Colonialism and Slavery in Performance brings together original
archival research with recent critical perspectives to argue for
the importance of theatrical culture to the understanding of the
French Caribbean sugar colonies in the eighteenth century. Fifteen
English-language essays from both established and emerging scholars
apply insights and methodologies from performance studies and
theatre history in order to propose a new understanding of Old
Regime culture and identity as a trans-Atlantic continuum that
includes the Antillean possessions whose slave labour provided
enormous wealth to the metropole. Carefully documented studies of
performances in Saint-Domingue, the most prosperous French colony,
illustrate how the crucible of a brutally racialized colonial space
gave rise to a new French identity by adapting many of the
cherished theatrical traditions that colonists imported directly
from the mainland, resulting in a Creole performance culture that
reflected the strong influence of African practices brought to the
islands by plantation slaves. Other essays focus on how European
theatregoers reconciled the contradiction inherent in the
eighteenth century's progressive embrace of human rights, with an
increasing dependence on the economic spoils of slavery, thus
illustrating how the stage served as a means to negotiate new
tensions within "French" identity, in the metropole as well as in
the colonies. In the final section of the volume, essays explore
the place of performance in representations of the Old Regime
Antilles, from the Haitian literary diaspora to contemporary
performing artists from Martinique and Guadeloupe, as the stage
remains central to understanding history and identity in France's
former Atlantic slave colonies. Featuring contributions from Sean
Anderson, Karine Benac-Giroux, Bernard Camier, Nadia Chonville,
Laurent Dubois, Logan J. Connors, Beatrice Ferrier, Kaiama L.
Glover, Jeffrey M. Leichman, Laurence Marie, Pascale Pellerin,
Julia Prest, Catherine Ramond, Emily Sahakian, Pierre Saint-Amand,
and Fredrik Thomasson.
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