The Elite Frame of Public Entertainment: the Ball as a Social Representation

Often, the concept of a ball is used in a historical context and is an integral part of the lifestyle of a nobleman or a representative of the wealthy class. In the context of modernity, the ball retains the status of a secular event, which, on the one hand, continues to perform the functions that it performed earlier – a status function, demonstrative, entertaining, a function of the marriage market – on the other hand, it is impossible to ignore the fact that time and circumstances have made their adjustments, and the ball of the XIX century is obviously different from the ball of the XXI century. In this work, the ball as a public entertainment is considered from the position that in the problem posed we are talking about the reproduction of the elite through a certain lifestyle, a specific form of leisure and through the opening of a narrow marriage market. The purpose of this work is to reconstruct the media representation of the social meanings and practices of the ball (using the example of the Tatler ball).