Does staging freeze meaning? The example of Alfred de Musset’s theater
Ledda, Sylvain
Does staging freeze meaning? The example of Alfred de Musset’s theater - 2020.
20
In the XIXth century, mise en scene (stage design and production) is the result of a process that involves writing, reading, rehearsals and the mobilization of a host of artistic and technical personnel up to the time of a work’s performance. Using Musset as an example, my purpose here is to show that mise en scene is a methodological (hermeneutic) point of departure. Meaning is constructed and transmitted based on choices regarding sets or interpretative decisions and those decisions influence our ultimate understanding of the plays. Performed in sets and costumes evoking the xviiith century, Musset’s theater was purged of its Romanticism. That temporal reconfiguration is all the more remarkable for being the result of an ideological goal. By linking Musset to Marivaux’s spirit, the enfant terrible of Romanticism is tied to the history of French comedy and French wit. Choices made about his works’s mise en scene consequently afford them legitimacy and a lineage.
Does staging freeze meaning? The example of Alfred de Musset’s theater - 2020.
20
In the XIXth century, mise en scene (stage design and production) is the result of a process that involves writing, reading, rehearsals and the mobilization of a host of artistic and technical personnel up to the time of a work’s performance. Using Musset as an example, my purpose here is to show that mise en scene is a methodological (hermeneutic) point of departure. Meaning is constructed and transmitted based on choices regarding sets or interpretative decisions and those decisions influence our ultimate understanding of the plays. Performed in sets and costumes evoking the xviiith century, Musset’s theater was purged of its Romanticism. That temporal reconfiguration is all the more remarkable for being the result of an ideological goal. By linking Musset to Marivaux’s spirit, the enfant terrible of Romanticism is tied to the history of French comedy and French wit. Choices made about his works’s mise en scene consequently afford them legitimacy and a lineage.
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