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

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.

• Important perspective on the history of Italian theatre • Interesting insights into the work of major Italian playwrights • Important chapter on the contemporary dramatist Franca Rame

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.