Imagining the Morlacchi in Fortis and Goldoni

• Author / Creator

  Milic-Brett, Branislava

• The main objective of this dissertation is to determine how Goldoni’s tragicomedy La dalmatina (1754) fits in the pre-Morlachist current of the Venetian literature of the eighteenth century, and to compare the portrayal of Dalmatians in this tragicomedy and other Goldoni’s plays with the portrayal of the Morlacchi in Alberto Fortis’s Viaggio in Dalmazia (1774). The research led me into two main directions. The first direction is a research of Morlachism. Here, I review the main features of proto-Morlachism to present the portrayal of Dalmatians in Venice prior to the publication of Fortis’s Viaggio, which initiates Morlachism. Then, I elaborate the portrayal of the Morlacchi in Fortis’s Viaggio to define the main features of their image that were going to inspire numerous poets and novelists in the next decades. The second direction of my research is dedicated to Goldoni’s portrayal of the exotic Other in general, and Dalmatians in particular. In order to determine particular features of the portrayal of Dalmatians in La dalmatina, I situate this tragicomedy within two contexts: firstly, within other Goldoni’s plays that deal with Dalmatians, and secondly, within other Goldoni’s plays of the same genre, i.e. his exotic tragicomedies written between 1754 and 1761.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Portrayal
  • Venice
  • Carlo Goldoni
  • Morlacchi
  • Eighteenth century
  • Dalmatia
  • Alberto Fortis

• Graduation date

  Fall 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3MM45

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.