Reading undercover
Subtitle: audience and authority in Jean de La Fontaine
By: Anne L. Birberick.
Publisher: Bucknell University Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Lewisburg [Pa.]; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 160
Subjects: La Fontaine, Jean de, 1621-1695 -- Criticism and interpretation.; Authors and readers -- France -- History -- 17th century.; Books and reading -- France -- History -- 17th century.; Reader-response criticism.; Authority in literature.
Description: This study examines author/audience relations in the works of the seventeenth-century French poet Jean de La Fontaine. Focusing on the Fables, Les Amours de Psyche et de Cupidon, and the Contes, Anne L. Birberick explores how La Fontaine remains a largely subversive artist, even while he seeks to establish himself within a conventional system of literary patronage.

Birberick offers an "anatomy" of readers as she shows how La Fontaine simultaneously appeals to multiple readers whose tastes range from the literal to the ironic, from the orthodox to the heterodox. To negotiate successfully between and among such diverse audiences, the poet employs techniques of concealment and disclosure to foster an anticanonical public.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-155) and index.