Cultural democratisation in the struggle between public intellectuals and the state: the debate on the ‘Theatre of the People' in France (1895–1905)

Abstract

This paper deconstructs the golden legend of cultural democratisation as the achievement of the French Republican model. To do so it goes back to the years 1895–1905 when the debates on cultural democratisation were first structured. It shows how the intellectuals who ‘went to the people’ to give them culture and/or to promote a ‘people's culture’ found in this proselytism a way to express their vision of the ways to transform the social order, and to define a form of democracy in which intellectuals could play a prominent role. By doing so, they tried to oppose an alternative to the traditional methods of political representation that is to say they tried to compete with State officials as legitimate political representatives. Beyond this short-time historical period, this paper sheds light on the articulation between cultural democratisation, cultural policy and democracy in France.

Keywords:

• intellectuals
• culture
• democracy

Notes

1. ‘Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits’, Article 27-1.

2. For a critical analysis of references to this report, see Chateigner 2011.

3. I have retained the capital letters often used at the time to emphasise the historical specificity of this undertaking. The phrases People’s Theatre and Popular Theatre were often used indifferently. Nevertheless ‘People’s Theatre’ could also be used to draw a boundary between the renewal of theatrical forms that had social and political purposes and the sole enlargement of the audience (popular) that could also have commercial aspects. For a discussion of these notions and their tranlsations into English, see Fisher (1977, p. 462).

4. They are just four of the main protagonists of the history of the democratisation of theatre. Firmin Gémier (1869–1933), influenced by Romain Rolland, Camille de Sainte-Croix and Maurice Pottecher, created the Théâtre national ambulant (1911–1912) and the first Théâtre national populaire (TNP) in Paris, 1920. Jacques Copeau (1879–1949) founded the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in 1913, a theatrical company in the country in the 1920s, and published Le Théâtre populaire (1941). Like F. Gémier and his son-in-law Jean Dasté, he was considered as one of the architects of the ‘theatrical decentralisation’ which started in the late 1940s. Jean Vilar (1912–1971) created the Festival d’Avignon in 1947 and managed the TNP from 1951 to 1963. Antoine Vitez (1930–1990), a playwright and theatre director, embodied the idea of bringing quality theatre to a broader audience: ‘elite theatre for all’.

5. This paper is a shorter and thoroughly revised version of Dubois 1993.

6. Maurice Cabs, ‘Le Théâtre du Peuple’, La République, 9 octobre 1901.

7. On the historical constitution of the illegitimacy of political stances on artistic questions at the time, see Dubois (1996).

8. On l’Art pour tous, an ‘aesthetic propaganda league’ created in 1901 to take blue-collar workers to museums and bring them closer to artists, see Lumet L., L’Art pour tous, Cornély, 1904; on l’Art à l’école, see Couyba C.-M. et al., L’Art à l’école , Larousse, (s.d., ca. 1910).

9. These calls for decentralisation were followed by the publication of a study: ‘Les théâtres d’art en province’, RAD, juin 1898, pp. 161–164, and other calls complete with grievances against public authorities in 1905.

10. Séché A., Dans la mêlée littéraire (1900–1930), 1990, Bibliothèque du Hérisson, 1933.

11. Bourdon (1902a). Ibid. for the preceding citation.

12. H. Bauër, L. Besnard, M. Bouchor, G. Bourdon, L. Descaves, R. de Flers, A. France, G. Geffroy, J. Jullien, L. Lumet, O. Mirbeau, M. Pottecher, R. Rolland, C. de Sainte-Croix, E. Schuré, G. Trarieux, J. Vignaud, and E. Zola.

13. Morel E., RAD, mars 1902, p. 116.

14. Such as Georges Bourdon, Camille de Sainte-Croix, Catulle Mendès or Louis Lumet. The committee was set up by a 7 June 1905 decree, published in the Journal official of 9 June 1905. On the committee’s work, see F21 4688 in the Archives Nationales.

15. This committee was mostly made up of Dreyfusards and socialists, which shows that it was not only about bringing together popular theatre activists. Several of its members did not participate in the sessions, and like Anatole France or Emile Zola, merely lent their name for purposes of legitimisation.

16. See the Rondel collection at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, RT 3277, which comprises press articles on popular theatre from 1896 to 1946.

17. This analysis is based on a sample made up by respondents to surveys by l’Enclos, the RAD and the Revue bleue, the members of the Committee of 18, and authors of articles and books on related subjects. This amounts to ca. 100 individuals, among whom I selected the 30 most active ones. Their properties and paths were retraced thanks to a number of biographical dictionaries and books.

18. E. Fournière, born in 1857, started out as an apprentice and was involved in revolutionary socialist circles (with Jules Guesde) as early as 1878. A Paris municipal councillor (1894–1898) then deputy of Aisne (1898–1902), he was also a journalist (president of the journalism school), lecturer at the Polytechnique school, professor and member of the board at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales and member of its board, member of the sociology society and director of the Revue Socialiste. Sources: Dictionnaire de Biographie Française ; Qui-êtes-vous? 1908 ; Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier.

19. Rolland, p. 7.

20. Rolland, p. 13.

21. Camille de Sainte-Croix, cited by Séché (A.), ‘A propos du théâtre populaire’, RAD, août 1903, p. 233–239.

22. Archives Nationales, F21 4687/3/h, and Bernheim (A.) op. cit.

23. Rolland, op. cit. p. 64.

24. Rolland, op. cit. p. 50.

25. Morel (E.) Revue d’Art Dramatique, juin 1903, p. 194 ff.

26. Idem, RAD, 20 novembre 1898, p. 162–169, cited in Bracco 1970, p. 105.

27. Rolland (R.), op. cit. p. 7.

28. Ibid. p. 99. Romain Rolland quotes Rousseau at length (Lettre à d’Alembert sur les spectacles, 1758), Louis-Sébastien Mercier (Traité du théâtre ou nouvel essai sur l’art dramatique, 1773; Nouvel examen de la tragédie française, 1778) and Marie-Joseph Chénier.

29. ‘The reason for the People’s Theatre’s existence is to destroy the representatives of the old theatre’ Ibid. p. 98.

30. Ibid. p. 8.

31. ‘Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits’, Article 27-1.