2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Study on the peculiar response to popular drama and its influence on the audience in the first half of the 19th Century.
| Project/Area Number |
16520197
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Okinawa International University |
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Principal Investigator |
OSHITA Yoshie Okinawa International University, College of Global and Regional Culture, Professor (40088745)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
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| Keywords | popular drama / melodrama / Robert Macaire / Frederick Lemaitre / Balzac / Caricatures / censorship / Criticism of customs |
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| Research Abstract |
The study divides in three parts, the first deals with Robert Macaire (1834), and also with Le Chiffonnier de Paris (1847) to illustrate the melodrama genre and its influence on the audience. Robert Macaire, a great satirical drollery play, shows cynical performance towards the imperium. While Pyat's socialistic melodrama Le Chiffonnier, is linked with the events of February. What characterizes Macaire and Jean is their audacious attack on social order and the power of money.
In the second part, we will look at Trente ans, ou la vie d'un joueur (1831) and at Alexandre Dumas' Richard Darlington (1831). We find the oppressed heroines Amelie and Jenny, and the treacherous personified by F. Lemaitre. V. Ducange tackles the criticism of the customs and then criticism of the laws. Firstly, the law granting all the rights on the wife to the husband. Secondly, the law banning divorce. We would say that Jenny and Amelie are in the same situation.
The deeds of Robert Macaire personified by F. Lemaitre, or the character described by Honore Daumier, exert a worthy influence on the then authors and playwrights. In the third part, we will go into Balzac's work. The role of Vautrin, in the eponimous tragedy, reminds Robert Macaire as depicted in a series of caricatures. Le Faiseur (1851) includes dialogues on marriage of money convenience similar to the ones exchanged between Robert Macaire and the lord of Wormspire.
What sort of message the melodrama author, classified in the popular drama genre, wants to convey through his hero and heroine oppressed by the treacherous? It is attacking social order and criticizing customs and laws on conjugal life. Popular drama had been all the more appreciated by the Boulevard spectators that it had influenced them significantly. Where permanent conflict between the author and censorship comes from during the first half of the 19th Century in France.
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Research Products
(6 results)
