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Academic Year 2003/2004

The Performative Space of the Renaissance Italian Court
FIST 240 SP

A great deal of recent critical attention has focused on the performative aspects of Renaissance courtly culture as represented through both textual and visual means. This course will examine the diverse manifestations of "perfomativity" in the courts of late 15th- and early 16th-century Italy, and in particular, the papal courts of Julius II and Leo X, through reading texts written about or dealing with courts--Ariosto's Orlando furioso, Machiavelli's Prince, and Castiglione's Courtier as well as the vernacular comedies of Bibbiena, Machiavelli, and Ariosto that were actually written for and perfomed in them. We will study the ways in which physical space delineated and provoked "performance" through the construction of buildings and their decoration, and we will explore how public spectacles and processions both enacted and effected the ideological programs of their authors/performers. All texts will be read in translation.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA RLAN    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004

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