- Histoires tragiques
Histoires tragiques ('tragic stories') were a genre of French fiction in XVI-XVII centuries, a
Baroque rendering ofBoccaccio 's type ofshort stories , concentrating on the dark side of human nature.The progenitor of this kind of a story was
Pierre Boaistuau with his translation ofMatteo Bandello 's "Novelli" published in French as "Histoires tragiques" (1559 ). Boaistuau selected from Bandello six most dark and gorey stories and changed them for his means. He was followed byFrançois de Belleforest who adapted 12 more stories for the new edition in1570 .Those dark mood stories were imitated vy writers like
Jacques Yver ("Le Printemps d’Yver", 1572),Vérité Habanc ("Nouvelles Histoires tant tragiques que comiques", 1585),Bénigne Poissenot ("Nouvelles Histoires Tragiques", 1586),Alexandre Sylvain ("Epitomes de cent histoires tragicques", 1581), andBruneau de Rivedoux ("Histoire véritable de certains voyages périlleux et hasardeux sur la mer", 1599).François de Rosset began to borrow plots for his tragic stories from contemporary crime chronicle ("Les Histoires tragiques de nostre temps", 1615), and this innovation proved to be extremely popular.Another important author is
Jean-Pierre Camus who adds infernal and diabolical theme.Literature
* Poli, Sergio. Histoire(s) tragique(s) : anthologie-typologie d'un genre littéraire. Fasano, Schena, 1991. 520 p.
* Ferrari, Stéphan. Histoire tragique et grande histoire : Rencontre de deux genres. "Dalhousie French Studies", Winter 2003, 65, p. 18-35.
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