Pulcinella’s Brood: Popular Culture in the Enlightenment (Toronto Italian Studies)

By: Karen T. Raizen

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Synopsis: 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.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9781487555801
Related ISBNs:: 9781487555795, 9781487555788
Publisher:: University of Toronto Press
Date of Addition:: 10/03/24
Copyrighted By:: University of Toronto Press
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Literature and Fiction, Drama, Plays and Theater, Language Arts
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.