Theatre, Politics, and Markets in Fin-de-Siècle Paris: Staging Modernity (Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History)

Since the Enlightenment, French theatre has occupied a prominent place within French thought, society and culture, but as a subject of study it has remained a purview of theatre historians, literary scholars and aestheticians. They focus on the emergence of the modern theatre as change generated from within bourgeois literary drama but ignore theatre as a complex social practice. Theatre, Politics, and Markets in Fin-de-Siècle Paris investigates the dynamic relationships among the avant-garde, official culture and the commercial sphere, arguing against the neat divide of 'high' and 'low' culture by showing how cultural forms of varying social origins influenced each other. Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 French Society, Commercial Culture, and the Emergence of Modern Theatre: André Antoine and the Théâtre Libre....Pages 15-52 The Politics of Preventive Censorship....Pages 53-84 Front Matter....Pages 85-85 Expressions of Modernity....Pages 87-113 Foreign Playwrights, French Critics, and Avant-Garde Theatres....Pages 115-149 Front Matter....Pages 151-151 The Popular Theatre Movement....Pages 153-181 Le Théâtre du Peuple: Modern Theatre, Regionalism, and the Search for the Authentic in Fin-de-Siècle France....Pages 183-203 Conclusion....Pages 205-209 Back Matter....Pages 211-268