French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Louvat-Molozay & F. Salaün (eds.), Le spectateur de théâtre à l’âge classique (XVIIe - XVIIIe s.).
Theatre and Performance
The Theatre Spectator in the Classical Age
17th - 18th Centuries
Edited with an introduction by Bénédicte Louvat-Molozay and Franck Salaün
Publisher: L'entretemps
ISBN: 978-2-912877-76-5 / Theatrical Field Series
Field: Arts and Performing Arts / Genre: Collective Essay
Format: 15 x 21 cm, 272 pages
Retail Price: 25 euros (incl. VAT)
Publication: September 2008, forthcoming
As both a primary recipient and an indispensable element of performance, the theatre spectator emerged as a major, if not decisive, figure during the 17th and 18th centuries. This figure lies at the heart of the Abbé d'Aubignac's reflections on the creation of theatrical illusion, as well as Diderot's propositions regarding acting and the fourth wall. It also permeates the plays themselves, beginning with those that—like *L'Illusion comique* or *Les Acteurs de bonne foi*—rely on the device of play-within-a-play. Accounting for the spectator, their pleasure, and the conditions under which they can be emotionally moved drives several shifts in theatre architecture and scenography, as well as in acting styles and the formation of dramatic genres. The studies gathered in this volume examine the concrete situation of the spectator within the auditorium and other venues (such as fairgrounds or private theatres); the inclusion or exclusion of the spectator in the theoretical reflections and dramaturgies of the period (classic comedy, bourgeois drama, tragedy of horror, sentimental drama, parody, etc.); the philosophical discourse developed around this entity; and the various figurations it assumes both on and off the stage.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
FOREWORD
Luc BOUCRIS
Audience or Spectators?
PRESENTATIONS
Bénédicte LOUVAT-MOLOZAY
The Emergence of the Spectator Entity
Franck SALAÜN
The Spectator-Function
I SITUATIONS
Pierre PASQUIER and Anne SURGERS
The Situation of the Spectator in the French-Style Auditorium in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Jan CLARKE
The Spectator at the Palais-Royal and the Hôtel Guénégaud
Florence MARCH
The Stage-Auditorium Relationship in English Restoration Theatres, or the Re-invented Spectator
Marie-Emmanuelle PLAGNOL-DIÉVAL
The Spectator in Private Theatres of the Second Half of the 18th Century
II DRAMATURGIES
Gaël LE CHEVALIER
"Relay-Character" and Spectator in Thomas Corneille
Véronique STERNBERG-GREINER
The Comedy Spectator from Corneille to Dancourt
Magali SOULATGES
The Dramaturgy of Horror in the 18th Century: Exhaustion or Reinvention of Tragic Spectacle?
Maria Grazia PORCELLI
The Character-Spectator Relationship in 18th-Century Comedy: Two Models
III ISSUES
Marc VUILLERMOZ
An Inconvenient Witness: The Spectator in La Mesnardière's *Poetics*
André CHARRAK
The Spectator According to Rousseau: Staged Imitation
Franck SALAÜN
To Laugh or Not to Laugh? The Place of the Spectator According to Diderot
Jean GOLDZINK
The Spectator in Bourgeois Drama
IV FIGURATIONS
Bénédicte LOUVAT-MOLOZAY
Figures of the Naive Spectator: d'Aubignac, Corneille, Mairet
Éloïse LIÈVRE
The Marivaudian Spectator: In Tune with the Author
Isabelle DEGAUQUE
The Spectator in Fairground and Italian Parodies of Voltaire's Tragedies: An Audience to Charm and Educate
Florence MAGNOT-OGILVY
Chevalier de Mouhy and the Figure of the Inattentive Spectator.
CONTRIBUTORS' BIOGRAPHIES:
Luc BOUCRIS
Professor of Theatre Studies and Director of Research at Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III. His research focuses on the performing arts (scenography, acting and character, dramaturgy, and representation). Among other publications, he is the author of *L'espace en scène* (Librairie théâtrale, 1993), *De l'écrit à l'écran, Maupassant, Renoir, Santelli* (Adapt, 1996); he edited *Autour d'Electre* (Adapt, 1997), *Le désir de jouer* (Librairie Théâtrale, 2000), and co-edited *Arts de la scène, scene des arts* (Études Théâtrales, Louvain-la-Neuve, volume I, 2003, volumes II and III, 2004).
André CHARRAK
Senior Lecturer (Maître de conférences) at Université de Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, and member of CNRS UMR 5037. His research focuses on the history of modern philosophy (from Descartes to Rousseau) and the philosophy of music. His publications include *Musique et philosophie à l'âge classique* (Paris, PUF, coll. "Philosophies", 1998); *Raison et perception. Fonder l'harmonie au XVIIIe siècle* (Paris, Vrin, coll. "Mathesis", 2001); *Le Vocabulaire de Rousseau* (Paris, Ellipses, 2002). He is currently preparing an edition of Rousseau's *Emile*.
Jan CLARKE
Chair of French at Durham University (UK), she has published two books on the Hôtel Guénégaud (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1998, 2001)—with a third forthcoming—alongside an edition of Thomas Corneille and Jean Donneau De Visé's *Circé* (Exeter University Press, 1989) and numerous articles on theatre architecture, scenography, company organization, and female theatre workers in the Grand Siècle.
Isabelle DEGAUQUE
Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at the University of Nantes. A member of the Centre d'Étude des Théâtres de la Foire, she works on 18th-century dramatic parodies and is the author of *Les Tragédies de Voltaire au miroir de leurs parodies dramatiques: d'Oedipe (1718) à Tancrède (1760)* (Champion, 2007). She has also edited or co-edited several fairground and Italian plays (Voltaire's *Oedipe* and Dominique's *Oedipe travesti*, Espaces 34, 2002; *Alzirette, La Fille obéissante, Pierrot furieux ou Pierrot Roland* and *d'Olivette juge des enfers* in *Théâtre de la Foire. Anthologie de pièces inédites, 1712-1736*, ed. F. Rubellin, Espaces 34, 2005).
Jean GOLDZINK
Senior Lecturer at IEP Paris and Professor Emeritus at ENS de Fontenay/Saint-Cloud. His research areas include Enlightenment literature and philosophy, notably Montesquieu, Voltaire, Marivaux, Mme de Staël, and libertarianism. He is the author of *Comique et comédie au siècle des Lumières* (L'Harmattan, 2000) and numerous text editions (recently featuring Beaumarchais, Voltaire, and Diderot).
Gaël LE CHEVALIER
Preparatory class teacher at Lycée Descartes in Tours, he recently defended a doctoral dissertation entitled "Stratégies des regards. Voir et être vu dans le théâtre de Thomas Corneille (1647-1695)" under the supervision of Christian Biet (Université de Nanterre-Paris X). He co-edited (with Martial Poirson) the scenario of Th. Corneille's *La Pierre philosophale*.
Éloïse LIÈVRE
She teaches in preparatory classes and at the University of Marne-la-Vallée, focusing on representations of the writer and writing in the 18th century, the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns, and the relationships between dramatic and narrative writing. She is also the founder and editorial director of the journal *Comètes* (www.cometes.org) dedicated to Ancien Régime literatures.
Bénédicte LOUVAT-MOLOZAY
Senior Lecturer at Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier III, member of the Research Institute on the Renaissance, the Classical Age, and the Enlightenment (CNRS UMR 5186). She works on 17th-century French theatre and has published *Poétique de la tragédie classique* (SEDES, 1997), *Théâtre et musique. Dramaturgie de l'insertion musicale dans le théâtre français (1550-1680)* (Champion, 2002), as well as several editions of theoretical and dramatic texts from the period (Corneille, Mairet, Rotrou).
Florence MAGNOT-OGILVY
Senior Lecturer at Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier III and member of the Research Institute on the Renaissance, the Classical Age, and the Enlightenment (CNRS UMR 5186), she specializes in the 18th-century novel (Marivaux, Prévost, Mouhy, etc.). She is the author of *La Parole de l'autre dans le roman-mémoires 1720-1770* (Paris/Louvain, Peeters, 2004) and an edition of Marivaux's *L'Ile des slaves* (Garnier-Flammarion). She is currently co-preparing a critical edition of Mouhy's novel *La Mouche* (1736).
Florence MARCH
Senior Lecturer at the University of Avignon and Pays de Vaucluse, where she teaches English drama, and member of the Research Institute on the Renaissance, the Classical Age, and the Enlightenment (CNRS UMR 5186). Author of a doctoral dissertation on "La Théâtralité de la comédie de la Restauration anglaise, 1660-1710" and several articles on Restoration and Renaissance theatre, she edited the collective volume *Théâtre anglophone. De Shakespeare à Sarah Kane: l'envers du décor*, published in June 2008 by L'Entretemps.
Pierre PASQUIER
Professor at François Rabelais University and the Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance in Tours, he researches dramatic theory, dramaturgy, and theatrical performance techniques (particularly scenography) used during the Baroque and Classical periods, as well as devotional theatre of the same era. He has published a study on *La mimèsis dans l'esthétique théâtrale du XVIIe siècle* (Klincksieck, 1995) and three critical editions (*Les Innocents coupables* by Brosse, Cicéro, 1988; *Le Véritable Saint Genest* by Rotrou, STFM, 2001; and *Le Mémoire de Mahelot*, Champion, 2005).
Marie-Emmanuelle PLAGNOL-DIÉVAL
Professor at Université Paris XII-Val-de-Marne, specialist in 18th-century educational and private theatres as well as pedagogical literature. She is the author of *Madame de Genlis* (Bibliographie Memini, Paris-Rome diffusion CNRS, 1996); *Madame de Genlis et le théâtre d'éducation au XVIIIe siècle* (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, vol. 350, 1997); and *Le Théâtre de société: un autre théâtre?* (Paris, Champion, 2003). She is also co-editor, with D. Quéro and D. Trott, of the private theatre database http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/trott/societe/societe.htm.
Maria-Grazia PORCELLI
Professor of French Literature and History of French Theatre at the University of Bari. Her research focuses on 18th-century theatre, particularly sentimental and new comedy. Her works include a monograph (*Le figure dell'autorità nel teatro di Marivaux*, Padua, 1997) and several articles on Marivaudian dramaturgy and mixed-genre dramaturgy, alongside an edition of Nivelle de La Chaussée's sentimental comedies (*comédies larmoyantes*, Taranto, Lisi, 2002).
Franck SALAÜN
Senior Lecturer at Université Montpellier-III, member of the Research Institute on the Renaissance, the Classical Age, and the Enlightenment (CNRS UMR 5186). His research primarily explores the relationship between literature and philosophy in the 18th century. He is the author of the essays *L'Ordre des moeurs* (Paris, Kimé, 1996) and *Hume. L'identité personnelle* (Paris, PUF, 2003), and has edited the volumes *Pensée de Marivaux* (Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2002), *Marivaux subversif?* (Paris, Desjonquères, 2003), and *Diderot – Rousseau: un entretien à distance* (Paris, Desjonquères, 2006).
Anne SURGERS
Professor at Université Michel de Montaigne – Bordeaux III, lecturer and director of research at Université Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle. Her research focuses on scenography (particularly in the Baroque era) and the silent language of sets and imagery. She recently published a re-edition of *Scénographies du théâtre occidental* (Armand Colin, 2007) and *Et que dit ce silence? La rhétorique du visible* (Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2007).
Magali SOULATGES
Senior Lecturer at the University of Avignon and Pays de Vaucluse and member of the Research Institute on the Renaissance, the Classical Age, and the Enlightenment (CNRS UMR 5186), she specializes in Crébillon the Elder, having edited his *Rhadamisthe et Zénobie* (Espaces 34, 1999), and more broadly in 18th-century tragedy and performing arts.
Véronique STERNBERG-GREINER
Senior Lecturer at the University of Valenciennes. Following a dissertation on Scarron and the comic dramaturgy of his time, she published *La Poétique de la comédie* (Sedes, 1999) and *Le Comique* (GF-Flammarion, 2003), and is currently completing an edition of Scarron's complete theatrical works (Champion).
Marc VUILLERMOZ
Senior Lecturer at the University of Savoie, his interests lie in classical dramaturgy and 17th-century theories of representation. He edited the *Dictionnaire analytique des oeuvres théâtrales françaises du XVIIe siècle* (Paris, Champion, 1998) and is the author of *Le Système des objets dans le théâtre français des années 1625-1650. Corneille, Rotrou, Mairet, Scudéry* (Geneva, Droz, 2000), as well as an edition of Mairet's *Solyman* (Paris, Champion, 2004).
The 17th and 18th centuries witnessed a significant transformation in how the audience was perceived within theatrical culture, moving from a passive assembly to a major figure in performance practices. This collective essay examines the concrete situation of the spectator within the auditorium and other venues such as fairgrounds or private theatres, while also exploring theoretical reflections and dramaturgies of the period including classic comedy, bourgeois drama, tragedy of horror, sentimental drama, and parody. Studies gathered in the volume analyze how accounting for the spectator, their pleasure, and the conditions under which they can be emotionally moved drives several shifts in theatre architecture and scenography, as well as in acting styles and the formation of dramatic genres.
Contributions to this volume investigate the inclusion or exclusion of the spectator in theoretical reflections and dramaturgies, the philosophical discourse developed around this entity, and the various figurations it assumes both on and off the stage. Discussions highlight figures like the Abbé d'Aubignac and Diderot alongside devices such as the play-within-a-play found in works like L'Illusion comique or Les Acteurs de bonne foi. Readers interested in French classical theatre history, dramatic theory, and the evolution of stage-auditorium relationships may find this collection relevant to their studies.