Goldoni, Commedia dell’Arte and 18th Century Transnational Encounters
Erith Jaffe-Berg, University of California, Riverside
Carlo Goldoni reflects 18th transnationalism in his frequent voyages within France and Northern Italy, writing from both locations and writing in both Italian (Venetian) and French. Perhaps for this reason, Goldoni frequently explores national identity and characterological identification with national identity in his plays by foregrounding visual appearance and languages. Such is the case in La donna di garbo (The Lady of Fashion) as well as in an extreme form in his opera, collaboratively created with Haydn, Il mondo della luna (The World of the Moon). In this way, while clearly committed to the national project of contributing to an “Italian theatre,” in his plays, paradoxically, Goldoni often ridiculed national identification and humorously foreground the absurd in national languages.
In this paper I propose to study Goldoni’s reflections of national identities in his realistic plays, his comedies that are derived from commedia dell’arte and his operas. I will look both at the ways in which identity is figured, the ways in which national identity is ridiculed, (frequently through exaggerated linguistic play), and the ways in which Goldoni’s writing space itself may have influenced his different approaches to national identity at different times.
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