| In public space in the seventeenth century, etiquette reigned supreme; it determined the being's seeming. And yet, we can nevertheless see, when we look back, that an interest in interiority developed---however slowly---as the century progressed. In the margins of a saturated social sphere, a process of interiorization began. My dissertation shows that Arlamene ou le Grand Cyrus (1649-1653) by Madeleine de Scudery presents, through the places and spaces that it constructs, an interesting view of interiorization. I aim to shed light on the idea that interiority unveils itself in places that favour its discovery. Drawing on works on topography, on scenography, on rhetoric of the passions, and on the semiotics of the body, my analysis of Grand Cyrus shows the link between spatial interiority and human interiority in a network of real, symbolic, and metaphoric correspondences. The Scuderian subject is obliged, when in the presence of others, to conceal feelings; he or she is not able to indulge these feelings on the public stage. So, instead, this subject holds in, and keeps for him or herself, the secret of his or her reflections. Thus, only isolation and retreat to the margins of the external world seem, to such a subject, favourable to exploration of the inner life---which life is something that distinguishes the self from the other.;I identify, in my thesis, the characteristics, the components, and the role of this particular sphere inhabited by the subject of Grand Cyrus when he or she tries to enjoy a few instants of solitude. Responding to the image of the castle "closet", I show how this sphere is available everywhere, as an extension of public spaces. When necessary, these islets that favour interiority can be imagined in nature as well as in constructed (architectural) space. There, the Scuderian subject is sheltered from the inquisitive gaze, folded in on itself.;While the many heroic romances of the first half of the seventeenth century mainly emphasized events and action, and the second half of the century saw the emergence of the psychological novel, in Scudery's Le Grand Cyrus we see a watershed moment. Located between two points of interest, this work has exterior live with interior, exteriority with interiority, seeming with being. |
