Politeness and Its Discontents: Problems in French Classical Culture (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521029865)

A study of the place and nature of the ideal of politeness in seventeenth and eighteenth-century writing in France, Britain and Russia. This ideal covered not just polite manners, but all the "civilized" norms of society and culture, as opposed to elements considered childish, irrational, savage or vulgar. Professor France shows how interpenetration and compromise between polite and rude, tame and wild, are central features of classical writings, arguing that polite society needed and desired its opposite.

Author: Peter France
ISBN-10: 0521029864
ISBN-13: 9780521029865
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/02/2006
Pages: 260
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.59d