The Spectacle of Culture: Modern French Theater
As public spectacle, theater has always had a special relation to social life which is why it is often called upon to mediate in moments of cultural crisis. Thus the stage of Hugo's Hernani and the controversy it provoked marked the rise of the Romantic school and the definitive break with the aesthetic norms of the Ancient Régime. The trauma of the Second World War found its most immediate expression in the absurdist and existentialist plays of Anouilh, Sartre, Beckett, and Genet. This survey of modern French drama will allow us to explore how paradigm shifts in the theater respond to dynamic periods of cultural transformation. Readings will include the works of such authors as Hugo, Musset, Dumas fils, Rostand, Anouilh, Sartre, Beckett, Genet, Ionesco. Films of various plays will be screened. (FREN 0221 or by waiver) 3 hrs. lect./disc.