Perry Gethner

editor of "Théâtre complet, volume 12"

January 24, 2018

Perry Gethner is Regents Professor and Norris Professor of French. He has taught at OSU since 1984 and served for 16 years as department head of Foreign Languages. He has published numerous critical editions and translations of French literary works from the early modern period. He is a member of international teams of scholars editing collections of French women playwrights, plus male playwrights such as Voltaire, Mairet, Du Ryer, Rotrou and Thomas Corneille. He has also published many articles on French literature and opera, plus entries in reference works.

This volume includes two of Rotrou's mid-career tragicomedies and one of his final comedies. Gethner edited the tragicomedy L'Heureux naufrage (The Fortunate Shipwreck), first published in 1637. It is a typically baroque work, featuring suspense, disguise, complex love plots, staged violence (duel and attempted assassination), plus elements of a play-within-a-play. There is a happy ending, but the protagonists repeatedly face mortal danger. And there is an unusual amount of irony, of multiple varieties. The play has no known source and may represent an attempt on the part of Rotrou to concoct an original plot combining elements with guaranteed audience appeal.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2018-honorees/perry-gethner

Last Updated: 19 January 2021