Scènes Francophones: Studies in French and Francophone Theater – serie

Winner of the 2021 Best International Book Award from the Mormon History AssociationIn the late nineteenth century, numerous French plays, novels, cartoons, and works of art focused on Mormons. Unlike American authors who portrayed Mormons as malevolent “others,” however, French dramatists used Mormonism to point out hypocrisy in their own culture. Aren't Mormon women, because of their numbers in a household, more liberated than French women who can't divorce? What is polygamy but another name for multiple mistresses? This new critical edition presents translations of four musical comedies staged or published in France in the late 1800s: Mormons in Paris (1874), Berthelier Meets the Mormons (1875), Japheth’s Twelve Wives (1890), and Stephana’s Jewel (1892). Each is accompanied by a short contextualizing introduction with details about the music, playwrights, and staging. Humorous and largely unknown, these plays use Mormonism to explore and mock changing French mentalities during the Third Republic, lampooning shifting attitudes and evolving laws about marriage, divorce, and gender roles.Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Winner of the 2021 Best International Book Award from the Mormon History AssociationIn the late nineteenth century, numerous French plays, novels, cartoons, and works of art focused on Mormons. Unlike American authors who portrayed Mormons as malevolent “others,” however, French dramatists used Mormonism to point out hypocrisy in their own culture. Aren't Mormon women, because of their numbers in a household, more liberated than French women who can't divorce? What is polygamy but another name for multiple mistresses? This new critical edition presents translations of four musical comedies staged or published in France in the late 1800s: Mormons in Paris (1874), Berthelier Meets the Mormons (1875), Japheth’s Twelve Wives (1890), and Stephana’s Jewel (1892). Each is accompanied by a short contextualizing introduction with details about the music, playwrights, and staging. Humorous and largely unknown, these plays use Mormonism to explore and mock changing French mentalities during the Third Republic, lampooning shifting attitudes and evolving laws about marriage, divorce, and gender roles.Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

Bringing together in English translation eleven Francophone African plays dating from 1970 to 2021, this essential collection includes satirical portraits of colonizers and their collaborators (Bernard DadiÉ’s BÉatrice du Congo; Sony Labou Tansi’s I, Undersigned, Cardiac Case; SÉnouvo Agbota Zinsou’s We’re Just Playing) alongside contemporary works questioning diasporic identity and cultural connections (Koffi KwahulÉ’s SAMO: A Tribute to Basquiat and Penda Diouf’s Tracks, Trails, and Traces…). The anthology memorializes the Rwandan genocide (Yolande Mukagasana’s testimony from Rwanda 94), questions the status of women in entrenched patriarchy (Werewere Liking’s SinguÈ Mura: Given That a Woman…), and follows the life of Elizabeth Nietzsche, who perverted her brother’s thought to colonize Paraguay (JosÉ Pliya’s The Sister of Zarathustra). Gustave Akakpo’s The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood and Kossi Efoui’s The Conference of the Dogs offer parables about what makes life livable, while Kangni Alem’s The Landing shows the dangers of believing in a better life, through migration, outside of Africa.

Bringing together in English translation eleven Francophone African plays dating from 1970 to 2021, this essential collection includes satirical portraits of colonizers and their collaborators (Bernard DadiÉ’s BÉatrice du Congo; Sony Labou Tansi’s I, Undersigned, Cardiac Case; SÉnouvo Agbota Zinsou’s We’re Just Playing) alongside contemporary works questioning diasporic identity and cultural connections (Koffi KwahulÉ’s SAMO: A Tribute to Basquiat and Penda Diouf’s Tracks, Trails, and Traces…). The anthology memorializes the Rwandan genocide (Yolande Mukagasana’s testimony from Rwanda 94), questions the status of women in entrenched patriarchy (Werewere Liking’s SinguÈ Mura: Given That a Woman…), and follows the life of Elizabeth Nietzsche, who perverted her brother’s thought to colonize Paraguay (JosÉ Pliya’s The Sister of Zarathustra). Gustave Akakpo’s The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood and Kossi Efoui’s The Conference of the Dogs offer parables about what makes life livable, while Kangni Alem’s The Landing shows the dangers of believing in a better life, through migration, outside of Africa.

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.