How do nationalized stereotypes inform the reception and content of the migrant comedian’s work? How do performers adapt? What gets lost (and found) in translation? Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Théâtre Italien, 1716-1723 explores these questions in an early modern context. When a troupe of commedia dell’arte actors were invited by the French crown to establish a theatre in Paris, they found their transition was anything but easy. They had to learn a new language and adjust to French expectations and demands. This study presents their story as a dynamic model of coping with the challenges of migration, whereby the actors made their transnational identity a central focus of their comedy. Relating their work to popular twenty-first century comedians, this book also discusses the tools and ideas that contextualize the border-crossing comedian’s work—including diplomacy, translation, improvisation, and parody—across time.
"Grounded in a thorough mastery of scholarly literature on eighteenth-century French theatre, McMahan's study ingeniously interprets Luigi Riccoboni and his troupe as theatrical migrants who used comedy as a means of cultural diplomacy. . . McMahan's innovative approach to commedia dell'arte as a "transnational brand" offers a robust contribution to Theatre and Performance Studies scholarship." -Daniel Smith, Michigan State University, USA "In bringing to the attention of an Anglophone audience a neglected theatrical figure, McMahan performs his own act of translational border crossing, which is revealing not just about its subject, but also about the value of critical work that itself moves fruitfully across all sorts of national, disciplinary, and temporal borders." -Jessica Goodman, St. Catherine's College, Oxford, UK "McMahan not only offers a vibrant, lucid history of a fascinating eighteenth-century institution, he also draws new insights from the Théâtre Italien's re-entry into France that illuminate the phenomenon of cross-cultural theatre, a defining feature of performance in the modern era." -Pannill Camp, Washington University in St. Louis, USA How do nationalized stereotypes inform the reception and content of the migrant comedian's work? How do performers adapt? What gets lost (and found) in translation? Border-Crossing and Comedy at the Théâtre Italien, 1716-1723 explores these questions in an Early Modern context. When a troupe of commedia dell'arte actors were invited by the French crown to establish a theatre in Paris, they found their transition was anything but easy. They had to learn a new language and adjust to French expectations and demands. This study presents their story as a dynamic model of coping with the challenges of migration, whereby the actors made their transnational identity a central focus of their comedy. Relating their work to popular twenty-first century comedians, this book also discusses the tools and ideas that contextualize the border-crossing comedian's work-including diplomacy, translation, improvisation, and parody-across time. Matthew McMahan is the Assistant Director of the Center for Comedic Arts at Emerson College, USA, where he teaches the history of comedy, sketch, and improvisation.
Pulcinella, a Neapolitan clown born of the commedia dell’arte tradition, went viral in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was an unlikely hero, grotesque in his mannerisms, with a bulging belly, occasional hunchback, and an insatiable desire for macaroni. Still, this bulbous misfit took his place next to kings, caliphs, and intellectual heavyweights. Pulcinella’s Brood traces the transnational arc of the Enlightenment-era Pulcinella, from his native Naples to Paris, from Rome to London. The book explores how Pulcinella was inserted into discourses about social order, aesthetics, and politics – how he became a revolutionary, a critic of the Catholic Church, and a champion of education. It examines how Pulcinella, along with his transnational brood, was a constant, pervasive presence during the Enlightenment and a squeaky-voiced participant in the ideological and theoretical debates that defined the era. Exploring the diffusion of Italian popular comedy throughout Europe, Pulcinella’s Brood proposes that Pulcinella, a grotesque, food-obsessed clown, can be wielded as a historical disruptor and a rich and dynamic source for casting both the Enlightenment and our contemporary world in a different light.
This volume explores the translation of literary and humorous style, including comedy, irony, satire, parody and the grotesque, from Italian to English and vice versa. The innovative and interdisciplinary theoretical approach places the focus on creativity and playful rewriting as central to the translation of humour. Analysing translations of works by Rosa Cappiello, Dario Fo, Will Self and Anthony Burgess, the author explores literary translation as a form of exchange between translated and receiving cultures. In a final case study she recounts her own strategies in translating the work of Milena Agus, exploring humour, creation and recreation from the perspective of the translator and demonstrating the benefits of critical engagement with both the theory and the practice of translation. This unique contribution to the study of humour and literary style in translation will be of interest to scholars of translation, humour, comparative literature, and literary and cultural studies.
"Accompanying an exhibition in honor of Philippe de Montebello, Director Emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this engaging book examines the influence of music and theater on the art of Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721). Fifteen major paintings and a number of drawings by Watteau that illustrate the connections between painting and the performing arts in Paris are explored. In addition, drawings and prints by other 18th-century artists featuring musical or theatrical subjects and objects and musical instruments are included."--Publisher description.
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ A History Of French Literature; Short Histories Of The Literatures Of The World Edward Dowden Heinemann, 1897 Literary Criticism; European; French; French literature; Literary Criticism / European / French
This series offers a range of heretofore unavailable writings in English translation on the subjects of art, architecture, and aesthetics. Camus's description of the French hotel argues that architecture should please the senses and the mind.
This textbook provides a global, chronological mapping of significant areas of theatre, sketched from its deepest history in the evolution of our brain's 'inner theatre' to ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern developments. It considers prehistoric cave art and built temples, African trance dances, ancient Egyptian and Middle-Eastern ritual dramas, Greek and Roman theatres, Asian dance-dramas and puppetry, medieval European performances, global indigenous rituals, early modern to postmodern Euro-American developments, worldwide postcolonial theatres, and the hyper-theatricality of today's mass and social media. Timelines and numbered paragraphs form an overall outline with distilled details of what students can learn, encouraging further explorations online and in the library. Questions suggest how students might reflect on present parallels, making their own maps of global theatre histories, regarding geo-political theatrics in the media, our performances in everyday life, and the theatres inside our brains.
