythology played large roles in his works.

Jean Racine died from cancer of the liver. He requested burial in Port-Royal, but after Louis XIV razed this site in 1710, people moved his body to the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris.

*source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ra...