Nos Spectacles 1946-1975: the presence and effacement of a Catholic review

• Published in: Modern & contemporary France Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 301 - 317
• Main Author: Phillips, Henry
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: 01.08.2009
• Subjects: 20th century; Catholicism; Culture; France; Periodicals; Social history; Theatre; Values
• ISSN: 0963-9489
• DOI: 10.1080/09639480903037137

Nos Spectacles, founded in 1932, was the official organ and voice of two successive associations concerned with Catholic amateur theatre in France, which constituted a means of conserving and propagating Catholic values. After 1945, the journal renewed its dedication to raising the artistic level of Catholic theatre through a process of acculturation of the faithful, but in decidedly different conditions for Catholicism as a whole in a secular society. Nos Spectacles is therefore an interesting case study in the participation of Catholic organisations in a wider context. Over the years, the increasing preference of Catholic stages for a non-Catholic repertoire and the important part played by Catholic amateurs in the administration of the global amateur sector led, along with the decline of parish and diocesan organisations, to the disappearance of the journal's specifically confessional identity and its eventual merger with a purely secular counterpart. Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Ltd.