“The French Play in London". Adaptations from the French in Victorian England
This essay collection aims at exploring the presence of French plays in Victorian England and their influence and impact upon native dramatists, critics and audiences. By means of scrutinizing the textual strategies used by adaptors either to comply or to divert from the original texts, it intends to illustrate the economic, aesthetic and political tensions existing between both countries throughout the nineteenth century.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- Re-writing, adapting and bowdlerizing from the French
- Francophilia and Gallophobia in Victorian theatre criticism
- Adaptation, plagiarism and originality
- Adaptation and moral protectionism
- Translating and adapting French comedy
- French melodrama vs English melodrama
- Adaptation and self-/institutional/industrial censorship
- The notion of French “immorality” on the Victorian stage
- Adaptation, collaboration and authorship
- Copyright issues involved in the adaptation process
- French adaptations and commercialism
- Cross-cultural and class-based audience reception of the French play
- “From the French” as a lure for the English public
- English adaptations and French performers
- French plays and the revival of English drama
- Adaptation and national identity
- Adaption from the French and cultural imperialism
Please submit 500-word proposals along with a short CV by 1 September 2015 to Ignacio.Ramos@uv.es
Acceptance will be notified by 15 September. Final papers (6,000 words max.) will be submitted by 15 February 2016. Scheduled publication date is 3rd quarter 2016.