Reviewed by:

• Creole Drama: Theatre and Society in Antebellum New Orleans by Juliane Braun
• Weston Twardowski

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the intrepid theatregoer searching for the most impressive venues, actors, and performances would have sought out not New York or Boston but New Orleans, or so argues Juliane Braun in her fine new work Creole Drama: Theatre and Society in Antebellum New Orleans. Throughout the study of early Francophone theatre in New Orleans, Braun not only draws our attention to the city as a major theatrical site in early American history but also makes significant contributions to our understanding of the transnational nature of theatre in colonial spaces. With extensive archival research, Braun’s book succeeds in opening new avenues of inquiry into Creole studies, antebellum history, transnational theatre studies (particularly in relationship to colonization), and Francophone culture in the United States.

Braun’s well-organized book utilizes five chapters to engage her central argument that theatrical stages were essential to the negotiation of Francophone identity within the antebellum period. Her argument is compelling: theatre was crucial both in maintaining French language and culture in New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase and in serving as a critical space for the exchange of ideas in the wake of the growing size and political power of the new Anglophone population within the city. Enriching this is Braun’s constant attention to the transnational nature of the antebellum theatre. She demonstrates well how French, American, and Caribbean exchanges influenced the city’s theatrical culture, forcing competition, rivalry, and engagement with foreign affairs, and always with a clear interest in navigating the changing nature of culture and [End Page 270] power within this period of shifting political leadership and attendant group power dynamics.

The book is organized thematically, although it is largely chronologically sequential, as well. Chapter 1 details the rise of the Francophone theatre in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Particularly important here is the work Braun does to explore the divergent ideas of “Creole” and “American,” two terms that will be continually reinterpreted across the decades before the Civil War. In examining how the early French theatre was built largely by importing French plays and actors, to help perpetuate not only French sensibilities but also colonial authority, Braun quickly establishes how the theatre is a crucial site for manufacturing cultural identity. Often, theatre owners, audiences, and practitioners came to New Orleans from other French Caribbean colonies, and shared language and religious bonds helped incorporate them into developing Creole identities. This Creole identity becomes the cornerstone of chapter 2, where Braun turns to the influx of Americans into the city. Exploring the rise of competing Anglophone stages, the chapter examines how the theatres fought over not only audiences but also cultural hegemony within the changing political order of New Orleans. The reader is presented with three plays (one in English, two in French), each of which reinterprets the same episode of Louisiana history wherein, after the Spanish take over the city, local French leaders resisted the new government and were ultimately tried and executed for rebellion. Unsurprisingly, the Anglophone treatment devalorizes the Frenchmen, whereas the French productions caution against collaboration with rival political powers (with the historical Spanish figures standing in for the contemporary American population).

The third chapter is a major addition to the history of early black theatre in the United States thanks to Braun’s outstanding research into these underexamined companies. In addition to the rich analysis of the social and physical living environments for free black people in the city, Braun demonstrates the deterioration of civil freedoms for free black people within New Orleans in the decades leading up to the Civil War. This is shown through detailed examination of theatre layouts, seating, and attendance, which greatly enhances our understanding of the importance of free black people and the enslaved to the culture and entertainment economy of the city. Further, Braun’s sharp analysis of a variety of plays that are both imported from France and speak to ongoing...

审核人：

• 克里奥尔语戏剧：新奥尔良战前的戏剧与社会朱利安·布劳恩（Juliane Braun）
• 韦斯顿·特沃多夫斯基

在19世纪初期，无所畏惧的剧院观众在寻找最令人印象深刻的场馆，演员和表演时，不是去纽约或波士顿，而是去新奥尔良，所以朱莉安·布劳恩（Juliane Braun）在她的新作《克里奥尔语戏剧：剧院》中说。与新奥尔良战前社会。在对新奥尔良的早期法语国家剧院进行研究的整个过程中，布劳恩不仅引起我们对这座城市作为美国早期历史上主要的戏剧场所的关注，而且为我们对殖民地空间的剧院跨国性的理解做出了重要贡献。通过广泛的档案研究，Braun的书成功地为探索克里奥尔人的研究，战前史，跨国戏剧研究（特别是与殖民化有关）和美国的法语文化开辟了新的探究渠道。

布劳恩的书井井有条，用了五章来论述她的中心论点，即戏剧阶段对于战前时期法语国家的身份谈判至关重要。她的论点很有说服力：在路易斯安那州购买新剧院后，剧院对于保持新奥尔良的法语和文化至关重要，并且在新英格兰英语国家人口规模和政治力量不断增强之后，剧院对于交流思想至关重要城市。丰富这一点是Braun不断关注战前剧院的跨国性质。她很好地展示了法国，美国和加勒比海的交流如何影响城市的戏剧文化，迫使竞争，竞争和对外交往的参与，并且始终怀着明显的兴趣去应对不断变化的文化和自然风光。[结束页270]在此期间，政治领导权和随之而来的团体权力动态发生了变化。

这本书是按主题进行组织的，尽管它在很大程度上还是按时间顺序排列的。第1章详细介绍了18世纪末和19世纪初法语国家剧院的兴起。尤其重要的是，布劳恩（Braun）为探索“克里奥尔语”和“美国语”的不同观点所做的工作，这两个术语将在内战前的几十年中不断得到重新解释。在研究早期法国剧院是如何通过大量引进法国戏剧和演员而建立的，以帮助不仅使法国人敏锐地感化，而且还使殖民地权威长期存在，布劳恩迅速确立了剧院如何成为制造文化身份的重要场所。剧院老板，观众和从业人员通常是从其他法属加勒比海殖民地来到新奥尔良的，共同的语言和宗教纽带帮助他们融入了克里奥尔人的身份认同中。克里奥尔人的这种身份成为第二章的基石，在那篇文章中，布劳恩转向了大量美国人涌入这座城市。探索竞争性英语舞台的兴起，本章考察了剧院如何在新奥尔良不断变化的政治秩序中为观众和文化霸权而斗争。向读者展示了三部剧本（英语一部，法语两部），每部戏剧都重新诠释了路易斯安那州的同一集，其中，西班牙人接管了这座城市之后，法国当地领导人抵制了新政府，并最终受到了审判和处决。为了叛乱。毫不奇怪，英语对法国人的贬值，

第三章是对美国早期黑人剧院历史的重要补充，这要归功于布劳恩（Braun）对这些未经充分审查的公司所做的出色研究。除了对城市中自由黑人的社会和物质生活环境进行详尽的分析之外，布劳恩还展示了在内战之前的几十年中，新奥尔良内自由黑人的公民自由的恶化。通过详细检查剧院布局，座位和出勤情况，可以看出这一点，这极大地增进了我们对自由黑人的重要性以及奴役黑人对城市文化和娱乐经济的认识。此外，布劳恩（Braun）对从法国进口并正在播放的各种戏剧的清晰分析...