« Qu’est devenu l’âge d’or de la Sallé et de la Guimard? » Fantasmes romantiques autour de la danseuse du xviii^e siècle

This article examines a literary fantasy developed in the nineteenth century about eighteenth-century female dancers, liberated creatures who are all the more alluring because they are not at all preoccupied with morality. The exaltation of this romantic figure of the female dancer circulates from one author to another, transcending traditional hierarchies separating “great” and “minor” literature and major and minor genres. It is to be understood as the partial rejection of the present–a present that is under the influence of morality but is paradoxically considered corrupted.