Tragedy and nation in the age of Napoleon
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Tragedy and nation in the age of Napoleon
（Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment, 2020:05）
Liverpool University Press on behalf of Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford, c2020
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Napoleon's biographers often note his fondness for theatre, but as we approach the bicentenary of the Emperor's death, little remains known about the nature of theatre at the time. This is particularly the case for tragedy, the genre in which France considered itself to surpass its neighbours.
Based on extensive archival research, this first sustained study of tragedy under Napoleon examines how a variety of agents used tragedy and its rewriting of history to make an impact on French politics, culture and society, and to help reconstruct the French nation after the Revolution. This volume covers not just Napoleon's efforts, but also those of other individuals in government, the theatrical world, and the wider population. Similarly, it uncovers a public demand for tragedy, be it the return of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire to the Comedie-Francaise, or new hits like Les Templiers (1805) and Hector (1809).
This research also sheds new light on Napoleonic propaganda and censorship, exposing their incoherencies and illustrating how audiences reacted to these processes. In short, Tragedy and Nation in the Age of Napoleon argues that Napoleonic tragedy was not simply tired and derivative; it engaged its audiences, by chomping at the poetic bit, allowing for a retrial of the Revolution, and offering a vision of the new French nation.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations and tables
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Note on the text
Introduction
Reconstructing the nation
Tracing tragedy
Research aims and structure
I. The reimposition of the tragic canon: introduction
Chapter 1: The tragic inheritance
The eighteenth century
The Revolution
Chapter 2: Rewriting the past
Attempts at adaptation
Institutional rewritings
Tracing tragedy in performance
The legacy of the afterlives
Chapter 3: Heroic conquerors
Censorship
Propaganda
II. New Napoleonic tragedies: introduction
Tragedie
Chapter 4: Composition, performance, reception: pulling back the curtain on censorship and propaganda
To the Comedie-Francaise
The bureaucratic censorship system
Back at the theatre
In print
Chapter 5: The ambiguity of antiquity
Ancient Greece: Pyrrhus, 1807, Polyxene, 1804, and Hector, 1809
Ancient Rome: Vitellie, 1809, Tibere, Belisaire, Scipion, ou l'Africain and Camille, ou le Capitole sauve
Chapter 6: Heroes of the East
Cyrus, 1804
Ninus II, 1813
Artaxerce, 1808
Omasis, ou Joseph en Egypte, 1806
Chapter 7: Fear of the foreign
Staging foreign history: Mahomet II, 1811, Pierre le Grand, 1804, and Don Pedre, ou le Roi et le laboureur, 1802
Foreign threats: Jeanne Gray, Marie Stuart, L'Orphelin polonois, Genes sauvee and Wallstein
Chapter 8: Meddling in the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages on the stage: Brunehaut, 1810, and Les Templiers, 1805
Unperformed medieval tragedies nationales: Charlemagne, Clovis, Baudouin empereur, La Demence de Charles VI, La Regence de Charles VII and Arthur de Bretagne
Chapter 9: Testing tragedies nationales
Les Etats de Blois, 1810 and 1814
La Mort de Henri IV, 1806
Tippo-Saeb, 1813
Conclusion
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
