Gabriel Germinet and Early Radio Drama: Global Dreams

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

This essay proposes that the idea of the global radio play could be as old as the radio play itself. Drawing on the personal papers of Gabriel Germinet, held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the essay develops a comparative historicist framework to investigate some of the networks, publications and events through which ideas about the global radio play were disseminated in France and beyond. Germinet—a radio pioneer and indefatigable advocate of radio—is a familiar figure in histories of French radio, as well as a peculiar one. Under this pseudonym hides the engineer Maurice Vinot (1882–1969), who worked in different strands of the French industry before directing the French radio station Radiola and becoming one of the first radio dramatists and radio theorists. With Pierre Cusy, Germinet authored the first book-length discussion of radio drama as a coherent transnational genre (Théâtre radiophonique: Mode nouveau d’expression artistique, 1926) and Marémoto (Seaquake, 1924), widely described as the first French radio play, and the first instalment in a popular radio genre, that of the naval catastrophe play. The essay traces Marémoto’s unique trajectory on French and British airwaves and beyond, paying close attention to the uncertainties that surround this period in radio’s early history.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication"This is Channel Earth"
Subtitle of host publication100 Years of Global Radio Play
EditorsDieter Lohr, Manfred Milz
PublisherBrill
Pages1-31
ISBN (Print)978-3-7705-6854-3, 978-3-8467-6854-9
Publication statusPublished - 2024

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