| The writing of Alfred de Vigny is relatively neglected by contemporary scholars of Romanticism, who tend to favor the poetry and theatre of Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset. Yet, Vigny's tragic play, Chatterton (1835), has long been heralded alongside Hugo's Hernani (1830) as one of the crucial triumphs of the drame romantique. Preceded in its published version by a preface in which Vigny passionately pleads for the survival of the poet, Chatterton presents a fictionalized, symbolic portrayal of the eighteenth-century British poet, Thomas Chatterton (1752--1770), whom Vigny had also treated in one of three episodes in his dialogic novel, Stello (1832). Due to the novel's muted reception, Vigny turned his attention toward the theatre. Staging Chatterton's tragic life story, he hoped, would more thoroughly impress upon the public his passionate thesis for the poet-as-martyr in a materialistic, bourgeois society that fatally ignores and misunderstands him. In adapting Stello's Chatterton episode to the stage, Vigny thus presented the audience of the Comedie-Francaise with a drama that was both philosophical and moving, earning him the acclaim of the public and the permanent respect of his peers in the Romantic movement.;Philip Fulvi published an English translation of Chatterton in 1990; however, it was not annotated and did not include "La Derniere Nuit de Travail," Vigny's fiery manifesto that now serves as the play's preface. The translation's lack of contextualization, along with occasional textual inaccuracies, perpetuates a lack of awareness regarding Vigny's extensive contributions to French Romanticism in particular and to studies of the poete maudit in general. This dissertation, therefore, proposes a new, annotated English translation of the play and its argumentative preface. A detailed introduction precedes the play, addressing the complexities of dramatic translation as well as the literary, historical, and symbolic significance of Chatterton, which, I argue, reveals a problematic union with the maternal.;While my primary purpose in translating Chatterton lies in its contribution to Vigny scholarship and to poete maudit literature, I have also endeavored to render the stageworthiness of the play more evident to a modern English-speaking audience. |
