Author Description

Review Sarah Davies Cordova goes down a path less taken as those scholars who study either the female performer of the nineteenth century or the poetics of dance, proposing to explore the intersections of social dance, literature, and cultural history. . . .Much good archival research complements the analyses in this book.>>> (South Central Review )Sarah Davies Cordova goes down a path less taken as those scholars who study either the female performer of the nineteenth century or the poetics of dance, proposing to explore the intersections of social dance, literature, and cultural history. . . . Much good archival research complements the analyses in this book. (South Central Review ) Product Description This monograph is an important interdisciplinary study of social dancing, culture and French literature in the 19th Century. The work looks at dance as a cultural activity and its role in literary narratives of the period. The construction of the history of social dancing assesses for the first time the importance of this cultural and gendered practice within nineteenth century France. Additionally the juxtaposition of dance history and literary text reveals how discourse incorporates principles of social dancing and the dance's choreography and thus illuminates the poetics, plot and dynamics of French writers' work.