A field of honor : writers, court culture and public theater in French literary life from Racine to the Revolution / by Gregory S. Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Gregory S. (Gregory Stephen)

Contributor:

American Historical Association

Columbia University. Press

Series:

Gutenberg (e)

Gutenberg-e.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dramatists, French--18th century.

Dramatists, French.

French drama--18th century--History and criticism.

French drama.

Theater--France--History--18th century.

Theater.

Comédie-Française.

France.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History

Other Title:

Writers, court culture and public theater in French literary life from Racine to the Revolution

Gutenberg-e.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2001]

Summary:

Gregory S. Brown's A Field of Honor: Writers, Court Culture and Public Theater in French Literary Life from Racine to the Revolution offers a multilevel study of the intellectual, social, and institutional contexts of dramatic authorship and the world of playwrights in 18th-century Paris. Brown deftly interweaves research in archival and printed materials, case studies of individual authorial strategies, the rich, often contentious historiography on the French Enlightenment and contemporary cultural theory and criticism. Drawing on a sophisticated array of recent studies, Brown positions his work against and between the grain of alternative approaches and interpretations. He combines scholarship on the history of the book with analyses of political culture and cultural identity, leaving the reader with a strong and revealing appreciation for the tensions and crosscurrents staged at the center of the 18th-century "republic of letters."

Contents:

Gens de lettres, the Old Regime, and the Enlightenment

The Republic of Letters and early modern institutions in cultural historiography

Court culture and elite self‑image: honneur and honnêteté

Public theater

Analytic concepts for Enlightenment literary life

Public theater and dramatic authorship in Old Regime France, 1600–1757

Playwriting for the Comédie Française in the eighteenth century: règlements and the rules of the game

“Politesse perdue”: the patriot playwright between court and public

Droits d’auteur and approbation as cultural capital: literary property, censorship, and legitimacy at the Comédie Française, 1760–1780

Self‑fashioning, civility, and the celebrity of gens de lettres at the end of the Enlightenment: Beaumarchais and Gouges, 1781–1789

From court to nation: “liberty of theaters” and patriot playwrights, 1789–1791

Conclusion: vestiges of gens de lettres, legacies of the Enlightenment.

Notes:

Available in: Gutenberg-e (Columbia University Press).

"Gutenberg-e is a series of award-winning digital monographs in history, selected by the American Historical Association and published by Columbia University Press."

Includes bibliographical references.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (ACLS, viewed June 3, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

0231503652

9780231503655

OCLC:

49918607

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license