Barnard Hewitt Award winner
From 1680 until the French Revolution, when legislation abolished restrictions on theatrical enterprise, a single theatre held sole proprietorship of Moli猫re鈥檚 works. After 1791, his plays were performed in new theatres all over Paris by new actors, before audiences new to his works. Both his plays and his image took on new dimensions. In Moli猫re, the French Revolution, and the Theatrical Afterlife, Mechele Leon convincingly demonstrates how revolutionaries challenged the ties that bound this preeminent seventeenth-century comic playwright to the Old Regime and provided him with a place of honor in the nation鈥檚 new cultural memory.
Leon begins by analyzing the performance of Moli猫re鈥檚 plays during the Revolution, showing how his privileged position as royal servant was disrupted by the practical conditions of the revolutionary theatre. Next she explores Moli猫re鈥檚 relationship to Louis XIV, Tartuffe, and the social function of his comedy, using Rousseau鈥檚 famous critique of Moli猫re as well as appropriations of George Dandin in revolutionary iconography to discuss how Moli茅rean laughter was retooled to serve republican interests. After examining the profusion of plays dealing with his life in the latter years of the Revolution, she looks at the exhumation of his remains and their reentombment as the tangible manifestation of his passage from Ancien R茅gime favorite to new national icon.
The great Moli猫re is appreciated by theatre artists and audiences worldwide, but for the French people it is no exaggeration to say that the Father of French Comedy is part of their national soul. By showing how he was represented, reborn, and reburied in the new France鈥攈ow the revolutionaries asserted his relevance for their tumultuous time in ways that were audacious, irreverent, imaginative, and extreme鈥擫eon clarifies the important role of theatrical figures in preserving and portraying a nation鈥檚 history.
鈥淎 rare mixture of happy idea and expert follow-through, Mechele Leon鈥檚 book is a well-written account of the fortunes of Moli猫re鈥檚 plays during the French Revolution as well as of the early stages of his metamorphosis into a Great Man of France. Leon鈥檚 slightly mordant wit is an added attraction for the many readers this book deserves.鈥濃擵irginia Scott, author, Moli猫re: A Theatrical Life
鈥淭he creation, nurturing, and contestation of cultural memory is a compelling subject; it has obsessed French theatre ever since the emergence of the metteur en sc猫ne. Mechele Leon鈥檚 book presents the clearest conceptual map I have encountered of Moli猫re鈥檚 trajectory through the chaotic period in which that cultural memory first began to take on the recognizable, constantly shifting contours that still animate French theatre. Leon鈥檚 book demonstrates how productive it can be to conduct a wide-ranging exploration of theatre history (especially production history) against a backdrop of a society that is undergoing enormous and painful change. Her work is so satisfying because she recognizes that none of the objects of her study remains even remotely stable under such conditions, a recognition that enables her to be unusually attentive to cultural forces operating in complex and often self-defeating ways. Her discussion of these forces is free of the historiographical prejudices that have led earlier scholars to advocate purportedly coherent interpretations of personalities and events about which the available historical record is fragmentary at best, when not completely silent.鈥濃 Jim Carmody, University of California鈥揝an Diego
鈥淲hile the Molieromania that swept Paris theatre during the years of the French Revolution took endless liberties with the seventeenth-century comic鈥檚 biography, writings, and even his exhumed body, Mechele Leon is rigorous in her investigation of Moli猫re鈥檚 afterlife. Her research yields fresh insights about cultural contexts for both Moli猫re and the French Revolution鈥攁nd perhaps even a broader understanding of the fate of laughter in times of terror鈥攁ll presented in writing so vividly readable that the pages fairly turn themselves.鈥濃擣elicia Hardison Londr茅, author, The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theatre, 1870鈥1930
Acknowledgments vii
Prologue: The Theatrical Afterlife 1
1 1 repertory: The Popularity of Moli猫re鈥檚 Plays 14
2 1 Performance: The 鈥淗igh/Low鈥 Moli猫re 34
3 1 History: Rewriting the Story of Moli猫re and Louis XIV 49
4 1 Function: Retooling Moli猫rean Laughter 74
5 1 Life: Depicting Moli猫re in Biographical Drama 100
6 1 Death: Remembering Moli猫re 123
Epilogue: The Future of an Afterlife 139
Notes 145
Works Cited 165
Index 179
Winner of the 2010 Barnard Hewitt Award
