History and Myth in German and Italian Romantic Drama (1773-1832)

This Joint PhD dissertation investigates the works of three German and Italian playwrights (Foscolo and Kleist, Schiller and Pellico, Manzoni and Goethe), and their employment of myth and history as devices of national critique and construction. In my thesis, I argue that the theater - in its quality of space coalescing fiction with physicality, narration with action - allows for the collective memory of a community to be recalled and retold through the enactment of mythical and historical narratives, renewing their temporality on stage and reinforcing national imagination and awareness. Surveyed from the theoretical perspective of contemporary studies on the nature of nation-states, this research presents a new critical reading of Romantic drama in the context of late 18th- and early 19th-century Europe (1773-1832). The first chapter concentrates on Foscolo and Kleist: the theme of death in their dramas as a category of terror as they witness the transition from myth to history. The second chapter compares Schiller with Pellico: the significance allocated to historical tragedies as they envision the unfolding of a cosmopolitan society along the trajectory of a universal history of humanity. The third chapter centers on the literary relationship entertained by Manzoni and Goethe: their reinstatement of biblical and pagan myths within the immanent sphere of history. In my discussion of the kinship that conjoins myth to history, which I trace from Vico's theory of history and his notion of myth as vera narratio, I seek to expand upon existing scholarship on nationalism and propose alternative understandings of cultural identity in a time that witnessed the emergence of modern notions of "self", "other" and "nationhood". I elucidate how myth and history represent forms of fictionalization which, in virtue of their intrinsic and inherent rationality, claim a meaning and authority upon reality that is perpetually challenged. I illustrate how these playwrights consequently adopt and adapt the stories of myth and the myths of history as counter-narratives. In restoring and revisiting the scholarly attention hitherto bestowed on German and Italian drama, this study spotlights the contiguity and continuity, still unexplored, of both traditions within a comprehensive, and yet contrastive analysis.