De la précarité ou l’individu et le masque dans la France de la Renaissance tardive

Abstract

During the 16th century, the mask and precariousness underwent respective evolutions, and their intersection between the forms of festive theatricality provoked the emergence of a science and consciousness of modern individuality. This article proposes an approach of “sociology of transformations of behavior” through a cross-analysis of the images. It sheds light on how the interweaving between (counter-)figures and concrete metaphors of precariousness (poverty, misery, instability), and practices of “masking” modify the norms of individuation and lead to a new form of individualization. Indeed, their encounters on the stage leads to the externalization of norms onto a sartorial aesthetics within a society constructed on the power of the gaze. Transposition into the symbolic of the social anxieties born from the aporias of Christian ethics and symbolism to resolve religious differences, the games of mask and precariousness opens the space for a new subjectivity.

Keywords

• precariousness
• poverty
• honor
• nobility
• mask
• dressing-up