“The Most Sacred of Contracts”: Theatre Artists’ Engagement Contracts (France, 1790s)
In France, the revolutionary decade was marked by the rapid development of private theatre companies, which generally hired actors for a renewable one-year period. This phenomenon is studied here using seventeen engagement contracts for Paris and for the rest of France, from various archival funds....
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| Wydane w: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/bssg, |
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| 1. autor: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Język: | Anglais |
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Biens Symboliques / Symbolic Goods
2025
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| Hasła przedmiotowe: | |
| Dostęp online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Streszczenie: | In France, the revolutionary decade was marked by the rapid development of private theatre companies, which generally hired actors for a renewable one-year period. This phenomenon is studied here using seventeen engagement contracts for Paris and for the rest of France, from various archival funds. Based on a detailed description of these documents, the aim is to analyse the forms and stakes associated with the formalization of artistic work through contracts, whose clauses became increasingly numerous and precise. In the context of the commercialization of leisure activities, this approach allows understanding how the development of an entire sector of the labour market was designed and organized, that of the provision of artistic services, which was both oriented towards the audience and anchored in entertainment companies. The specificity of artistic work, which was similar to other service occupations but also went beyond them, was constructed through these ordinary salary entries. |
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