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Article: Roland Barthes and the myth of a national theater.
- Article from:
- French Forum
- Article date:
- March 22, 2005
- Author:
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In the 1950s, at a time when television is in its infancy and Hollywood imports dominate the cinema, theater in France retains recognition as an essential and vital national forum. Looking back on these years Jean Duvignaud asks: "peut-on concevoir, aujourd'hui, l'importance qu'avait le theatre dans ces annees-la? Le theatre avait garde cette presence litteraire et intellectuelle qu'il avait en Europe et surtout en France depuis le XVIIe siecle" (1993, 63). After two wars and rapid modernization have swept away the class markers of the industrial age so vividly depicted in Proust's salons and Zola's explorations of society's grim underside, theater provides an arena to ...