am a senior majoring in French, and Foreign Languages and International Economics (FLIE). I am an Honors Student and a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society, and Pi Delta Phi French Honor Society. I have received a Bluegrass Merit Scholarship for all four years and the Zembrod Scholarship in Spring, 2003. In addition, I have been on the Dean's list for each semester of my four years at the University and have been placed on the National Dean's List. I graduate in May of 2004. I plan to return to France in the Fall of 2004 to teach English and, following this, perhaps pursue my masters in French, perhaps with a special interest in the 18 th and 19 th century, comparing literature to other artistic expressions.In the beginning, this study was written in French for a class on the Commedia dell'Arte. In this course, I became fascinated with the social commentary that was expressed through so many artistic media, specifically painting and theatre. I loved writing the paper and studying the paintings when I first wrote it in French. After this, I gained the experience of translating my own work into English and discussing the topic in greater depth. My faculty mentor and I worked on the translation that I did and the organization of the paper after it was translated. In addition, she would give helpful input concerning the way in which I expressed my ideas in the paper.
I am also a dancer in the UK Dance Ensemble, where I find an outlet for my creative expression as a classical, modern, and contemporary dancer. I both perform and choreograph for the Dance Ensemble. In addition, I am very involved in the work at my church, Quest Community Church, where I often dance, help with Sunday mornings and work with the kids worship team.
This study explores important interdisciplinary parallels and intersections between painting and theatre in eighteenth-century France. Through careful analysis of two paintings of Watteau, La Danse and Le Faux Pas, and Marivaux’s captivating romantic comedy, Arlequin, poli par l’amour [Arlequin Polished by Love], the reader comes to understand conventions of love and sociability during this period as belonging to the realms of both the theatrical and the natural. The enchanting world of Watteau’s fête galante blurs the distinction between the country life of simple peasants and the pastoral amusements of courtly society, as does Marivaux’s world of the Italian Commedia in French context. Tableaux and text depict the changing roles and costumes of theatrical disguise. But this masquerade was harbinger a of a society poised to become more flexible in this new emphasis on shifting identities. One of the most interesting facets of this essay is not merely the concern with parallels between painting and literary text but those that Alexis shows to exist between these and the arts of dance and music within the paintings. Alexis Redish manifests her love of and commitment to the arts through her work as a dancer as well as through scholarly activity, which, when possible, relates literary and social concepts to the domains of art, music, and dance.
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