Circum-Atlantic theatrical relations: the emergence of the francophone stage in a Spanish city -- Local struggles past and present: Creoles, Americans, and the battle for cultural sovereignty -- New Orleans's free black theatres: the performance of hemispheric community -- Negotiating Creole identity: citizenship, belonging, and the American nation -- Transatlantic vistas: changing alliances at home and abroad.

Moving from France to the Caribbean to the American continent, Creole Drama follows the people that created and sustained French theatre culture in New Orleans from its inception in 1792 until the beginning of the Civil War. Juliane Braun draws on the neglected archive of francophone drama native to Louisiana, as well as a range of documents from both sides of the Atlantic, to explore the ways in which theatre and drama shaped debates about ethnic identity and transnational belonging in the city. Francophone identity united citizens of different social and racial backgrounds, and debates about political representation, slavery, and territorial expansion often played out on stage. -- Utgivarens hemsida.