In Light of the Controversies: Spectatorship Reconsidered

Abstract:The controversies about theatre in Europe call for a redefinition of the place and role of theatre in society, and doing so, they invite us to rethink the historiography of theatre (in terms of scale, of objects and of canon). In the light of the controversies, new perspectives may be opened on playwrights and plays. This is particularly the case for spectatorship, which lies at the crossroads of three different historical paths (cultural and aesthetic, scientific and anthropological and theologico-political) and requires an aesthetical approach inspired by pragmatism, since polemical texts aim at the theatrical experience and even more precisely at the uses of the performance by the spectator. Finally, considering responses of Jonson, Shakespeare and Corneille to antitheatrical discourse, this article suggests the emergence, in early modern Europe, of the figure of a singular spectator.