Le « Divin Dali » du visuel au verbal : autoportrait et interaction dans le livre-entretien

This essay explores the self presentation of Salvador Dali in an interview book in which the visual dimension of his self-portrait disappears, and where the interaction with the interviewer does not allow him to freely stage his own self. The project of the interviewer – to exhibit the great man by tolerating but minimizing his excentricities – clashes with the project of the interwiewee, who wants to reinforce the delirious dimension of his performance, and fully integrate the interview in his paranoia-critical work. One of Dali’s strategies consists of revealing in a comic light the rules of the genre in a series of spectacular transgressions depicting him as both a madman and a critique. Another, complementary strategy consists of an exacerbation of the stereotype of the artist as a mad genious in order to contribute to a self-image serving a project both mercantile and esthetic (paranoïa-critical). Thus through critical delirium and humor, the interviewee tries to undo his interviewer, and tranform his audience into a participant of his  Metamorphosis of Narcissus and the mythification of his person.