American 'unculture' in French Drama: Homo Americanus and the Post-1960 French Resistance

ISBN-13: 9781137299024 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 354 str.

Les Essif

Opis

Representation of American characters and spaces in French plays have increased dramatically in number, nature and nuance since the 1960s, and this book explores the role that 'America' plays in the French imagination, as it translates on the French stage. The book begins with an introduction that brings together a rich variety of Western cultural scholarship, including Baudrillard's concepts of American 'unculture' and 'hyperreality, ' Debray's 'homo americanus, ' and Eagleton's distinction between a dialectical culture and an undialectical one. The following four chapters are organized according to the dominant theme of each of the plays: America as a hyperreal western frontier; homo americanus and war and violence; Americano-global business; and America as spectacle and counter-communal. The book examines how a range of prominent post-1960 French playwrights (such as Gatti, Benedetto, Cixous and Vinaver) represent an American 'unculture' - a mass US culture of capitalist consumerism, image, spectacle and international imperialism - and offers a valuable comparative study of American and French contemporary society and culture.

Recenzje

"No major dramatist confronted with American culture - a genre in itself and a must for French artists and playwrights has escaped Essif's precise but global, gentle but witty, generous but severe radar." - Patrice Pavis (University of Kent, UK) in his Foreword to American 'Unculture' in French Drama

"The author presents clearly and vividly the new perspectives on US people, places and events, which are viewed and scrutinized from afar, namely in French theatre. Reciprocally, he describes what light these theatrical representations shed on France itself, and its own attraction and anxiety towards US image culture, market economy, war, and religious evangelism. This is a highly impressive overview, that would usefully serve not only theatre specialists, but also any students or scholars in the Humanities seeking to compare and contrast contemporary US and French society and culture." - Clare Finburgh, University of Essex, UK

Spis treści

Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction: Part 1 Introduction: Part 2 1: The Hyperreality Of The Western Frontier 2: Homo Americanus War And Violence 3: The Totalitarian Non-Tragedy Of Americano-Global Business 4: The (Supra-)Global Spectacle Of American (Non-)Community Conclusion: Blob, Screen, And Corn: Final Figures of the Homo Americanus Hyperreal Notes Works Cited Index

O autorze

Les Essif is the author of Empty Figure on an Empty Stage, The French Play, and numerous essays on French theatre and theories of drama and performance. He is currently a professor of French Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.