Theater, War, and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France and Its Empire by Logan J. Connors (review)

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• Theater, War, and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France and Its Empire by Logan J. Connors
• Yann Robert (bio)

Logan J. Connors. Theater, War, and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France and Its Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2024. Pp. x + 255 + 9 b/w illus. $110.00 hardback, $110.00 eBook.

Logan J. Connors gives a telling title, “Total Theater for Total War,” to his monograph’s penultimate chapter, the culmination, in many ways, of the book’s narrative arc. Drawing from David Bell and others, Connors underscores the unprecedented attributes that made wars of the late eighteenth century “total,” from their global span to their reliance on mass conscription and all available national resources. Among these resources was a groundbreaking “total theater,” characterized by “documentary-based dramaturgy, technological innovations, onstage military formations and battles, dramatic characters and actors who were actual soldiers, patriotic song breaks, the use of various military practices and customs in drama, and more” (148). Such strategies of reenactment, liveliness, and intimacy were designed to foster a more intense, unmediated engagement of French spectators in the plays as in the war effort. Totality thus serves as a crucial throughline in Connors’s book (indeed, “total,” “totality,” and “totalizing” appear 99 times). One might argue that it also perfectly captures what makes it such a unique and rewarding read, a veritable “Total Book on Total Theater for Total War.” Total in the remarkable variety of its methodological approaches: literary close-reading, performance studies, cultural military history, gender studies, and architectural analysis, to name a few. And total as well in its topics of interest, so many that it is best to let Connors list them: “plays depicting soldiers, performances in navy theaters and in other military venues, policies to compel soldiers to attend the theater, repertories of public theaters in provincial and colonial cities with significant military populations, the evolving relationship between theatrical diplomacy and armed conflict in colonial and occupied zones, soldier-actors and soldier-writers, the role of both theater and the military as ‘civilizing’ and ‘urbanizing’ forces, dramatic depictions of gender roles in battle and on the home front, public performances of coloniality and military rule, and theater as a tool for teaching combat skills, nationalism, sexuality, xenophobia, and more” (3).

Totality need not mean exhaustivity, however, and throughout his monograph Connors identifies topics and areas awaiting further studies. Far from a weakness, this strikes me as a strength, a reflection of the work’s seminal status. Indeed, Connors has accomplished the rare feat of unearthing and mining a completely neglected topic. There have been many studies in the past few decades exploring the interaction between eighteenth-century drama and other spheres commonly understood in performative terms (politics, justice, religion, etc.). These studies, [End Page 395] many of which are listed in a footnote on page 147, derive much of their appeal from their bilateral approach, tracing a web of influence in both directions: not only did politics, justice, and religion impact the theatre of the Revolution, as one might have expected, but the new forms of performance and spectatorship that emerged in the late eighteenth century also altered political, legal, and religious practice. Connors adopts the same approach in Theater, War, and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France and Its Empire, but with theatre and the military. He uncovers the many ways in which the French army transformed French theatre by creating new forms and experiences of dramatic performance, even as he convincingly shows that the theatre had a lasting impact on military norms and practices by serving as a space where the French could reimagine war, the army, and soldier-civilian relationships.

Chapters 1 and 2 mostly engage in close readings of plays from the pre-Revolutionary period. The first chapter focuses on Le Siège de Calais, written in response to France’s defeat in the Seven Years’ War and lauded by its author as France’s first national tragedy. This wildly successful play launched a wave of war dramas that together forged and popularized a new definition of patriotism and a new relationship between French spectators and their military. Chapter 2 studies a different subgenre of soldier plays, hitherto...