The dramatic climax in eighteenth-century European history was certainly the French Revolution, an event which was acted out in exquisitely dramatic form, with the substitution and subversion of the theatrical rituals of the ancien régime, and which was experienced – even at a distance – as "the" drama. My purpose here is to examine Edmund Burke’s writings after the Fall of the Bastille in order to highlight his use of theatrical imagery. I take 1790 as a key year and as a starting point, since his Reflections on the Revolution in France testify to his preoccupation with the new forms of theatrical entertainment which disrupted the fixed hierarchies of genres, and more generally to his personal fears of mixtures and generic miscegenation. Burke’s preoccupation with mixtures of all kinds is obviously understandable in light of the prevalent idiom of eighteenth century literature, keen on defining hierarchies and prescriptive genre theories. Eighteenth-century writers accepted this and employed genres self-consciously. But they also knew their readers’ expectations were shaped by the generic choice they made. Burke seems to me to capitalize on the ethical, social, and ultimately ‘political’ strictures on illegitimate theatre in order to enhance his opposition to the Revolutionaries and to Price. If in France the miscegenation of genres in the theatre had already conquered stage, and melodrama was developing fast, the situation was still under hot debate in England. The recipients of Burke’s critique go well beyond the official addressee of his Reflections or the Revolutionaries, charged of being responsible for the massacre of institutions, chivalry and literary genres: the ultimate target is the English mimicry of the Revolutionary ideals and finally the corruption of distinctions in genres.

"'The great theatre of the world': Edmund Burke's dramatic perspective"

GUERRA, LIA SIMONETTA
2008-01-01

Abstract

The dramatic climax in eighteenth-century European history was certainly the French Revolution, an event which was acted out in exquisitely dramatic form, with the substitution and subversion of the theatrical rituals of the ancien régime, and which was experienced – even at a distance – as "the" drama. My purpose here is to examine Edmund Burke’s writings after the Fall of the Bastille in order to highlight his use of theatrical imagery. I take 1790 as a key year and as a starting point, since his Reflections on the Revolution in France testify to his preoccupation with the new forms of theatrical entertainment which disrupted the fixed hierarchies of genres, and more generally to his personal fears of mixtures and generic miscegenation. Burke’s preoccupation with mixtures of all kinds is obviously understandable in light of the prevalent idiom of eighteenth century literature, keen on defining hierarchies and prescriptive genre theories. Eighteenth-century writers accepted this and employed genres self-consciously. But they also knew their readers’ expectations were shaped by the generic choice they made. Burke seems to me to capitalize on the ethical, social, and ultimately ‘political’ strictures on illegitimate theatre in order to enhance his opposition to the Revolutionaries and to Price. If in France the miscegenation of genres in the theatre had already conquered stage, and melodrama was developing fast, the situation was still under hot debate in England. The recipients of Burke’s critique go well beyond the official addressee of his Reflections or the Revolutionaries, charged of being responsible for the massacre of institutions, chivalry and literary genres: the ultimate target is the English mimicry of the Revolutionary ideals and finally the corruption of distinctions in genres.
2008
9783039110971
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11571/137960
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