The Italian Tragedy in the Renaissance. Cultural Realities and Theatrical Innovations

Abstract

Renaissance Cultural Realities -- The Making of Italian Renaissance Tragedy -- Revitalization Process -- Realism and Living Realities on the Stage -- Dramaturgical Novelties: Sounds and Dramatic Space -- Renaissance Living Traditions and the Revival of Ancient Tragedy -- Length of the Dramatic Text: Political Imperatives and Verbal Rhetoric -- Contemporary Spatial Setting and Courtly Ambiance -- Brigands and Pirates -- Their Gods, Our God: Christian Religion in the Tragic World of Myth -- Religion in Christian and Mythological Settings -- The Deus ex Machina Expedient: Martelli's Tullia and Aretino's Orazia -- The Nature of Kingship: The Debate on Machiavellism -- The Machiavellian Notion of Kingship and the Tragic Stage -- Giraldi's Orbecche -- Theater as Rhetoric of Power -- Tragic Heroines: The Debate on the Emerging Question of Women -- The Traditional Notion of Womanhood -- The Stage View of Women -- Theater's Ambivalent Endorsement of Women -- Theatrical Innovations -- The Evolving Concept of Stage and Dramatic Space -- The Notion of Scenic and Dramatic Space -- Aretino's Orazia: A Case in Point -- Representing the Unrepresentable: The Hic et Nunc of Tragedy -- Dramatic Limitations of Stage Narrative: The Role of the Messenger -- The Immediacy of the Tragic Here and Now: Giraldi's Orbecche and Aretino's Orazia -- The Theatrical Language of Sounds and Movements -- Dramaturgical Elements in Rucellai's Oreste: Sounds, Retardation Technique, and Movements -- Three Dramatizations of Dido's Death: Pazzi, Giraldi, and Dolce.