Italian

Professor Ita MacCarthy, University of Durham

Friday, 18 November, 2.00 pm

CASiLaC Seminar Room, ORB 1.24

https://www.ucc.ie/en/italian/events/

Department of Italian Research Seminar. Abstract: Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, first published in 1516, is a 46-chapter epic romance that centres on an instance of early modern folly. Ariosto’s deluded hero Orlando loses his wits when faced with incontrovertible evidence that his beloved Angelica loves someone else. Shakespeare’s play Othello also centres on an instance of early modern folly. His deluded hero Othello goes mad when he is deceived into believing his beloved Desdemona has fallen in love with another man. In this talk, we will explore how these enactments of early modern madness relate to each other and ask: what might we belated readers learn from them about the distinctively human tendency to patrol – and sometimes lose control of – the boundaries between the real, the imaginary and the pathological?