Libertine dramaturgy: Reading obscene closet drama in eighteenth-century France.

摘要

The eighteenth century in France saw increases in the number of public theatres for a variety of tastes and in the popularity of private theatricals. At the same time, the libertine novel became established as a genre that offered explicit depictions of sexuality and often incorporated theatrical elements, including framing sex acts as performance. My dissertation interrogates how libertinage and theatre overlap by examining a corpus of obscene comedies anthologized as Theatre gaillard. These plays mix conventions drawn from neoclassical and popular theatre with the content and language of libertine literature, thus occupying a paradoxical position between reading and performance. The 1782 Theatre gaillard includes nine plays: two brothel plays (Le Bordel and L'Appareilleuse ); two plays that had previously circulated with libertine poetry (La Comtesse d'Olonne and Le Luxurieux); four mock tragedies that develop a carnivalesque relationship to classicism (Alphonse L'impuissant, Le Temperament, La Nouvelle Messaline, and Vasta, reine de Bordelie); and one libertine convent play that mobilizes both female and male same-sex practices with particular reference to popular erotic novels (Les Plaisirs du cloitre). I contend that readers of these plays engaged with them on multiple levels ranging from private reading for sexual stimulation to critical interpretation leading to discussions of social, political, and aesthetic concerns in the public sphere. This analysis extends to the eight engravings, which employ erotic and ironic strategies simultaneously.;Because of their uncertain production history and their ambivalence toward theatrical conventions, the Theatre gaillard plays present an ideal site for reevaluating relationships between text and performance and articulating the tensions between private and public aspects of reading practices. This study recuperates readers of plays in theatre history and expands dramatic literature's contribution to the history of sexuality, with particular reference to prostitution and same-sex practices. I combine textual analysis and book history to argue that the sexual transgressions depicted in obscene plays might not only cause arousal, but also develop humorous social commentary on gender roles, aesthetic commentary on the value of theatre and classicism, and political commentary on the monarchy and aristocracy.