Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-178) and index.
Contents:
Chapter 4: The meaning of excerpts. 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.
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.
Series:
Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2634-8047 ; 2022:01
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.