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Venice
incognito : masks in the Serene republic / James H. Johnson. -
Berkeley : University of California press, 2011. -
XIV-317 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
ISBN 978-0-520-26771-8
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DESCRIPTION : « The entire
town is disguised », declared
a French tourist of eighteenth-century Venice. And, indeed, maskers of
all ranks — nobles, clergy, imposters, seducers, con
men — could be found mixing at every level of
Venetian
society. Even a pious nun donned a mask and male attire for her liaison
with the libertine Casanova. In Venice
Incognito,
James H. Johnson offers a spirited analysis of masking in this
carnival-loving city. He draws on a wealth of material to explore the
world view of maskers, both during and outside of carnival, and
reconstructs their logic : covering the face in public was a
uniquely Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies
in European history. This vivid account goes beyond common views that
masking was about forgetting the past and minding the muse of pleasure
to offer fresh insight into the historical construction of identity.
| ❙ | James
H. Johnson is a cultural historian who writes and teaches on modern and
early modern Europe at Boston University. His research includes
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France, the history of Venice, and
music history. |
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JAMES
H. JOHNSON : « Man
is least himself when he speaks in his own person. Give him a mask and
he will tell you the truth. »
Oscar Wilde’s quip is a fair description of how many view the
mask: as freedom from constraints, a liberating truth-teller, the way
to show who we really are. I had Wilde’s notion in mind when
I
first started thinking about writing a book on masks. At least in the
prosperous parts of the world, masks affirm what social mobility,
abundant consumer choice, and technology make possible: perpetual
reinvention of the self.
(…)
➝ Reinventing
the Self — from Masks to Avatars [en ligne]
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| CONTENTS |
Preface
PART
ONE. THE CARNIVAL OF VENICE
- Casanova's
Carnival
- New
World
- Even
Odds
- Blood
Sport
- Fat
Thursday
- Anything
Goes ?
PART TWO. THE CULTURE OF MASKING
- City
of Masks
- Infernal
Associations
- Devil's
Dance
- Unmasking
the Heart
- Age
of Dissimulation
PART THREE. THE HONEST MASK
- Legislating
Morality
- Saving
Face
- Venetian
Incognito
- Democratizing
Dress
- Taming
the Devil
PART FOUR. CARNIVAL AND COMMUNITY
- Redeemed
by the Blood
- Carnival
Tales
- The
Mask of Sincerity
- Carnival
Contained
- Bitter
Ash
Epilogue : After the Fall
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| mise-à-jour : 3
avril 2017 |
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