Reviewed by:

• Theater, War, and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France and Its Empire by Logan J. Connors
• Yann Robert (bio)

Logan J. Connors gives a telling title, “Total Theater for Total War,” to his monograph’s penultimate chapter, the culmination, in many ways, of the book’s narrative arc. Drawing from David Bell and others, Connors underscores the unprecedented attributes that made wars of the late eighteenth century “total,” from their global span to their reliance on mass conscription and all available national resources. Among these resources was a groundbreaking “total theater,” characterized by “documentary-based dramaturgy, technological innovations, onstage military formations and battles, dramatic characters and actors who were actual soldiers, patriotic song breaks, the use of various military practices and customs in drama, and more” (148). Such strategies of reenactment, liveliness, and intimacy were designed to foster a more intense, unmediated engagement of French spectators in the plays as in the war effort. Totality thus serves as a crucial throughline in Connors’s book (indeed, “total,” “totality,” and “totalizing” appear 99 times). One might argue that it also perfectly captures what makes it such a unique and rewarding read, a veritable “Total Book on Total Theater for Total War.” Total in the remarkable variety of its methodological approaches: literary close-reading, performance studies, cultural military history, gender studies, and architectural analysis, to name a few. And total as well in its topics of interest, so many that it is best to let Connors list them: “plays depicting soldiers, performances in navy theaters and in other military venues, policies to compel soldiers to attend the theater, repertories of public theaters in provincial and colonial cities with significant military populations, the evolving relationship between theatrical diplomacy and armed conflict in colonial and occupied zones, soldier-actors and soldier-writers, the role of both theater and the military as ‘civilizing’ and ‘urbanizing’ forces, dramatic depictions of gender roles in battle and on the home front, public performances of coloniality and military rule, and theater as a tool for teaching combat skills, nationalism, sexuality, xenophobia, and more” (3).

Totality need not mean exhaustivity, however, and throughout his monograph Connors identifies topics and areas awaiting further studies. Far from a weakness, this strikes me as a strength, a reflection of the work’s seminal status. Indeed, Connors has accomplished the rare feat of unearthing and mining a completely neglected topic. There have been many studies in the past few decades exploring the interaction between eighteenth-century drama and other spheres commonly understood in performative terms (politics, justice, religion, etc.). These studies, [End Page 395] many of which are listed in a footnote on page 147, derive much of their appeal from their bilateral approach, tracing a web of influence in both directions: not only did politics, justice, and religion impact the theatre of the Revolution, as one might have expected, but the new forms of performance and spectatorship that emerged in the late eighteenth century also altered political, legal, and religious practice. Connors adopts the same approach in Theater, War, and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century France and Its Empire, but with theatre and the military. He uncovers the many ways in which the French army transformed French theatre by creating new forms and experiences of dramatic performance, even as he convincingly shows that the theatre had a lasting impact on military norms and practices by serving as a space where the French could reimagine war, the army, and soldier-civilian relationships.

Chapters 1 and 2 mostly engage in close readings of plays from the pre-Revolutionary period. The first chapter focuses on Le Siège de Calais, written in response to France’s defeat in the Seven Years’ War and lauded by its author as France’s first national tragedy. This wildly successful play launched a wave of war dramas that together forged and popularized a new definition of patriotism and a new relationship between French spectators and their military. Chapter 2 studies a different subgenre of soldier plays, hitherto...

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  十八世纪法国及其帝国的戏剧、战争和革命作者：Logan J. Connors
•  扬·罗伯特（简介）

洛根·J·康纳斯 (Logan J. Connors) 为其专着的倒数第二章起了一个生动的标题：“全面战争的全面剧场”，从很多方面来说，这也是该书叙事弧线的高潮。康纳斯借鉴大卫·贝尔等人的经验，强调了十八世纪末战争具有前所未有的“全面性”特征，从全球范围到对大规模征兵和所有可用国家资源的依赖。这些资源中有一个开创性的“整体剧场”，其特点是“纪录片式的戏剧创作、技术创新、舞台上的军事编队和战斗、戏剧人物和演员都是真正的士兵、爱国歌曲插曲、各种军事实践和习俗的运用”。戏剧等等”（148）。这种重演、生动和亲密的策略旨在促进法国观众更强烈、更直接地参与戏剧，就像参与战争一样。因此，总体性成为康纳斯书中的一条重要主线（事实上，“总体”、“总体性”和“总体化”出现了 99 次）。有人可能会说，它也完美地体现了它如此独特且有益的读物的原因，是一本名副其实的“全面战争全面战区全书”。其方法论方法多种多样：文学精读、表演研究、文化军事史、性别研究和建筑分析等等。 其感兴趣的主题也太多了，最好让康纳斯一一列举：“描绘士兵的戏剧、海军剧院和其他军事场所的表演、强迫士兵上剧院的政策、公共剧院的剧目在拥有大量军事人口的省会和殖民城市，戏剧外交与殖民地和占领区武装冲突之间不断变化的关系，士兵演员和士兵作家，戏剧和军队作为“文明”和“城市化”力量的作用、对战争和后方性别角色的戏剧性描述、殖民统治和军事统治的公开表演，以及戏剧作为教授战斗技能、民族主义、性、仇外心理等的工具”(3)。

然而，整体性并不意味着详尽无遗，康纳斯在他的专着中确定了有待进一步研究的主题和领域。在我看来，这绝非弱点，而是一种优势，反映了这部作品的开创性地位。事实上，康纳斯完成了发掘和挖掘一个完全被忽视的话题的罕见壮举。过去几十年来，有许多研究探索十八世纪戏剧与表演术语中通常理解的其他领域（政治、正义、宗教等）之间的相互作用。这些研究， [第 395 页结束] ，其中许多都列在第 147 页的脚注中，其吸引力很大程度上来自于双边方法，追踪双向影响网络：政治、正义和宗教不仅影响了正如人们所预料的那样，革命的戏剧是革命的戏剧，但十八世纪末出现的新的表演和观众形式也改变了政治、法律和宗教实践。康纳斯在《十八世纪法国及其帝国的戏剧、战争和革命》中采用了相同的方法，但涉及戏剧和军队。他揭示了法国军队通过创造新的戏剧表演形式和体验来改变法国戏剧的多种方式，同时他令人信服地表明，剧院作为法国人可以重新想象的空间，对军事规范和实践产生了持久的影响。战争、军队、军民关系。

第一章和第二章主要是对革命前时期戏剧的细读。第一章主要讲述《加来之围》 ，该书是为了回应法国在七年战争中的失败而写的，被作者誉为法国第一部民族悲剧。这部取得巨大成功的戏剧掀起了一股战争剧热潮，共同塑造并普及了爱国主义的新定义以及法国观众与军队之间的新关系。第二章研究迄今为止的士兵戏剧的不同子类型......