French Literature Reviews - 2026
Sade's theatre: pleasure, vision, masochism
Theatre and Performance
Sade's theatre: pleasure, vision, masochism
THOMAS WYNN
Although the rehabilitation of Sade as a major writer of the Enlightenment has progressed significantly, it has not yet led to a re-evaluation of his dramatic heritage. Drawing on a theoretical framework inspired by psychoanalysis and dramatic theory, and closely engaging with eighteenth-century theoretical debates, Thomas Wynn reveals the true significance of these overlooked works. This groundbreaking study is the first to examine the nature and implications of Sade's theatrical aesthetics, defining the unique erotic dimension of spectatorship within his experimental plays.
Challenging the conventional assumption that the gaze is inherently sadistic, the author draws upon film theory to demonstrate how Sade reworks contemporary theatrical texts and practices to forge an aesthetic distinct from that of his novels. Rather than simply mirroring the style of works such as The 120 Days of Sodom, Sadean drama anticipates a masochistic framework, as conceptualised by Theodor Reik and Gilles Deleuze. This analysis of spectatorship in Sade adopts a thematic approach rather than a chronological or text-by-text examination. The author argues that, as an atheist materialist, Sade leverages the structural mechanics of theatre to generate visual pleasure rather than moral edification, cultivating a persistently visual dramatic aesthetic comparable to the linguistic saturation of his novels' tout dire.
Examining eighteenth-century risqué drama, theatre architecture, and the history of visual culture, the author explores the paradox that Sade's plays were conceived not for actual performance, but for the theatre of the private imagination. This visionary drama exemplifies the late eighteenth-century sublime—an aesthetics of the ineffable and unrepresentable which, in its focus on the resilience of the degraded individual, structurally mirrors masochism.
Without distorting his methodology or artistic strategy, the author demonstrates that Sade's voluptuous drama, much like his prose fiction, speaks to an individual whose sovereignty in a godless universe is deeply intertwined with the autonomy of the imagination.
This volume will be of essential interest to scholars and researchers specialising in eighteenth-century drama and the theory of spectatorship.
ISBN 978-0-7294-0903-2, ix.224 pp., £55/ €88 hors taxe/ $99
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The study of eighteenth-century French theatre and the works of the Marquis de Sade often centres upon prose fiction and the ideological debates of the Enlightenment. Within French literature, dramatic writing of this period frequently engaged with contemporary stagecraft, performance conventions, and evolving notions of sensory experience. Scholarly inquiry into dramatic theory and the mechanics of spectatorship has long sought to understand how theatrical texts reflect or subvert the moral and philosophical frameworks of their time, particularly regarding vision, embodiment, and the spectator's role.
Thomas Wynn examines Sade's plays through a thematic approach informed by psychoanalysis, film theory, and eighteenth-century aesthetics. The volume explores the visual dimensions of Sadean drama, contrasting its theatrical methods with the style of his novels and considering the concept of drama designed for the private imagination rather than the stage. Readers interested in eighteenth-century French literature, theatre history, and the theoretical dimensions of spectatorship may find this work relevant to their research.