Popular Theatre and Political Utopia in France, 1870―1940
Subtitle: Active Citizens
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: Nov 08, 2017
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 373
ISBN-13: 9781137598547
Description: This book is the first study of popular theatre in France from left to right, exploring how theatre shapes political acts, ideals, and communities in the modern world. As the French found innovative ways of imagining culture and politics in the age of the masses, popular theatre became central to the republican project of using art to create citizens, using secular spaces for the experience of civic communion. But while state projects often faltered in finding playwrights, locations, and audiences, popular theatre flourished on the political and geographical peripheries. Drawing on extensive archival research, this book illuminates lost worlds of political conviviality, from anarchist communes and clandestine agit-prop drama to royalist street politics and right-wing mass spectacle. It reveals new connections between French initiatives and their European counterparts, and demonstrates the enduring strength of radical communities in shaping political ideals and engagement.
Notes: Source title: Popular Theatre and Political Utopia in France, 1870―1940: Active Citizens (Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History)