Les « Journée[s] de Saint-Cloud » : les pièces de circonstance autour du coup d’état du 18 Brumaire

Abstract

In the aftermath of the coup d’état (18 Brumaire), the theatre hastened to celebrate Bonaparte with verses and impromptus composed for the occasion as well as by performing plays which exalt the general, blacken the Jacobins, stigmatize the instability and ineffectiveness of the government of the Directory. The plays about the “journée de Saint-Cloud” are so numerous that state censorship is forced to intervene to prohibit its representation or to impose the rewriting of texts that are often too politicized. In fact, the gaiety which characterizes most of them and an “écriture-slogan” allowing porosity between the space of fiction and public spac ehelp linking the plays and the historical and political context. According to Muret, “the theater, which had celebrated the Republic so much, cheerfully buried it in couplets”. The dramatic world in fact contributes, as well as the press and other contemporary productions, to legitimize the coup d’état covering the general with the mask of the undefeated "hero-saviour" and pacifier of a Republic in danger. Basically, theatre helps Bonaparte to become Napoleon.

Keywords

• Napoleon
• coup d’état (18 Brumaire)
• Journée de Saint-Cloud
• Girouette de Saint-Cloud (La)
• Pêche aux Jacobins (La)
• theatre