Gender and the Italian Stage: From the Renaissance to the Present Day

by Maggie Günsberg

Overview

Maggie Gúnsberg explores gender portrayal on the Italian stage, and its shifting relationship with other social categories of class, age and the family from the Renaissance to the present day. She examines both the formal properties of drama and the conventions of drama in performance. An interdisciplinary approach and feminist perspective inform her critique of work by Machiavelli, Ariosto, Goldoni, D'Annunzio and Pirandello. She concludes by assessing the impact of Franca Rame on contemporary Italian theater.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521590280
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/11/1997
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"Dexterously employing an interdisciplinary approach derived from semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, and dramatic theory (and writing with uncommon verve and lucidity)...the author maintains a skillful balance between analysis of intrinsically theatrical issues (dramatic form, plot convention, etc.) and attention to the socioeconomic context of institutions, writers, performers, and audience. Its broad historical scope and its focus on issues of representation set this useful work apart from both studies of women's authorship and more tightly focused examinations of particular aspects of theatrical tradition." S. Botterill, Choice

From the Publisher