Performative Polemic offers a literary history of the French-language pamphlets that denounced absolutism during Louis XIV’s personal reign (1661-1715). The book employs performativity as a conceptual framework to trace the evolution of anti-absolutist pamphlets from legalistic texts indicting the French crown to satirical narratives that transformed the Sun King into a laughable object of derision.   

KATHRINA LAPORTA is a lecturer in the Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture at New York University. 
 

Acknowledgments                                  
 
Note on Translations                                  
 
Introduction        An Army of Authors                                             
 
Chapter 1        Performing Justice: Lisola's Bouclier d'état et de justice (1667)
 
Chapter 2        Moving Speech: Performing Memory in Le Miroir des princes (1684)
 
Chapter 3        Failure to Perform? Scripting Reform in Les Soupirs de la France esclave (1689-90)
 
Chapter 4        Comedy of Erring: Performance in the Underworld in L'Alcoran de Louis XIV (1695)        
 
Chapter 5        Unbecoming Majesty: Performing Impotence in the Conseil privé de Louis le Grand (1696)  
 
Epilogue        The King is Dead, Long Live Dissent                    
 
Notes                                          
 
Bibliography