Sarah Bernhardt,Live: A Reply to Allen Ellenzweig

This article seeks to retrieve something of the effect of Sarah Bernhardt live. It begins with a brief discussion of Sarah Bernhardt's reputation for breeches roles. From there, and in dialogue with Allen Ellenzweig's conception of Bernhardt's “persistent dualities,” the article moves on to analyze an additional duality: Bernhardt's movement between life and death. Here, I ask what the “Divine Sarah's” willingness to die nightly may tell us about anti-Semitism, social death, and the paradoxical resilience of the live.