Author Description
At Its Debut In 1866, La Source Already Had It All: Dagger-wielding Muslims Dominating Veiled Women, A Magic Flower In A Green Ecology, And A Full-blown Environmental Crisis At The End. When The Paris Opera Ballet Restaged This Orientalist And Colonial Drama In 2011, And Again In 2014, The Contemporary Context Of Homegrown Jihad, Climate Politics, And A Law Banning The Dissimulation Of The Face In Public Spaces, Kept It Relevant. At Four Historic Performances, Over 150 Years, This Book Explores The Resonance Of La Source's Double Narrative In Its Contemporary Contexts: The Biopolitics Of Bodily Hybridity And Regeneration And The Cosmopolitics Of The Exploitation Of Human And Natural Resources. Felicia Mccarren. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates how the 1866 ballet La Source functions as a persistent cultural artifact that mirrors shifting anxieties regarding colonialism, environmental exploitation, and religious identity over 150 years. Felicia M. McCarren, a scholar of dance and cultural theory, utilizes archival research and performance analysis to examine the ballet's 2011 and 2014 restagings. She argues that the work's original orientalist themes and ecological motifs gain new, often uncomfortable, resonance when viewed through the lens of contemporary French politics, including debates on secularism and climate change.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Historical analysis of the 1866 premiere of La Source
- Examination of the 2011 and 2014 Paris Opera Ballet revivals
- Theoretical framework connecting biopolitics and cosmopolitics
- Discussion of orientalism, colonial tropes, and environmental crisis in performance
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a comprehensive history of the entire Paris Opera Ballet repertoire
- It does not focus on technical dance choreography or notation
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars in dance studies and cultural history identify this work as a rigorous interdisciplinary study that effectively bridges the gap between performance art and political theory. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which demands familiarity with critical theory and postcolonial discourse.
Page Count:
0
Publication Date:
1900-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press,
ISBN-10:
0190061855
ISBN-13:
9780190061852
Dance_france
Ballet
French History
Dance History