Description
The theatre of the Italian Renaissance was directly inspired by the classical stage of Greece and Rome, and many have argued that the former imitated the latter without developing a new theatre tradition. In this book, Salvatore DiMaria investigates aspects of innovation that made Italian Renaissance stage a modern, original theatre in its own right. He provides important evidence for creative imitation at work by comparing sources and imitations - incuding Machiavelli's Mandragola and Clizia, Cecchi's Assiuolo, Groto's Emilia, and Dolce's Marianna - and highlighting source elements that these playwrights chose to adopt, modify, or omit entirely.
DiMaria delves into how playwrights not only brought inventive new dramaturgical methods to the genre, but also incorporated significant aspects of the morals and aesthetic preferences familiar to contemporary spectators into their works. By proposing the theatre of the Italian Renaissance as a poetic window into the living realities of sixteenth-century Italy, he provides a fresh approach to reading the works of this period.
"In this book, Salvatore DiMaria provides a rich, compelling, and exhaustive study of Italian Renaissance theatre. A very useful and important source, it is an excellent addition to scholarship in the field and sure to become a fixed port of call for any scholar who endeavours to work in this area." -- Eugenia Paulicelli, Department of Italian and Comparative Literature, Queens College, and The Graduate Center, City University of New York "This study represents a serious advance in state-of-the-art research on Italian Renaissance theatre. Expanding on and enhancing the important and evolving scholarship in this field, it works out useful goals with considerable scholarly and intellectual rigour. The Poetics of Imitation in the Italian Theatre of the Renaissance is also meticulously researched, articulate, and extremely well-presented." -- Michael Lettieri, Department of Italian Studies, University of Toronto
About the Author
Salvatore DiMaria is a professor in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Tennessee.
Reviews
'This study offers a fresh look at the poetics of imitation and reflects on-going scholarly interest in Italian erudite comedy.' -- Violetta Topoleva * Renaissance and Reformation vol 36:04:2013 *
Book Information
ISBN 9781442647121
Author Salvatore Di Maria
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 500g
Dimensions(mm) 237mm * 159mm * 21mm
