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As soon as one touches on the subject of the hidden geographies of theatrical writing — I say "hidden" because the map around this literary area is at first glance difficult to read — one also touches not only on dramaturgy, but also, and most of all, on the practicalities of writing and its capacity to construct a referent (see Chapter 2 by Michel Corvin and Chapter 4 by Clare Finburgh in this volume). Space can be described, or can appear in writing in many different ways, and it is worth, from the outset, making the following distinction of scale and perspective: space represents a continuous environment, the boundaries of which are relative; place is a specific, named setting; context is a set of referents that must be interpreted in relation to each other. In writing, these three dimensions can appear in various ways, bringing into play complex relationships between inside and outside, requiring inventories of real or invented place names, and using the referential power of deictics such as pronouns to create a temporal and spatial situation. In this chapter, I explore the construction and function of these spatial dimensions, these geographies of writing, in the dramatic texts of two of France's most experimental playwrights, Philippe Minyana and Noëlle Renaude.

DOI: 10.1057/9780230305663_4

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