Gender and the Italian Stage: From the Renaissance to the Present Day
Cambridge University Press, 12/11/1997
EAN 9780521590280, ISBN10: 0521590280
Hardcover, 288 pages, 23.6 x 15.9 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
Maggie Günsberg explores the intersection between gender portrayal and other social categories of class, age and the family in the Italian theatre from the Renaissance to the present day. She examines the developing relationship between patriarchal strategies and the formal properties of the dramatic genre such as plot, comedy and realism. She also considers conventions specific to drama in performance, including images of both femininity and masculinity. An interdisciplinary approach, drawing on semiotics, psychoanalysis, philosophy, theories of spectatorship and dramatic theory from a feminist perspective, informs Günsberg's critique of landmarks in Italian theatrical history, including work by Machiavelli, Ariosto, Goldoni, D'Annunzio and Pirandello. The book concludes with a chapter on the plays of Franca Rame, assessing the impact of this important figure on contemporary Italian theatre.
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Waiting in the wings
female characters in Italian Renaissance comedy
2. Gender deceptions
cross-dressing in Italian Renaissance comedy
3. Artful women
morality and materialism in Goldoni
4. Masterful men
difference and fantasy in D'Annunzio
5. Patriarchs and prodigals
the generation gap in Pirandello
6. Centre stage
Franca Rame's female parts
Notes
Bibliography
Subject index
Name and text index.
‘While an eclectic approach draws on semiotics and psychoanalysis as well as philosophy and performance theory, Gunsberg remains alert to regional variation and to socio-economic shifts.’ New Theatre Quarterly Book Reviews