Even 400 years after his birth, Molière seems to resist everything. Long spearhead of French cultural colonialism, he then became the voice of the revolutionaries. An emblem of classical theatre, his work has become multimedia. From “Molière the African” through the most eccentric legends, to the controversies around its possible pantheonization, Martial Poirson, curator of the exhibition “Molière, the factory of national glory” at Espace Richaud , in Versailles, takes us behind the scenes of the Molière myth.
You gave part of the exhibition Molière, the factory of a national glory the title “ Moliere the African “. Why is Molière so African ?
“Molière the African”, is a nod to Thayeb Saddiki who says: ” Molière is the most Mediterranean of French authors “. And also to Jamel Debbouze who recently declared, on the occasion of the Festival du rire in Marrakech, if Molière came back to us today, he would be African. In other words: this form of laughter, which is both benevolent laughter, but which lays bare the contradictions of society, can be considered as a prefiguration of what comedians practice today. And among these comedians, there is still a large majority of artists from immigrant backgrounds who develop a satire of contemporary French society.
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The exhibition also evokes the historical beginning of the reception of Molière’s work in the Maghreb of the 19th century.
The first translations of Molière into classical Arabic appear in the middle of the 19th century, particularly in Lebanon. These troops, quite numerous at the time, will then pass with this Moliéresque baggage through Egypt and arrive as far as North Africa. From the outset, this theater is perceived as a theater of great modernity that echoes the issues of the society of the time. There was really a rediscovery, a way of revisiting this repertoire which was much freer than what was practiced in Europe at the time, since there was no weight of institutions, of school, cultural policies. We have a very direct entry into this repertoire, because it is a way of being able to criticize the society of our time without undergoing censorship. For many intellectuals in the Middle East and North Africa, Molière participated in a strategy for disguised criticism, but perfectly understandable for the public of the time, of the contradictions of Arab-Muslim society.
[Vidéo] Moliere the African
Of Molière, we know the texts, which are authenticated, otherwise there is a general agreement on the fact that we don’t know much about the character. What is the craziest legend around Molière that you have come across? ?
There are endless legends attached to Molière’s life, but perhaps the most incredible is the challenge to his authorship itself. We still regularly hear today that Corneille would have written all or part of Molière’s theatre, or even Louis XIV himself would have written Molière’s theatre. The idea that an important personality hides under the nominee of Molière is a recurring fantasy. This is explained by the fact that Molière having acquired – rightly or wrongly – the place of the first man of the theater in France through the centuries, as a national writer, questioning the paternity of his writing would obviously be a way of unbolting the statue and to bring this theater into the era of suspicion.
There are still many other myths, especially about the circumstances of his death. It is sometimes explained that he died on stage, which is false, sometimes that he died without burial and that he was thrown into the common grave, with the needy and the beggars, which is also false. . The truth is that Molière’s death happened very suddenly. He did not have time to give up his acting profession to benefit from a Christian burial, which was the rule at the time. The king himself had to intervene with the Archbishop of Paris to “tolerate” a burial, but under his baptismal name. It was therefore Jean-Baptiste Poquelin who was buried and not Molière. But this fantasy remains and we continue to feed the image of a persecuted poet, of an artist whom the church would have tracked down until after his death.
You are also a specialist in the link between art and money, between comedy and the economy. According to you, Molière, today, would he have staged his plays only on a theater stage or also on social networks via Facebook Live, videos on YouTube or on streaming platforms like Netflix ?
Probably, because already in his time, Molière was a star. He used most of the means of communication of the time. He had a very great intelligence in the way he could rely on the media to be able to carry out a real policy of management of his image. And it is a point in common that he has with Louis XIV. Molière has a great concern for his image and a great ability to use anything that is supposed to weaken him. He diverted the malevolent accusations about his life or his work to make publicity material out of them. So Molière is a public man, a star, a star in the most modern sense of the term. And if he had lived today, it is likely that he could have made the most of these new means of information and communication which are the digital media.
Today, are there still detractors, enemies of Molière ?
I would not necessarily say enemies, but in any case adversaries. We are no longer at all in a time when the Catholic Church can wage a merciless war against this author whom she has called obscene, atheist, etc. On the other hand, by becoming an essential element of the national heritage, Molière has aroused a new type of criticism, rather a criticism of his literary fortune than of his theater, but which nevertheless contributes somewhat to marginalizing his theater. It is called “bourgeois”, since it is a theater that is learned at school. It is described as “institutional”, since it is a theater carried by the school and a large part of the public theaters, but let’s not forget that Molière is perhaps the only author of the classical age to be as much represented in subsidized public theaters than in private commercial theaters.
So Molière arouses a certain number of controversies that we also find in the national debate around his possible pantheonization. The opponents of the pantheonization of Molière are not necessarily opponents of Molière, but opponents of the somewhat cumbersome place he took in the national novel and in the republican institutions. Thus, some consider that pantheonization would be a kind of drop of water that makes this vase of notoriety overflow – or on the contrary, it would finally sterilize this living creation that is invented on the set generation after generation, and which makes it possible to keep a very free and very creative look at Molière. Finally, we are more in reluctance than in opposition, even if in denominational colleges and high schools, Molière is still very little played today.
► Molière, the factory of a national glory, exhibition at the Espace Richaud in Versailles, from January 15 to April 17, 2022.