Early 18th-Century Ballad Operas and Their Role in the Theatrical Public Sphere

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F20%3A00114431" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/20:00114431 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Early 18th-Century Ballad Operas and Their Role in the Theatrical Public Sphere

Original language description

Like theatre in all ages, the English early 18th-century theatre was a social phenomenon which took an active part in the public discourse of its time. One genre that was particularly reflexive of the current affairs was the English ballad opera, whose subversive potential is demonstrated by the fact that ballad operas were the most frequently censored dramatic form of the 1730s. One way to approach such public participation offers Christopher Balme in his study The Theatrical Public Sphere (2014), where he remodels Jürgen Habermas’s theory of the public sphere for the purposes of the study of theatre. Balme proposes three modes of theatre’s engagement with the public sphere: the rational-critical mode, which opens a discursive platform, the affective-agonistic mode with a political or persuasive potential, and the ludic mode based on satire. By drawing on Balme’s concept, the paper revisits several ballad operas and analyses them with respect to their potential engagement with the theatrical public sphere of their time. The paper demonstrates that ballad operas, which are often disregarded as ephemeral, and therefore insignificant, musical entertainment, had the capacity to participate in a broader discussion of public affairs which reached far beyond the spaces of London playhouses.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60206 - Specific literatures

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA19-07494S" target="_blank" >GA19-07494S: English Theatre Culture 1660-1737</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů