THEATRE OF THE FLESH: THE CARNIVAL OF VENICE AND THE THEATRE OF THE WORLD (THEATRUM MUNDI, ITALY).

摘要

Part One of this dissertation is a monograph on the Carnival of Venice and presents a historical overview of Venice's "theatrical constitution." Part Two is a commentary and interpretation of Part One. Although a familiar subject through the intermediary of Romantic and popular literature, the Carnival of Venice is little known in its major theatrical significance; there is no modern study written in English on this subject and very few books and articles in any language. A setting for the political ritual of Venice, the myth of the Carnival is seen to be identifiable with the etiological myth of the city. Part One is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is a classification of the events of the Carnival and a confrontation between Venice's "official history" (state mythology) and her historical truth. The second chapter presents the Carnival as a propagandistic instrument in the history of Venice. The Carnival (or carnivalesque traditions removed from the liturgic calendar) became the political language of Venice as exemplified in official visits (Henry III, the king of France in 1574, Paul I the tsar of Russia in 1782) and in the integration of young noblemen into civic functions (Compagnia della Calza). The third chapter identifies the "birth of the Venetian theatre from the spirit of the Carnival" and attempts a comprehensive study of the relation between Carnival and theatre (actors, buffoons, masks, costumes, symbols of colors, theatricalized daily life).;Part Two, is composed of three essays. The first essay integrates the Venetian floating theatres (testri del mondo) in the context of the manneristic idea of the Theatrum Mundi, identifying the circular shape of the first theatres in conceptual thought. The second essay maintains the idea that Venice, as an island of Utopia, became a symbolic image for theatre. The third essay proposes the theory of Carnival as intercalated time, the difference of eleven days celebrated at the end of each year (i.e. March according to the Venetian rule), between the lunar calendar of liturgy and the solar calendar of daily life. The research for this dissertation was carried out in Italy in 1985-86.