Mrčela, Marija.
(2016).
The mascherata in Croatian literature.
PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Croatian Language and Literature.
(Poslijediplomski studij hrvatske kulture)
[mentor Fališevac, Dunja and Čale, Morana].
Abstract
The thesis examines the genre of maskerata in Croatian literature as a hybrid, performative literary genre. Following in the footsteps literary historians who studied carnival mask poems in early modern Croatian literature and noted a close resemblance between Croatian maskerate and Florentine mascherate, the thesis begins with an examination of carnival songs or canti carnascialeschi written and performed in Renaissance Florence. The first chapter presents three genres of Florentine carnival songs: trionfi, carri and mascherate or canti dei mestieri, with an emphasis on the , with an emphasis on the genre mascherata. An analysis of a representative corpus with regard to form, content, structure and style, is presented after an introductory examination of Florentine carnival songs from the Renaissance period. The characteristic features the mascherata genre identified on basis of the analysis include formal, structural, thematic and stylistic characteristics, as well the use of erotic metaphors to comic effect as a technique of carnevalization characteristic of the genre. The chapter concludes with a description of generic conventions of the Florentine mascherata based on the presented analysis: the typical Florentine mascherata is a poem intended for performance during carnival celebrations, written in during carnival celebrations, written induring carnival celebrations, written induring carnival celebrations, written induring carnival celebrations, written in during carnival celebrations, written in the form of a monologue of a group of speakers, usually identified as representatives of a profession or a trade, who offer various products, goods or services, which can be read as extended sexual metaphors, to women as typical addressees, usually written in the metrical form of the ballata. The second chapter examines the genre of maskerata in Croatian literature on the basis of pertinent literary historical and critical works. The poems identified as maskerate in the works of literary historians are analyzed and compared to the generic model of the Florentine mascherata as described in the first chapter, starting with an analysis of possible precursors of the genre maskerata in Croatian literature. Various literary historians and critics who studied Croatian mask poems intended for performance during carnival celebrations in the Renaissance period almost invariably focus on jeđupijate, poems written in the form of a monologue of a single speaker identified as a Gypsy woman, with special emphasis on the most famous carnival poem of the Croatian Renaissance - Jeđupka by Mikša Pelegrinović. It is for this reason that the examination of the genre of maskerata in Croatian literature presented in this thesis starts with an analysis of jeđupijate, Croatian carnival mask poems which feature a Gypsy fortune teller who usually gives advice on all things amorous to individual women and presents potions and other concoctions made from various herbs. The structure typical of the Florentine mascherata in which a group of speakers offers various goods or services to the collective addressee of the poem is identified in the works by Mavro Vetranović, author of several mask poems which, to a degree, comply with the established generic conventions in terms of structure and speaker types, but depart from the Florentine model described in the first chapter since they lack the allusive sexual references and metaphorical language characteristic of canti dei mestieri. The erotic metaphor used to comic effect can be found in Pjesni of maskerate by Nikola Nalješković, a sequence of poems which includes the most obscene carnival mask poem of the Croatian Renaissance. All the characteristic features of Florentine mascherate − humorous and sexually allusive,
even bawdy, carnival mask poems in the form of a monologue of a group of speakers who
represent a profession or a trade and offer various products or services to their addressees −
are present in the mask poems written by Antun Sasin. The paper examines two mask poems
by Sasin which comply with the generic conventions of the mascherata as well as one mask
poem with atypical narrative elements. The paper also includes a generic analysis of the
poems Ubog and Robinjica turska, attributed to Sasin.
The corpus of texts analysed in the second chapter of the thesis also includes early modern
carnival mask poems written by unknown authors found in various older anthologies and
other sources as well as three mask songs by Marko Bruerović intended for performance
during the last carnivals celebrated before the fall of the Dubrovnik Republic in the early 19th
century.
The thesis also studies the influence of carnival mask poems in Croatian literature in various
works, from the mock-heroic poems of the Croatian Baroque, starting with Derviš by Stijepo
Đurđević, to two dramatic dialogues written by Antun Kaznačić in the 19th century.
The examined Croatian carnival mask poems are not as numerous as Florentine canti dei
mestieri. Although less extensive than the Florentine corpus described in the first chapter of
the thesis, which comprises hundreds of mascherate performed in Florence in the period up to
1559, the corpus of carnival mask songs written in the Croatian language is much more
varied. It includes jeđupijate with a single speaker identified as a Gypsy woman, patriotic
mask poems without sexually allusive undertones, mask poems with pronounced narrative elements as well as a number of carnival mask poems which comply with the established
generic model of the Florentine mascherata.
The third chapter of the thesis examines the urban carnival of the Renaissance period with
special emphasis on Dubrovnik, as the primary setting for the performance of carnival mask
poems, and a portrayal of female sexuality in the context of the carnival.
After a description of Florentine carnival songs from the Renaissance period with special
emphasis on the texts written in the mascherata genre, a textual and comparative analysis of
Croatian carnival mask poems identified as maskerate in the works of older and contemporary
literary critics and historians of Croatian literature, and an examination of carnival mask
songs in the context of early modern urban carnivals, the paper concludes with a summary
description of the genre of maskerata in Croatian literature.
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