Types feminins dans le théâtre de Delphine Gay de Girardin

Resumo

Journalist and writer between the 1830s and the middle of the 1850s, appreciated by Théophile Gautier and all the great romantics, Delphine Gay de Girardin also enjoys a certain reputation as a play writer, even though her plays are virtually forgotten today. In this paper, we will analyze Madame de Girardin’s plays especially as an example of a « feminine dramaturgy »: a few female characters are declined in several variants and characters, contributing to build the frame of this dramatic system in which they occupy a central place both psychologically and dramatically. In most plays, female characters are actually the engines of the action, they play an active and dynamic role, often dominant when compared with other characters, and determinant in the development and issue of the plot; this feminine dramatic centralism is one of the main axes and elements of originality of this theatre.