Theories of ballet in the age of the Encyclopédie / Olivia Sabee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sabee, Olivia, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Oxford University studies in the Enlightenment ; 2634-8047 2022:01.

Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2634-8047 ; 2022:01

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Ballet--France--History--18th century.

Ballet.

Ballet--Europe--History--18th century.

Encyclopédie.

Encyclopédie méthodique.

Noverre, Jean Georges, 1727-1810. Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets.

Noverre, Jean Georges.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries--France.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Authorship.

authorship.

History.

Europe.

France.

Medical Subjects:

Authorship.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 182 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm.

Manufacture:

Padstow, Cornwall : Printed by TJ Books Limited.

Place of Publication:

[Liverpool, United Kingdom] : Published by Liverpool University Press ; Oxford, UK : on behalf of Voltaire Foundation, [2022]

Language Note:

Includes quotations in French, some with English translation.

Summary:

"In Enlightenment Europe, a new form of pantomime ballet emerged, through the dual channels of theorization in print and experimentation onstage. Emphasizing eighteenth-century ballet's construction through print culture, 'Theories of Ballet in the Age of the Encyclopédie' follows two parallel paths--stand-alone treatises on ballet and dance, and encyclopedias--to examine the shifting definition of ballet over the second half of the eighteenth century. Bringing together the 'Encyclopédie' and its 'Supplément', the 'Encyclopédie méthodique', and the 'Encyclopédie d'Yverdon' with the works of Jean-Georges Noverre, Louis de Cahusac, and Charles Compan, this volume traces how the recycling and recombining of discourses about dance, theatre, and movement arts directly affected the process of defining ballet. At the same time, it emphasizes the role of textual borrowing and compilation in disseminating knowledge during the Enlightenment, examining the differences between placing borrowed texts into encyclopedias of various types as well as into journal formats, arguing that context has the potential to play a role equally important to content in shaping a reader's understanding, and that the 'Encyclopédie méthodique' presented ballet in a way that diverged radically from both the 'Encyclopédie' and Noverre's 'Lettres sur la danse'."--Page 4 of printed paper wrapper.

Contents:

Introduction

Chapter 1: Noverrian pantomime ballet as theatrical genre

Noverre's 'Lettres sur la danse'

Defining ballet in the Enlightenment

Key terms

Noverrian ballet 'en action'

Chapter 2: Ballet and dance in the 'Encyclopédie'

Ballet within the 'Encyclopédie'

French pantomime ballet and opera on the eve of the 'Querelle des Bouffons'

The 'renvoi' structure of the 'Encyclopédie'

Explicit 'renvois' to the articles "Ballet," "Opéra," and "Danse"

Defining ballet and action in the 'Encyclopédie'

Genius, enthusiasm, and expression in Cahusac's pantomime ballet

"Danse" and "Geste"

Toward a 'poésie muette'

The 'renvoi' system at work: a changing web of definitions

Chapter 3: Ballet in successors to the 'Encyclopédie'

Ballet, Noverre, and the afterlife of the 'Encyclopédie'

Ballet in the 'Journal encyclopédique'

A new source: Sulzer's 'Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste'

Noverrian ballet 'en action' in the 'Encyclopédie d'Yverdon'

Sulzer's articles in the 'Supplément à l'Encyclopédie'

Marmontel's article "Pantomime"

Chapter 4: Ballet across the 'Encyclopédie méthodique'

The 'Encyclopédie méthodique'

Dance and the specialized dictionary

The 'Arts académiques' dictionary

The 'Musique' dictionary

The 'Grammaire et littérature' dictionary: action versus pantomime

The failure of pantomime

The afterlife of the 'Encyclopédie méthodique's ballet and dance articles

The meaning of excerpts

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-178) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

ebook version :

Online version: Theories of ballet in the age of the 'Encyclopédie'

ISBN:

9781800859906

1800859902

OCLC:

1241731197