«La Guirlande de Célimène»: les personnages du “Misanthrope” au miroir de la presse fin-de-siècle

Abstract

La Guirlande de Célimène is a column published from June 19 to August 15, 1898 in a journal called “La Presse”. Jean de Tinan, Émile Métrot and Henri Vernot respectively play Célimène, Philinte and Alceste, the main characters of The Misanthrope. La Guirlande de Célimène belongs to the «epistolary fantasies», which are part of the experimental columns proposed by “La Presse”, during the revival of the daily newspaper, at the turn of the 1890s.With a humorous purpose, La Guirlande de Célimène relies on a constant gap between its prestigious original text and its subject matter, which is rooted both in political news and in current events. The references of the chronicle allow us to better understand Molière’s influence beyond the theatrical sphere, and in the very codified space of the newspaper column. In this way, La Guirlande de Célimène questions the transformations of a high-school culture in the new writing spaces offered by newspapers.