| Description |
1 online resource (186 pages) |
| Series |
Studies in European Cultural Transition ; Volume 33 |
|
Studies in European cultural transition ; v. 33.
|
| Contents |
1. An association of men of letters : the formation of the Society of Dramatic Authors -- 2. Beaumarchais at court : on the civility and cultural power of Gens de lettres -- 3. Playwrights, print and publicity : the success and failure of the SAD in 1780 -- 4. Literary sociability and the revolution : social interests, politics and literary property, July 1789-January 1791 -- 5. From liberty to patriotism |
| Summary |
The first full-length, scholarly study of the Société des auteurs dramatiques (SAD), this book describes the form, the meaning, the achievements, and the failures of the first professional association for creative writers in European history. Founded by the well-known playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais in 1777 under the protection of prominent aristocrats at the court of King Louis XVI, the SAD comprised the playwrights most closely associated with the royal theater of the kingdom, the Comédie Franc̦aise. Its two dozen members discussed and worked to advance both their collective interests under the royal theater regulations (which governed such issues of literary property, creative control, and remuneration) and to promote their public image as playwrights and men of letters more broadly - while at the same time competing with each other, sometimes intensely, for control over that image. Gregory Brown traces the story of the SAD from its conception in the mid-1770s through to the French Revolution, exploring first the Society's founding in 1777, then its trajectory until its dissolution at the end of 1780, and finally discusses a revival of the group during the Revolution. In each chapter, Brown analyzes the strategic efforts of Beaumarchais and his associates, to shape regulations and legislation concerning droits d'auteur (authorial remuneration and literary property) and their efforts to reshape the public status and identity of playwrights through correspondence, print and face-to-face encounters with the troupe of the Comédie Franc̦aise, the theater's aristocratic supervisors at court, its lawyers and government administrators, its commercial publics, and other, authors. Brown argues against previous treatments of the SAD, which have presented it as a spontaneous, dissident challenge to constituted social and political authority under the Old Regime |
| Notes |
"First published 2006 by Ashgate Publishing"--Title page verso |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de, 1732-1799.
|
| SUBJECT |
Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de, 1732-1799 fast |
| Subject |
Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (France)
|
|
Comédie-Française.
|
| SUBJECT |
Comédie-Française fast |
|
Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (France) fast |
| Subject |
Dramatists, French -- Societies, etc
|
|
DRAMA -- European -- French.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9781351922074 |
|
1351922076 |
|
9781315250441 |
|
1315250446 |
|
