French Literature Reviews - 2026

Texts in Performance
Theatre and Performance

Book awaiting a reviewer for Acta Fabula

Ambroise Barras and Éric Eigenmann (eds.)

Texts in Performance

Proceedings of the CeRNET colloquium

MetisPresses

Series "Voltiges".

266 p

ISBN: 2-940357-02-1

Publisher's overview:

The 18 academic contributions and the DVD collection of 8 sound, video, and digital performances that make up this volume, Texts in Performance, examine the alterations undergone by the text in contemporary forms of both its study and its creation.
The conclusion may seem alarming: "the text has been tampered with", departing from the ideal state to which literary theory stubbornly continues to confine it: pure text – text only. Countering this traditional view, the contributions gathered under the concept of performance—focusing on the oral, scenic, and editorial manifestations of the text—demonstrate how the contingencies of its production, execution, and reception enrich its definition. Impure, or rather, enhanced by the circumstantial complements of its own spatial and temporal deployment, the text demands that we account for the very event through which it essentially acts. The sound, video, and digital performances featured on the accompanying DVD illustrate several operational forms of this expanded textuality.

Contributors to this volume: N. Allet, J. D. Banga Amvene, A. Barras, C. Bergvall, S. Biggs, I. Both, D. Chaperon, Fr. Dubor, F. Dupont, Y. Foehr-Janssens, V. Henninger, D. Kunz Westerhoff, C. Meli, L. Menoud, B. Ouvry-Vial, A. Réach-Ngô, P. Suter, and W. Tietz

The volume explores the changing status of the written work as it encounters contemporary staging, oral recitation, and digital media. By gathering eighteen academic contributions alongside a DVD featuring eight audiovisual and digital recordings, the collection addresses how modern artistic practices challenge traditional notions of pure textuality. Readers interested in the intersection of literature and live performance may find this collection relevant to ongoing debates about text and medium.

This publication emerges from the scholarly activities of the CeRNET colloquium, contributing to broader discussions within theatre studies and media theory regarding the transition from page to performance. The inclusion of multimedia materials reflects a wider methodological shift in the humanities toward documenting ephemeral cultural practices and examining the material conditions of literary production. Scholars and students of contemporary literature often engage with these questions when analyzing how digital tools and scenic interpretations modify our reception of canonical and modern works alike.