Inflexion de l’esthétique des joutes languedociennes devenues spectacle sportif

Abstract

The beauty of the Languedoc games, very old, is bound to its codified esthetics, resting on the correctness of the technical gestures with regard to a number of attributes, sequences and ritualized activities. Now, since the 1960s, the adoption of certain tactical or individualistic aspects questions the essence of this esthetics following the sportification, defined as the process of adoption of the values chairing over the practice of sports activities of high competition and the requirements linked to their public expression. As a result, the inflection of the esthetic criteria connected to the production of the show appears as an answer to the constraints of its broadcasting and the new sensibilities of the audiences. Yet, after analysis, it turns out that the original symbolic content is strong enough so that the show of the games preserves for the main part its traditional meaning and esthetics.