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Logan
Connors

Literature - USA

Research topics

PROJECT

Military-Theatrical Experiences on the French Periphery, 1680-1815

Military-Theatrical Experiences unearths the diverse relations between the military and the theater in French colonies and provinces from Louis XIV’s reign to Napoleon’s final defeat. Grounded in theater and performance studies and in the cultural history of the military, this is the first holistic examination of theater’s variegated roles in creating early modern military cultures and of the military’s influence in changing the norms of dramatic literature and theatrical performance.

This project combines textual analysis, archival research, and theoretical reflection on the experience of military-theatrical events during a period of widespread European conflict and colonial expansion. This includes analysis of plays depicting military characters; performances in garrison theatres and in other military venues; cultural and economic policies that sought to persuade or dissuade soldiers from attending the theatre; repertories of public theatres in provincial and colonial cities with strong military presences (Besançon, Metz, Saint-Etienne, Port-au-Prince, Cap-Français, Brest, etc.); the relationship between theatrical diplomacy and armed conflict in colonial and occupied zones; the role of both theatre and the military as “civilizing” and “urbanizing” forces; the idea of theatre as a tool for teaching combat skills, nationalism, and xenophobia ; and much more.

Military-Theatrical Experiences underscores the anxieties of the military and the ways by which theatrical performance and dramatic literature soothed and exasperated the rigors of a soldier’s life. Ultimately, this project investigates the theater’s role in forging a potent and problematic military culture as France moved into a period of modern global war and rampant colonialism.

Activities / Resume

BIOGRAPHY

Logan J. Connors is Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures (with tenure) at the University of Miami. He is the author of Dramatic battles in eighteenth-century France, a critical edition of Le siège de Calais, and numerous articles in theater history, early modern French literature, and humanities pedagogy. His next monograph, The emergence of a theatrical science of man in France, is forthcoming in winter 2019-2020. He is the book series editor of Scènes Francophones, North America’s only book series dedicated to French-language theater and he was the recipient of a University of Miami Provost’s Research Award, Bucknell University’s NEH Chair in the Humanities, and an Andrew Mellon Fellowship. He was a pensionnaire international at the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon from 2007 to 2009 and a visiting professor at the University Paris-Sorbonne in 2012-2013. He received a PhD in French and Francophone Studies from Louisiana State University in 2010.
 

MAIN PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • The emergence of a theatrical science of man in France, 1660-1740 (Oxford and Liverpool: Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment-Voltaire Foundation and Liverpool University Press). Forthcoming, winter 2019-2020.
  • Dramatic battles in eighteenth-century France: philosophes, anti-philosophes and polemical theatre (Oxford University: Voltaire Foundation, 2012).
  • (ed). Le Siège de Calais by Pierre-Laurent De Belloy (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2014).
  • (ed.) Writing against the stage: anti-theatrical discourse in early modern Europe. Double-issue (29.1/29.2) of Restoration and 18th-Century Theatre Research, 2015.

Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters

  • “Teaching the Revolution’s Theater as Cultural History.” Teaching Representations of the French Revolution. Julia Douthwaite, Catriona Seth, Antoinette Sol (eds.). New York: MLA, forthcoming, 2019.
  • “’Que sur la superficie de notre coeur’: de la condamnation du théâtre à une science théâtrale de l’homme, 1694-1719.” Littératures classiques 98 (forthcoming 2019).
  • “Auteur dramatique ou Homme dangereux: la représentation de soi et de l’autre dans les comédies de Charles Palissot.” Le Dramaturge sur un plateau: quand l’auteur dramatique devient personnage. Clotilde Thouret (ed.). Paris: Garnier, 2018: 317-329.
  • “Interpretations: from Theatrephobia to Theatrical Science of Man.” A Cultural History of Theatre. London: Bloomsbury, 2017: 117-137.
  • “Patriotismes à l’épreuve des variantes finales dans Le Siège de Calais, tragédie de Pierre de Belloy (1765).” In Revoir la fin: dénouements remaniés au XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. Florence Naugrette and Sylviane Robardey-Eppstein (eds). Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2016: 157-168.
  • “Increasing Engagement in French & Francophone Studies: Structured Journaling on the Emotions with La Fayette’s La Princesse de Clèves.” PMLA 130.5 (2016): 1476-1480.
  • “Who gets to dispute? Gender, nation and representation in two versions of Pierre de Belloy’s Le Siège de Calais. Arrêt sur scène/Scene Focus 3 (Dec. 2014): 193-206.
  • “Le rêve d’autorité dans la dramaturgie française, 1660-1717.” In Expérimentation scientifique et manipulation littéraire au siècle des Lumières. Jean M. Goulemot (ed.). Paris: Minerve, 2014: 27-38.
  • “Critique et création dans la critique dramatique du XVIIIe siècle: les poétiques à l’épreuve de la scène.” In L’écrivain et son critique: une fratrie problématique. Philippe Chardin et Marjorie Rousseau (eds.). Paris: Kimé, 2014: 71-81.
  • “Valeurs nationales et valeurs théâtrales. La bataille du Siège de Calais (1765).” La Revue de l’Histoire du Théâtre 261 (April 2014): 87-96.
  • With N. Dupont and J. Westbrook, “Three Strategies for Promoting Intellectual Engagement in Advanced Undergraduate Seminars.” The French Review 88.1 (2014): 111-126.
  • “The Power of Tragedy: An Eighteenth-Century Debate on Theater and its Relevance to Literature Pedagogy Today.” The French Review 87.3 (2014): 79-94.
  • “‘Initiators of Discursive Practices’: Authorship, attribution, and intent in the debates between philosophes and anti-philosophes.” French Forum 37.4 (2012): 15-30.
  • “Performing Criticism during Cultural War: The case of Voltaire’s l’Ecossaise (1760).” Eighteenth-Century Fiction, 10.1 (November 2010): 61-80.