Theatre and integration politics in France 1999-2011

Abstract

Despite the fact that theatre practitioners have been increasingly involved in the implementation of French integration politics since the late 1990s, the subject has received relatively little attention within the scholarly world. Methodologically rooted in the sociology of the theatre, this thesis seeks to address this oversight by proposing a dedicated study of theatre practice taking place in the context of French integration politics since 1999. This analysis situates the multiform conceptual, socio-historical and symbolic difficulties that underlie in France’s ‘public politics of integration’ within the urban theatrical landscape of Paris Ile-de-France. Focussing on works produced within this context by Herve Breuil’s Lavoir Moderne Parisien, Cie Graines de Soleil, the Cite Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration and Mohamed Rouabhi, this research posits a three-pronged approach to exploring the difficulties bound up with integration in theatrical contexts. First, it proposes a socio-historical analysis of theatre’s emergence within the framework of governmental integration initiatives, throwing into relief the key contextual and ideological factors that shaped its inclusion within this rubric. Second, it unearths the material and symbolic threads linking theatre practice to French integration policy, using France’s Politique de la Ville and the CNHI as key transversal axes. Finally, it unearths the ways in which the social and semiotic landscape engendered by French integration politics has shaped the thematic and stylistic content of works created by practitioners in this context.