Rewriting the Unwritten: On the History of Theatrophobia

Abstract:From its very beginning in Greece, the stage has provoked hostile reactions. Between 1550 and 1850, this hostility produced a vast and repetitive body of treatises and polemical tracts. The debates were endlessly rewritten, giving the impression that most polemicists repeated their predecessors. But under the appearance of immobility, the terms of the debate were extremely sensitive to local conditions. We have to understand how the theatrophobic script is adapted to a specific conflict: the same part is performed in a different context, often taking on new meanings. To identify the forces at play and the various stakes, one must look for traces of the unwritten – the oral debates on which the writings drew – in order to reconstruct the economic, social, and political tensions hidden under the mainly religious surface. We have to look for the performance under the text.