French Theatre of the Napoleonic era

近年来，重新评估革命十年戏剧作品的学者数量急剧增加（例如，参见拉威尔、弗里德兰和马斯兰在美国所做的工作），但到目前为止，这还没有扩展到拿破仑时代的戏剧。对革命后立即进行的少数现代研究继续得出结论，拿破仑时期的戏剧在美学上是低劣的。例如，Horne（2004）得出的结论是，“没有一部有价值的法国戏剧可以追溯到拿破仑时期”。皮埃尔·弗朗茨（Pierre Frantz）在2004年出版的《缪斯帝国》（L'Empire des Muses）的综述文章中谈到，尽管——或许正是因为——拿破仑对戏剧的重视，但拿破仑统治下的美学窒息。革命时期的学者们已经成功地利用了各种方法来展示新的美学戏剧形式是如何在审查制度和公开政治化的时代浮出水面的，但到目前为止，这些方法还没有应用到革命后的时期。该项目将通过纠正对1799年至1815年间法国戏剧制作缺乏方法论创新和最新研究的不足，代表拿破仑时代戏剧研究的重大进步。该项目以华威大学的马朗代戏剧特别收藏为基础，这是法国18世纪和19世纪3000多部戏剧的资源，其中三分之一最近在JISC的“增强数字资源计划”的大量资助下进行了数字化。该博物馆收藏的所有拿破仑时期的作品都已被数字化，该项目将专注于对这些戏剧的分析和研究。以马朗代收藏为起点，它将重新审视第一帝国的剧院，以了解最近对革命剧院的方法论方法是否可以应用于拿破仑强加给法国剧院的美学和制度条件。戏剧促进了对艺术过程的关键方面的研究——文学文本的创作、公共领域的生产和批判性的接受——因此，它是重新评估拿破仑文化生活发展的理想媒介。通过将焦点扩展到经典之外，经典是一种人造结构，它只提供了19世纪早期法国文化生活范围的部分图片，并且通过包括1799年至1815年之间戏剧的接受和文化背景，该项目将不仅提供对革命后戏剧的更好理解，而且还提供拿破仑时代的文化史以及艺术与政治的复杂相互作用。它还将为19世纪早期法国美学生产的研究提供长期贡献。通过强调比较性、以表演为主导和以接受为导向的方法的好处，它将对戏剧和音乐专家以及研究拿破仑文化的专家产生重大影响，并将为一个广泛的合作延续项目奠定基础。它还将在培养19世纪的下一代学者方面发挥作用。

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of scholars reassessing the dramatic production of the Revolutionary decade (see for instance the work done in the United States by Ravel, Friedland, Maslan) but as yet this has not been extended to the theatre of the Napoleonic era. The few modern studies that have been undertaken on the immediate post-Revolution continue to conclude that theatre of the Napoleonic period is aesthetically inferior. Horne (2004) for instance concludes that 'not a single French play of any value dates from the Napoleonic period'. Pierre Frantz, in his survey essay in L'Empire des Muses (2004) talks of an aesthetic asphyxiation under Napoleon, despite - or perhaps because of - the importance the Emperor attached to theatre. The variety of approaches scholars of the Revolutionary period have successfully exploited to show how new aesthetic theatrical forms can surface even at a time of censorship and overt politicisation have not, as yet, been applied to the post-Revolutionary period. This project will represent a major advancement in studies of theatre of the Napoleonic era by rectifying the lack of methodologically innovative and up-to-date research on theatrical production in France between 1799 and 1815.This project takes as its base the University of Warwick's special collection of Marandet plays, a resource of over 3000 plays of the French 18th and 19th centuries, one third of which has recently been digitised with a substantial grant from JISC's Enhancing Digital Resources scheme. The collection's entire holding for the Napoleonic period has been digitised in anticipation of this project which will focus on analysis of and research into the plays. Using the holdings of the Marandet collection as a starting point, it will re-examine the theatre of the First Empire in order to see whether recent methodological approaches to theatre of the Revolution can be applied to the aesthetic and institutional conditions imposed on French theatre by Napoleon. Theatre facilitates the investigation of key aspects of the artistic process - creation of a literary text, production in the public domain, and critical reception - and is, therefore, an ideal medium through which to re-evaluate the development of Napoleonic cultural life.By extending the focus beyond the canon, an artificial construct which gives only a partial picture of the range of cultural life of early 19th-century France, and by including the reception and cultural context of theatre between 1799 and 1815, the project will provide not just a greater understanding of post-Revolutionary theatre but also of the cultural history of the Napoleonic era and of the complex interplay of art and politics. It will also provide a long-term contribution to studies of French aesthetic production of the early 19th century. By highlighting the benefits of comparative, performance-led and reception-orientated approaches, it will have a significant impact on theatre and music specialists as well as those working on Napoleonic culture, and will lay the basis for a wide-ranging and collaborative continuation project. It will also play a role in training the next generation of 19th-century scholars.