La Pléiade

La Pléiade (French, German " Seven Sisters ") was a group of French poets, 1549 in Paris formed around Pierre de Ronsard and Joachim du Bellay, initially as La Brigade (Eng. " Force / share" ) designated.

The name Pléiade under which they entered the literary history is, for the first time in 1556 in a poem by Ronsard, the head of the group occupied. This is the one of the first open membership to seven limited, in line with a group of seven poets in Hellenistic Alexandria 3rd century BC, the number of those of the Pleiades corresponded in Greek mythology. Was also In addition to the poet Ronsard and Du Bellay include the actual Pléiade today hardly known authors Jean Dorat, Rémy Belleau, Jean -Antoine de Baif, Pontus de Tyard and Étienne Jodelle. Close relations with the group of cultivated humanist scholar Jacques Peletier du Mans and the composer Claude Le Jeune.

The members of the Pléiade, who owned the Greek language and literature all have a profound knowledge of Latin and usually also the ( old), propagated the one hand, the imitation of ancient authors and genres, but at the same time stressed the value of the French, which they renew as a literary language and by neologisms, eg Latinisms, archaisms and expressions attempted to enrich from technical languages ​​and dialects. However, their work, especially their love poetry, is also strongly oriented to the relevant at this time in Europe, Italian literature, eg, at the Poetry Francesco Petrarch and his successors, the Petrarkisten.

Could not prevail by some members, especially Baif, aimed at revolutionizing the French metric in the sense of a system that also measures the quantities of syllables, and not only their number. The verse forms, now you appear Bellay as typical of the group thanks mainly to Ronsard and, rather, are the Zehnsilbler and zwölfsilbige Alexandrians. Typical poem genera are the sonnet and the ode.

The doctrine of the group was especially formulated by Du Bellay in his famous magazine La Défense et illustration de la langue française ( 1549, German " defense and Berühmtmachung of the French language "). Should be "Defend " in this case the French against inveterate humanist who thought there, no modern language can ever Latin and Greek candle. Should " Illustrated " be it through literary works, which with those of the Greek and Roman classics, especially but could compete with those of the modern Italians. As such, the Pléiade authors thought quite quasi nationalistic.

In the 20th century, the name La Pléiade was transferred to some series of editions published by Gallimard:

  • The Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, the most prestigious French Classics series, which since the 1920s large French and foreign language ( in translation ) Authors releases in thin leather-bound print editions and now, over 500 volumes includes (as of 2009);
  • The album de la Pléiade, published since 1960: 45 volumes (April 2005);
  • The Cahiers de la Pléiade, a literary magazine that of April 1946 to the autumn of 1951 (13 numbers) appeared;
  • The Encyclopédie de la Pléiade, published since 1955: 49 volumes (April 2005);
  • The Galérie de la Pléiade, published 1950-1957 (6 volumes).
  • Literary group
  • Literature ( French)
  • Literature (16th century)
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