La scène littérale et la scène textuelle : les espaces de présentation de soi dans les écritures personnelles des danseuses

This article compares the textual stage and the literal stage in autobiographical texts written by former French principal dancers Agnès Letestu (Danseuse étoile, 2016) and Marie-Claude Piétragalla (La femme qui danse, 2008) to explore how the space in which the self is presented influences the image that an individual can give of themselves. Drawing mainly on the definition of the mise en scène in Patrice Pavis’ Dictionnaire du théâtre (1996) and Dominique Maingueneau’s concepts of authority and enunciative vocation in discourse analysis, this article first identifies elements of interpretation belonging to the textual and the literal stages, as well as how they arrange and organize each space. We then show how the textual and literal mise en scène, that is, the arrangement and organization of elements of interpretation, prescribes a discourse that is unique to each space, thereby constraining the dancer to present themselves within specific identity parameters. Ultimately, this article argues that the dancer who presents herself both on the literal and textual stages cannot but present two different images of herself because she must use the distinct discursive and interpretive tools that are made available to her in each space.