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This 1993 book explores the history of French theatre in the
nineteenth century through its special role as an organized popular
entertainment. Traditionally regarded as an elite art form, in
post-Revolutionary France the stage began to be seen as an industry
like any other and the theatre became one of the few areas of
employment where women were in demand as much as men. The
increasingly commercial ethos dominating the stage led to the mass
production of plays with audience appeal, resulting in an
inevitable dilution of literary standards. In this lively account,
Hemmings examines how the theatre world flourished and evolved, and
reveals such matters as the difficult life of the actress, salaries
and contracts, and the profession of the playwright.
Relations between theatre and state were seldom more fraught in
France than in the latter part of the eighteenth and during the
nineteenth century. The unique attraction of the theatre, the sole
source of mass entertainment over the period, accounts in part for
this: successive governments could not ignore these large nightly
gatherings, viewing them with distrust and attempting to control
them by every kind of device, from censorship of plays to the
licensing of playhouses. In his illuminating study, F. W. J.
Hemmings traces the vicissitudes of this perennial conflict, which
began with the rise of the small independent boulevard theatres in
the 1760s and eventually petered out in 1905 with the abandonment
of censorship by the state. There are separate chapters on the
provincial theatre, while the French Revolution is given
particularly detailed attention. This work, complementing his
earlier book The Theatre Industry in Nineteenth-Century France,
will be of interest to students of theatre history, French studies
and European culture in general.
Relations between theater and state were seldom more fraught in France than in the latter part of the eighteenth and during the nineteenth centuries. In his illuminating study, F.W.J. Hemmings traces the vicissitudes of this perennial conflict, which began with the rise of the small independent boulevard theaters in the 1760s and eventually ended in 1905 with the abandonment of censorship by the state. There are separate chapters on the provincial theater, while the French Revolution is given particularly detailed attention. This work, complementing his earlier book The Theatre Industry in Nineteenth-Century France (CUP 1993), will be of interest to students of theater history, French studies, and European culture in general.
This is the first book to explore the history of French theater in the nineteenth century through its special role as an organized popular entertainment. Traditionally regarded as an elite art form, in post-Revolutionary France the stage began to be seen as an industry like any other and the theater became one of the few areas of employment where women were in demand as much as men. In this lively account, Hemmings examines how the theater world flourished and evolved, and reveals such matters as the difficult life of the actress, salaries and contracts, and the profession of the playwright.
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