The Criteria for Periodization in Theatre History

Across oceans, mountains, and spaces: Sarah Bernhardt's American tour

“…This mingling in her travel story of what have been identified as discrete male and female characteristics reflects the nature of her autobiography as a whole. 90 In fact, the dominant 'generic typology' (to use Postlewait's term again) of Bernhardt's autobiography is that of the ku¨nstlerroman, featuring 'the emergence and struggles of an artistic sensibility, often during early life', 91 and is one deployed by both male and female performers' autobiographies from the mid-nineteenth century onwards (albeit with some respective differences) 92 -although, significantly, the ku¨nstlerroman proper, in its Germanic Romantic origins, is quintessentially the story of the development of a male artistic sensibility. 93 Generally speaking, moreover, as has been shown above, Bernhardt's vision of America and Americans and of herself as traveller was determined by ideas absorbed from popular culture as exemplified by novels and plays -a vision both pre-determined, and, also, post-determined, since the nearly thirty years that elapsed between her first American tour and the publication of her autobiography allowed ample time for revisionism.…”