Abstract
This essay locates Denis Diderot’s influential Paradoxe sur le comédien at the end of a complex set of Anglo-French exchanges on the art of acting. These exchanges, particularly with respect to the actor’s sensibility and creative powers, are marked with a set of tensions and contradictions that Diderot exploits in the writing of his provocative and influential text.
Highlights
The ideas at the heart of Diderot's Paradoxe sur le comédien have extraordinary conceptual reach
Diderot's Paradoxe is remarkable as a piece of eighteenth-century writing about acting which aims to give an authoritative account of both the importance of a nation's own theatrical culture and those qualities common to great actors that precede localisation
What Diderot soon shows with Sticotti's text is that its way of comparing English and French acting is inadequate, since it has failed to find a language for describing the actor's craft that takes into account the differences between the two countries' theatrical cultures
Summary
The ideas at the heart of Diderot's Paradoxe sur le comédien have extraordinary conceptual reach.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
