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Discordant Locations for the Me-ospheric Void: Theophile Gautier vs. La Sylphide

1997; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5070/pg7152003072

2377-6455

Regina Fletcher Sadono,

Historical Gender and Feminism Studies

Discordant Locations for the Me-ospheric Void: Theophile Gautier vs. La Sylphide Regina Fletcher Sadono The art and literature of a dominant culture continually define, refine, and reinforce the rewards of correct sexual orientation. Whatever the determinants are for normative gendering, women have paid and still pay the greatest price for their maintenance. Despite many impressive scientific advances, humanity has not made great strides i n the technology of selfhood, and we have hardly begun to examine the many cultural entities that perpetu­ ate destructive attitudes towards women. Some of these, such as ballet, include so much of what is good and beautiful that it is hard to imagine dissecting them to isolate the misogyny from other narrative elements, or to conceive of what w o u l d remain after such an operation was complete. Ballet has played and still plays a role in sustaining prescriptions for normative gendering that we have inherited from the Romantic Era. Ballet is also a special case i n regard to the female body in literature both then and now. Theophile Gautier was one of the first writers to recognize ballet as literature, and as one of the first dance critics, established the way that ballet is talked about. The argument for dance as literature is based on the concept of language as a system of signs, and literature as an enactment of those signs i n a context of meaning. Classical ballet as a museum piece has preserved many cultural attitudes towards women and towards gender-specific behaviors that are pathologi­ cal. Jacques Lacan's concept of the Imaginary explains w h y ballet and literature i n general are hazardous territory for feminine identity formation. For this study I w o u l d like to focus on a review that Gautier wrote of La Sylphide i n 1838. The appearance of Marie Taglioni i n that ballet some years earlier was a turning point for ballet, and the psychology behind the way that females are often depicted i n literature is encoded i n the narrative. As told by Theophile Gautier the story of La Sylphide runs thus: A young Scotsman is loved by a Sylphide who draws him into the forest on his estate at the very moment he is about to marry