The Contested Parterre: Public Theater and French Political Culture, 1680-1791

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating window on 18th century French political culture
Review: A authorative account of the relationship between theatre audiences, the monarchy and its policing apparatus, and society at large in the shaping of French political culture in the 17th and 18th centuries. A must read for anyone interested in how playwrights, court performances, and enforced standards of audience behavior served the prerogatives of the Old Regime and how the interaction of audiences in the theater pit (the 'Parterre') contributed to the transmutation of the ruling relationship in the formation a French National Identity.