Entre 1829 et 1851 le champ dramatico-médiatique s’est vu reconfiguré : l’apparition de grandes revues littéraires, la naissance de la presse à quarante francs, la multiplication des périodiques et l’augmentation de leurs tirages sont conjoints des bouleversements économiques, politiques et sociaux faisant suite à la période postrévolutionnaire, et de mutations théâtrales majeures sur les scènes parisiennes. En résulte un accroissement de la présence de textes dramatiques diffusés dans la presse, sous de multiples formes : pièces jouées à lire en feuilletons, extraits, fragments, mais aussi ensembles de scènes théâtrales et d’articles théâtralisés ou dialogués à lire le temps de la fréquentation d’une feuille. Il existe ainsi à l’époque un troisième canal d’accès du théâtre vers l’espace public – entre la scène et le livre –, la presse. Parce que le théâtre partage avec le périodique des caractéristiques discursives, stylistiques et formelles, ses limites s’en trouvent diluées sinon abolies. En cet espace spécifique qu’est le journal, il n’est pas de concept de « genre dramatique » qui tienne. Ce que nous avons coutume de nommer « théâtre » n’existe pas, et vient à former une masse textuelle impure, mêlant matières journalistiques et dramatiques. Aussi est-ce au regard de ce contexte éditorial pleinement signifiant qu’il convient d’interpréter les pièces en bonne et due forme alors diffusées, parfois composées à sa destination : un pan entier de l’écriture dramatique romantique a été « médiatique », et doit se comprendre comme tel, recontextualisé et « recotextualisé » dans un cadre éditorial soumis aux modes, à la temporalité collective, à la collaboration et aux effets de lecture redevables à la présence d’autres articles qui lui sont contigus. Étudier le lien intime que les formes dramatiques éditées dans la presse entretiennent avec leur support de diffusion dans le second tiers du XIXe siècle permet de faire émerger une autre histoire du théâtre romantique, médiatique et en grande partie textuelle, en mettant au jour des auteurs, des tentatives dramatiques ou des événements aujourd’hui oubliés, mais aussi en ouvrant à la relecture de textes consacrés, tels ceux de Sand, de Vigny ou encore de Musset. / During the period 1829-1851, numerous factors brought about a reconfiguration of the relationship between print media and dramatic genres: the appearance of major literary journals, the introduction of low-priced printed press, the proliferation of mass periodicals and their increased print runs. These factors echoed not only the economic, social and political upheavals that characterized the first half of the 19th-century in post-revolutionary France but also the sweeping changes that affected the Parisian stage. As a result, one notes an increased presence of dramatic texts in the printed press. They may appear in various forms, as serialized theatrical plays, extracts, fragments but also collections of scenes and dramatized or dialogue-based articles – their length tailored to the newspaper format. Thus, between the stage and the page, dramatic forms could reach the public through a third access channel: print media. Their shared discursive, stylistic and formal features blur and even obliterate the boundaries between dramatic texts and periodical writing. In this particular context, the concept of “dramatic genre” does not apply and what we call “drama” does not exist as such. The result is a mixed mass of text, combining journalistic and dramatic materials. The “proper” plays that were circulated in the press, or even written for it, should be studied against the backdrop of this fully significant editorial context. An entire branch of Romantic playwriting was “media-oriented” and should be understood as such, with a new focus on context and co-text within an editorial framework subject to trends, collective temporality, collaborations and reading effects resulting from the influence of adjacent articles.The study of the close relationship between dramatic forms and their means of dissemination in the second third of the 19th-century gives a new, media-oriented and largely text-centered perspective on the history of the Romantic drama. Besides highlighting long-forgotten authors, events or diverse dramatic forms, it also prompts a new approach to the dramatic writings of well-established authors such as George Sand, Alfred de Vigny or Alfred de Musset.

The proverbes dramatiques of Carmontelle have been well-studied. This dissertation explores instead the understudied precursors of the genre, the environment out of which it grew, and its earliest three authors. As seventeenth-century France’s first classic salon, the format, attitudes, and activities of the Hôtel de Rambouillet created a template for salons to follow. Within this milieu arose a collective seeking for a raised moral consciousness, improved intellectual prowess, and a forum for the discussion of progressive ideas. These desires also permeated their leisure activities, giving rise to games of wit, including the jeux des proverbes. An investigation of Charles Sorel’s La maison des jeux and these salon games uncovers the earliest incarnation of the proverbe dramatique, the proverbe improvisé, an impromptu play illustrating a proverb. Following a look at the French salon, the jeux des proverbes, and the proverbe improvisé, this dissertation first examines the proverbes dramatiques of Madame de Maintenon, second wife to Louis XIV and founder of the girls’ school Saint-Cyr. Written between 1686 and 1719, her forty Proverbes served as the foundation of the school’s théâtre d’éducation. Through the preparation, performance, and follow-up discussions of these short works, Madame de Maintenon sought to mold the moral values of her students and to prepare them for the lives that they would lead after finishing their studies at Saint-Cyr. Next, this study looks at the first published proverbes dramatiques, those written by Catherine Durand and housed in the Comtesse de Murat’s Le voyage de campagne. Most of the ten Comédies en proverbes showcase moliéresque humor and tend to depict male characters as less intelligent or more flawed than their female counterparts. Finally, this examination ends with the study of four of the proverb plays written by Charles Collé in context with the théâtre de société. These pieces expand the parameters of the genre and boast a licentious nature characteristic of the author’s work and appreciated in the earlier théâtres de société. Extending more than a century, The proverbe dramatique before Carmontelle seeks to offer a better understanding of the creation of the genre, its characteristics, and its connection to French society. / text