In Rameau’s Nephew, Lui (“lwee”) remarks that a person with this job and a chessmaster “know everything about their respective games.” For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this job of La Clairon, who startles Voltaire in an essay titled for it. Diderot coined the expression “staircase wit” in an essay about this job’s “paradox,” which arises from its “complete absence of sensibility.”
ANSWER: acting [or actors or actresses; or thespians or equivalents; or comédiens; accept “Paradox of the Actor” or Paradoxe sur le comédien]
[10e] La Clairon revolutionized costuming for this genre by not wearing pannier (“panny-er”) hoop skirts. Racine’s (“ruh-SEEN’s”) Phèdre (“FED-ruh”) is in this genre, which often hinges on the hero’s “flaw,” or hamartia.
ANSWER: tragedy [or tragédie]
[10h] Clairon tried to shut down a Charles Palissot play that satirizes this person as Crispin, who enters the stage on all fours munching on lettuce. This person lambasted the immorality of theater in a letter “on Spectacles.”
ANSWER: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Palissot’s play is The Philosophes. The letter is Letter to M. D’Alembert on Spectacles.)
<European Literature>