Reading Drama in Eighteenth-Century France

Wynn, Thomas

Abstract

This is the first account of how plays were read in eighteenth-century France and of the period’s closet drama. The Enlightenment was passionate about theatre in all its forms, and the playhouse held a crucial place in the developing public sphere. Reading plays was a central element of that lively and combative theatrical culture. This study draws on a variety of texts—including memoirs, theoretical works, and correspondences—to show that reading plays was not simply a matter of intellection but also of emotion. The closet was the privileged site of reading drama in the period; this room was more than a site of reflection and judgement, for it fostered intense and disruptive pleasures that eluded the coercive normativity of the playhouse. This study proposes a framework—at once historically grounded and informed by queer theory—to understand eighteenth-century closeted reading. The book also examines how writers exploited the critical, imaginative, and formal potential of closeted reading by creating plays that exceeded the confines of the playhouse and appealed instead to the reader’s imagination. Characterizing closet drama as a genre of restless dissent and passionate contestation, this book offers close analysis of several plays: comedies depicting the dispute between Jesuits and Jansenists in the 1730s; Hénault’s innovative historical drama François II, roi de France (1747); and erotic plays from the end of the period. The study concludes with an account of Restif de La Bretonne’s Le Drame de la vie (1793), an extreme, indeed unsurpassed example of closet drama.

Citation

Wynn, T. (2024). Reading Drama in Eighteenth-Century France. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198895329.001.0001

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Online Publication Date: Feb 6, 2024
• Publication Date: Feb 6, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 22, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• ISBN: 9780198895329
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198895329.001.0001
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2609076