Yann Robert – författare

For most of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, classical dogma and royal censorship worked together to prevent French plays from commenting on, or even worse, reenacting current political and judicial affairs. Criminal trials, meanwhile, were designed to be as untheatrical as possible, excluding from the courtroom live debates, trained orators, and spectators. According to Yann Robert, circumstances changed between 1750 and 1800 as parallel evolutions in theater and justice brought them closer together, causing lasting transformations in both.Robert contends that the gradual merging of theatrical and legal modes in eighteenth-century France has been largely overlooked because it challenges two widely accepted narratives: first, that French theater drifted toward entertainment and illusionism during this period and, second, that the French justice system abandoned any performative foundation it previously had in favor of a textual one. In Dramatic Justice, he demonstrates that the inverse of each was true. Robert traces the rise of a "judicial theater" in which plays denounced criminals by name, even forcing them, in some cases, to perform their transgressions anew before a jeering public. Likewise, he shows how legal reformers intentionally modeled trial proceedings on dramatic representations and went so far as to recommend that judges mimic the sentimental judgment of spectators and that lawyers seek private lessons from actors. This conflation of theatrical and legal performances provoked debates and anxieties in the eighteenth century that, according to Robert, continue to resonate with present concerns over lawsuit culture and judicial entertainment.Dramatic Justice offers an alternate history of French theater and judicial practice, one that advances new explanations for several pivotal moments in the French Revolution, including the trial of Louis XVI and the Terror, by showing the extent to which they were shaped by the period's conflicted relationship to theatrical justice.

For most of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, classical dogma and royal censorship worked together to prevent French plays from commenting on, or even worse, reenacting current political and judicial affairs. Criminal trials, meanwhile, were designed to be as untheatrical as possible, excluding from the courtroom live debates, trained orators, and spectators. According to Yann Robert, circumstances changed between 1750 and 1800 as parallel evolutions in theater and justice brought them closer together, causing lasting transformations in both.Robert contends that the gradual merging of theatrical and legal modes in eighteenth-century France has been largely overlooked because it challenges two widely accepted narratives: first, that French theater drifted toward entertainment and illusionism during this period and, second, that the French justice system abandoned any performative foundation it previously had in favor of a textual one. In Dramatic Justice, he demonstrates that the inverse of each was true. Robert traces the rise of a "judicial theater" in which plays denounced criminals by name, even forcing them, in some cases, to perform their transgressions anew before a jeering public. Likewise, he shows how legal reformers intentionally modeled trial proceedings on dramatic representations and went so far as to recommend that judges mimic the sentimental judgment of spectators and that lawyers seek private lessons from actors. This conflation of theatrical and legal performances provoked debates and anxieties in the eighteenth century that, according to Robert, continue to resonate with present concerns over lawsuit culture and judicial entertainment.Dramatic Justice offers an alternate history of French theater and judicial practice, one that advances new explanations for several pivotal moments in the French Revolution, including the trial of Louis XVI and the Terror, by showing the extent to which they were shaped by the period's conflicted relationship to theatrical justice.

First performed the day after Marie-Antoinette’s beheading, Le Jugement dernier des rois stages the burlesque trial of the remaining kings and queens of Europe-paraded in chains like animals, made to brawl over a barrel of crackers, and finally obliterated by a spectacular volcanic eruption. Such is the shocking context-at once tragic and farcical-of the most infamous play of the French Revolution, familiar to all specialists of the period. Until now, however, no standalone critical edition or English translation of this historic play existed. This bilingual edition revives MarÉchal’s play and reveals its centrality to scholarly debates about Revolutionary notions of justice, religion, commemoration, comedy, and propaganda. Provocative, written in accessible prose, and short-perfect for students in a French or history seminar-Le Jugement dernier des rois offers an ideal introduction to the most important and contentious questions of the Revolutionary period.JouÉ pour la premiÈre fois le lendemain de l’exÉcution de Marie-Antoinette, Le Jugement dernier des rois met en scÈne le procÈs burlesque des autres rois et reines d’Europe : exhibÉs et enchaÎnÉs tels des animaux, contraints de se battre pour un tonneau de biscuits, et finalement anÉantis par l’Éruption spectaculaire d’un volcan. Tel est le contexte scandaleux-tragÉdie et farce À la fois-de la piÈce la plus cÉlÈbre de la RÉvolution franÇaise, bien connue de tous les spÉcialistes de cette pÉriode. Jusqu’À maintenant, pourtant, il n’existait ni Édition critique ni traduction anglaise de cet ouvrage historique. Notre Édition bilingue fait revivre la piÈce de MarÉchal et la replace au centre des plus grands dÉbats chez les historiens de la RÉvolution, traitant de justice, religion, commÉmoration, comÉdie, et propagande. Provocateur, facile À lire, et concis-parfaitement adaptÉ aux Étudiants d’un cours de franÇais ou d’histoire-Le Jugement dernier des rois propose ainsi une introduction idÉale À la pÉriode rÉvolutionnaire et À ses principales controverses.Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

First performed the day after Marie-Antoinette’s beheading, Le Jugement dernier des rois stages the burlesque trial of the remaining kings and queens of Europe-paraded in chains like animals, made to brawl over a barrel of crackers, and finally obliterated by a spectacular volcanic eruption. Such is the shocking context-at once tragic and farcical-of the most infamous play of the French Revolution, familiar to all specialists of the period. Until now, however, no standalone critical edition or English translation of this historic play existed. This bilingual edition revives MarÉchal’s play and reveals its centrality to scholarly debates about Revolutionary notions of justice, religion, commemoration, comedy, and propaganda. Provocative, written in accessible prose, and short-perfect for students in a French or history seminar-Le Jugement dernier des rois offers an ideal introduction to the most important and contentious questions of the Revolutionary period.JouÉ pour la premiÈre fois le lendemain de l’exÉcution de Marie-Antoinette, Le Jugement dernier des rois met en scÈne le procÈs burlesque des autres rois et reines d’Europe : exhibÉs et enchaÎnÉs tels des animaux, contraints de se battre pour un tonneau de biscuits, et finalement anÉantis par l’Éruption spectaculaire d’un volcan. Tel est le contexte scandaleux-tragÉdie et farce À la fois-de la piÈce la plus cÉlÈbre de la RÉvolution franÇaise, bien connue de tous les spÉcialistes de cette pÉriode. Jusqu’À maintenant, pourtant, il n’existait ni Édition critique ni traduction anglaise de cet ouvrage historique. Notre Édition bilingue fait revivre la piÈce de MarÉchal et la replace au centre des plus grands dÉbats chez les historiens de la RÉvolution, traitant de justice, religion, commÉmoration, comÉdie, et propagande. Provocateur, facile À lire, et concis-parfaitement adaptÉ aux Étudiants d’un cours de franÇais ou d’histoire-Le Jugement dernier des rois propose ainsi une introduction idÉale À la pÉriode rÉvolutionnaire et À ses principales controverses.Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.