Editing Denis Diderot (section)

==Theatre==
Diderot wrote sentimental plays, ''[[Le Fils naturel]]'' (1757) and ''[[Le Père de famille]]'' (1758), accompanying them with essays on theatrical theory and practice, including "Les Entretiens sur ''Le Fils Naturel''" (Conversations on ''The Natural Son''), in which he announced the principles of a new drama: the 'serious genre', a realistic midpoint between comedy and tragedy that stood in opposition to the stilted conventions of the classical French stage.  In 1758, Diderot introduced the concept of the [[fourth wall]], the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled [[box set (theatre)|box set]] in a [[proscenium]] theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play.<ref name="Bell">{{Cite book |last=Bell |first=Elizabeth S. |title=Theories of Performance |year=2008 |publisher=Sage |location=Los Angeles | isbn = 978-1412926379 |page=203 }}</ref><ref name="Wallis">{{cite book |last1=Wallis |first1=Mick |last2=Shepherd |first2=Simon |title=Studying plays |year=1998 |publisher=Arnold |location=London | isbn = 0340731567 |page=214 }}</ref><ref name="Abelman">{{Cite book |last=Abelman |first=Robert |title=Reaching a critical mass: a critical analysis of television entertainment |year=1998 |publisher=L. Erlbaum Associates |location=Mahwah, NJ |isbn=0805821996 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781622492886/page/8 8–11] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781622492886/page/8 }}</ref> He also wrote ''[[Paradox of the Actor|Paradoxe sur le comédien]]'' (''Paradox of the Actor''), written between 1770 and 1778 but first published after his death in 1830, which is a dramatic essay elucidating a theory of acting in which it is argued that great actors do not experience the emotions they are displaying.<!--START OF NOTE-->{{refn|group=note|This contradicts the view of [[Horace]] with regard to the use of emotion in [[rhetoric]]: ''Si vis me flere, primium tibi flendum est'' (If you wish me to weep you must first weep yourself).<ref name=AoV />{{rp|624}}   <!--END OF NOTE-->}} That essay is also of note for being where the term ''[[l'esprit de l'escalier]]'' (or ''[[l'esprit d'escalier]]'') comes from. It is a French term used in English for the predicament of thinking of the perfect reply too late.<!--French ''sensible'' translates to English "sensitive", NOT "sensible" (it is a false cognate). Please refrain from changing the English version to "sensible". .-->