Staging Archaeology: Empire as Reality Effect at the 1906–07fêtes de Carthage

The 1906–07 fêtes de Carthage, staged at the recently excavated Roman theatre of Carthage, revealed archaeology's dual role as both a nostalgic celebration and a historicist tool during French colonization in Tunisia. These elaborate pageants, involving hundreds of actors and sumptuous period costumes, drew on archaeological findings to depict French colonizers as preservers of ancient culture while consigning colonial violence to the realm of performance. The 1907 pageant featured two specially commissioned plays, including one that juxtaposed a modern poet with a Carthaginian priestess at her excavated tomb site. This study demonstrates how archaeology, as an emerging science, helped police the boundary between past and present, serving a historicist sense of time that legitimized colonial narratives through the 'reality effect'—a technique that made staged performances appear authentic.

Sherman, D. J. (2021). Staging Archaeology: Empire as Reality Effect at the 1906–07fêtes de Carthage. Classical Receptions Journal, 13(3), 336–367. https://doi.org/10.1093/crj/claa024