Theatre and Censorship in France From Revolution to Restoration

Drawing on over 150,000 pages of archival material and hundreds of manuscripts, this is the very first book-length study of theatre censorship in France - both in Paris and the provinces - between the end of the Ancien Régime and the Restoration. Clare Siviter explores the period through the lenses of both traditional bureaucratic notions of censorship and the novel concept of 'lateral censorship', which encompasses a far greater cast of participants, including authors, theatres, critics and audiences. Applying this dual methodology to three key topics - religion, mœurs, and government - she complicates political continuities and ruptures between regimes and questions how effectively theatre censorship worked in practice. By giving a voice back to individual French men and women not often recorded in print, Siviter shows how theatre censorship allowed contemporaries to shape the world around them and how they used theatre to promote or oppose the state, even at its most authoritarian.

List of contents

Introduction; Part I. Bureaucratic and Lateral Censorship: 1. The bureaucratic censorship process; 2. The lateral censorship process; Part II. In Practice: 3. Religion onstage; 4. Monitoring mœurs; 5. Representing monarchies; 6. The revolution's political and theatrical stages; 7. Representing napoleon Bonaparte; Conclusion; Appendix of major relevant turning points and legislation for theatre censorship, 1788-1818; Bibliography.

About the author

Clare Siviter is Associate Professor at the University of Bristol. She is the author of Tragedy and Nation in the Age of Napoleon (2020). She was also an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker (2022) and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Product details

• Authors: Clare Siviter, Clare (University of Bristol) Siviter
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 28.02.2026
• EAN: 9781009645966
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0964596-6
• No. of pages: 294
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; France, Social & cultural history, DRAMA / European / General, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Literary studies: plays & playwrights, c 1789 to c 1799 (French Revolutionary period), Ethical Issues: Censorship, C 1700 To C 1800, Later 18th century c 1750 to c 1799, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, History of Performing Arts, Ethical issues: censorship / freedom of expression