Folliculus o Le Père Feuilleton

Abstract

This article consists in an historical portrait of the French dramatic critic Julien Louis Geoffroy with a special focus on his writings published by the “Journal de l’Empire” (previously known as “Journal des débats”). From 1800 to 1814, his articles on the feuilleton analysed several spectacles taking place in the different theatres of Paris. Geoffroy was an Anglophobe, a conservative and a partisan of racinian tragedy and often bitterly criticised the esprit des Lumières and underlined the weakness and sterility of contemporary productions at the Comédie-Française, yet was very able to accept mélodrame as a new genre and judged it less dangerous than the “bad” tragedies composed during the Empire. The historical figure of Geoffroy and his crucial role in the developing of dramatic criticism in relation to its political implications are the perfect example of the central part played by theatre and dramatic criticism itself in the birth of the romantic movement.