A Seductress Constructed: The Female Jewish Moneylender of Regnard’s Le joueur

Authors

Jennifer R. Perlmutter, Portland State University

Published In

The French Review

Document Type

Citation

Publication Date

10-2016

Abstract

Authors of seventeenth-century France engaged in literary constructions of the Jew although they had little or no direct contact with a Jewish population. Mme La Ressource of Regnard’s 1697 Le joueur merits particular attention because she is one of the rare fictional constructs of a Jewish woman. As a moneylender, she supports the gambling habit of the play’s protagonist, Valère. Beyond this immediate purpose, she functions as a foil to Valère’s chaste sweetheart, Angélique; she is a seductress who commodifies and corrupts. This article analyzes how these functions stem from Mme La Ressource’s particular construction as a female Jewish moneylender.

Description

Copyright 2016 by the American Association of Teachers of French.

Locate the Document

Can be found online at: http://frenchreview.frenchteachers.org/Archives.html

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/18703

Citation Details

Perlmutter, J.(2016). A Seductress Constructed: The Female Jewish Moneylender in Regnard’s Le joueur, The French Review, Vol. 90.1, pp. 136-46.