When Ballet Became French: Modern Ballet and the Cultural Politics of France, 1909-1939

by Ilyana Karthas

Overview

For centuries before the 1789 revolution, ballet was a source of great cultural pride for France, but by the twentieth century the art form had deteriorated along with France's international standing. It was not until Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes found success in Paris during the first decade of the new century that France embraced the opportunity to restore ballet to its former glory and transform it into a hallmark of the nation. In When Ballet Became French, Ilyana Karthas explores the revitalization of ballet and its crucial significance to French culture during a period of momentous transnational cultural exchange and shifting attitudes towards gender and the body. Uniting the disciplines of cultural history, gender and women's studies, aesthetics, and dance history, Karthas examines the ways in which discussions of ballet intersect with French concerns about the nation, modernity, and gender identities, demonstrating how ballet served as an important tool for France's project of national renewal. Relating ballet commentary to themes of transnationalism, nationalism, aesthetics, gender, and body politics, she examines the process by which critics, artists, and intellectuals turned ballet back into a symbol of French culture. The first book to study the correlation between ballet and French nationalism, When Ballet Became French demonstrates how dance can transform a nation's cultural and political history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773546059
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Ilyana Karthas is associate professor of history and affiliate faculty of women’s and gender studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Table of Contents

Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 3

1 Parisian Intellectuals, the Press, and the Ballet 34

2 The "Russian Season" in Paris and the Politics of Transnational Artistic Exchange 68

3 A Nation (Re)Turns to Ballet: The Quest to Redeem French Ballet 104

4 Ballet and the Cultural Politics of Modern Aesthetics 146

5 In Search of a National Style 183

6 The Return of the Male Dancer 221

7 The Rise of the Professional Female Dancer 263

Conclusion 303

Notes 311

Bibliography 361

Index 381

Editorial Reviews

08/10/2015
Karthas, a professor at the University of Missouri who specializes in 19th and 20th century French culture and focuses on identity, gender, and modern aesthetics, examines French ballet and how it has informed national identity, the reconciliation of tradition to modernity, and body politics primarily through contemporary criticism in journals and newspapers. She argues that ballet was in a sterile, degenerate form by the fin de siècle, primarily maintaining its allure through the exploitation of women. It took the Russian reinvention of ballet for the French to seriously reconsider it as an art form, inspired by new aesthetics, innovation, and the possibility of resolving the traditional with the modern. Men returned to the stage and new configuration of sexuality, identity, and aesthetics evolved. Karthas unearths the history and lineages of the balletic tradition and how it moved from its monarchical roots to the flowering possibilities in republicanism. On the whole, it is an interesting study and a rewarding read in an under represented area. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Karthas persuasively argues that ballet introduced an androgynous aesthetic that broke down traditional gender dichotomies, but alsocontributed to new and distinct modern visions of femininity and masculinity. An important contribution to French cultural history. Highly Recommended.” Choice


"Ambitious in scope and focused in argument, When Ballet Became French offers a compelling account of the rise and fall and rise again of ballet’s fortunes as an exemplary French cultural, and implicitly, political form. Integrating dance history into a broader narrative of French cultural and gender history, Karthas combines an internalist understanding of the transformations in ballet’s choreography, technique, staging, and institutional form with a broader, externalist analysis of its symbolism, social location, and cultural and political resonance." Judith Surkis, Rutgers University


“L’ouvrage d’Ilyana Karthas nous rappelle, par conséquent, la complexité et la richesse de l’histoire longue du ballet, sans tomber dans le piège de l’histoire anecdotique. C’est une bonne synthèse qui s’adresse aussi bien aux lecteurs désireux d’en savoi

From the Publisher

08/01/2015
Today, many people strongly associate ballet with France, but there was a time when many in the country scoffed at the expression. Karthas (history, Univ. of Missouri) looks at the influence of French culture and ballet on each other, particularly from 1909 to 1939. There is also significant commentary on influential events and people in the 1800s. After defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), France turned to Russia as a cultural ally. The influence of the ballet troupe Ballets Russes is cited throughout as one of the driving forces in French acceptance of ballet as an art. Other influences include women's participation as both audience members and as critics; the rising view of dance and dancers as athletic more than erotic; and the hunger in France (at that time) to embrace arts that seemed new and exotic, both of which fit the Ballets Russes. VERDICT This academic book is for an audience interested in and familiar with the history of ballet. The dense writing is documented with occasional illustrations and 60 pages of notes and sources. Suitable for large dance history collections.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley Sch., Fort Worth, TX

Library Journal