Figures du dramaturge dans la Métromanie de Piron (1738) Du topos à l’ethos

In eighteenth-century theatre, the “dramatist” was a character deeply marked by the tradition of the ridiculous poet in comedy. One play, however, emerges as an exception to the rule: Piron’s La Métromanie (1738). This article examines the play’s main character as an incarnation of several authorial postures: Damis is a “real-life” character, a literary topos and a projection of Piron himself. In La Métromanie, satire serves as an alibi for praising the status of the dramatist and expressing a new ethos.