Contemporary shadow theater in France: Performance and the politics of culture

Theatre d'ombres or shadow play came to France from Turkey via Italy in the mid eighteenth century while the preoccupation with silhouettes was fashionable throughout Europe. This folk theater form was appropriated by the aristocracy and became a regular part of the court's entertainment. With the fall of the ancien regime marginal expressions of culture burgeoned and prospered among artists, poets, musicians, and workers in the Cabarets of Montmartre. Nevertheless, with the advent of cinema, the popularity of shadow theater soon declined and eventually died out during the height of industrialization in France. During the last few decades of the twentieth century, interest in contemporary shadow theater has been rekindled in France.;Part two of this dissertation will explore politically expedient reasons for the sudden resurgence and traditionalization of shadow theater during the student uprisings of Mai '68, and how this uprising is symbolically linked to past student revolts, and past historical discourse. Additionally, I explore how French shadow theater is mobilized as a political tool of contestation towards the dominant culture, more specifically towards the Paris-Dakar road race. Finally, in Part three, I explore intercultural dimensions of French shadow theater and the complexities of collaboration between French and west African cultures, and how the privileging of form and content in any of these genres can ultimately affect meaning-formation. I also examine an annual cultural performance called Un Chameau Passe. This event is a multigeneric performance, including shadow theater, constructed in response to French Nationalist discourse by French born citizens of Arabic descent.;This dissertation explores several political processes which have contributed to the construction of French shadow theater as a performance art. In part one I explore historical dimensions of shadow theater focusing on how meaning-making is a political process of privileging certain signs and certain sign systems, and as a result, shadow theater in France has a history of gaining legitimacy and marginal status during certain periods of French cultural history.