New from Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment:
Theories of Ballet in the Age of the Encyclopédie
By Olivia Sabee
Emphasizing eighteenth-century ballet’s construction through print culture, Theories of Ballet in the Age of the Encyclopédie examines the shifting definition of ballet over the second half of the eighteenth century, highlighting the role of textual borrowing and compilation in disseminating knowledge during the Enlightenment.
- The first book on dance in Enlightenment encyclopedias
- Brings together multiple Enlightenment encyclopedias in a comparative study
- The first book to examine Noverre’s centrality through the study of textual borrowings
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“Whether read as a whole or independently, the Encyclopédie méthodique is an ideal case study for demonstrating how knowledge was reordered through textual borrowing and editorial decisions. In the case of ballet, Panckoucke’s editors dissolved many of Cahusac’s original cross-references, nullifying the structure that linked his articles together. At the same time, they created new ways of understanding ballet’s past and future, especially through its inclusion under the rubric of dance, rather than the other way around.”
(Read the author’s accompanying blog post)
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Table of Contents:
List of illustrations and tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Noverrian pantomime ballet as theatrical genre
Chapter 2: Ballet and dance in the Encyclopédie
Chapter 3: Ballet in successors to the Encyclopédie
Chapter 4: Ballet across the Encyclopédie méthodique
Bibliography
Index
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Olivia Sabee is assistant professor of dance and member of the committees on comparative literature and interpretation theory at Swarthmore College. Her essays on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French and Italian dance and literature have appeared in Eighteenth-Century Studies, MLN, Romance Studies, and Dance Chronicle.
The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.