Authoring Machiavelli: Barbera Salutati, La Mandragola, and the Performance of Political Theory (original) (raw)

Queering Lucrezia's Virtú A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Radical Machiavelli

Theoria, 2019

This article argues for a feminist reinterpretation of the 'radi-cal Machiavelli' tradition which pushes Machiavelli's performative theory of power towards emancipation. I base my argument on a reread-ing of Niccolò Machiavelli's Mandragola, whose historical use of the mandrake legend, I claim, symptomatizes historically gendered forms of labour expropriation characteristic of early modern capitalism. Against the background of that historical contextualisation, I then argue against James Martel's interpretation of Machiavelli's theory of open secrets, as one that remains unable to extend to Lucrezia the democratic insights that he identifies in Callimaco and Ligurio's textual conspiracies. Dia-lectically relocating the political heroism of this play in Lucrezia's performance, I conclude, Machiavelli's comedy becomes nevertheless useful for a subaltern theory of democratic action.

MEDITATIONS ON MACHIAVELLI: SEX AND POLITICS

2021

Everyone knows something about Machiavelli’s political thought. It’s been a long time since his masterpiece, “The Prince”, was written and we are still confused about what he really wanted to say with his writings. His words are not always clear and he seems to be contradictory many times but his thought is the base of modern political thought. In this work, we are going to focus on the key words that we repeatedly find in the lines of his writings to try to better understand what he wanted to hand down to those who wanted to become a prince at that time. What really is “virtue”? And what about “Fortune”? Which type of relationship are there between these two? Why do we all love and hate at the same time this author?

Machiavelli as Misogynist: The Masculinization of Fortuna and Virtù

2020

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, although revolutionary in the field of political theory due to its construction of Realist thinking, carries inherently problematic elements that are based principally on Machiavelli’s misogynistic tendencies. Accordingly, Machiavelli’s misogynistic tonality culminates in a deeply gendered usage of virtù (virtue) and fortuna (fortune). His dichotomized portrayal of virtù, described as masculine and dominating, and fortuna, as feminine and weak, does much to fortify sexist intonations and an androcentric modality of thinking that ultimately results in Machiavelli’s work being quintessentially misogynistic. In this paper, we seek to extrapolate how Machiavelli’s usage of virtù and fortuna are intrinsically gendered, and how his projected bias is problematic in contemporary times. This analysis is divided into three main parts. We begin by highlighting the application of the gender lens in the following analysis and its value. The first section provide...

Towards the Catastrophe: Niccolò Machiavelli’s Mandragola between Lack of Morality and Adaptation

Samgha (samgha.wordpress.com), Italian-American On-line Cultural Journal, January, 2014

Samgha è una rivista culturale attiva in Italia, in Nord America e in Cina. Siamo una comunità di lettori nata nel 2009 e mossa dal desiderio di parlare di libri, e di tutto quello che si muove intorno ai libri, in modo non superficiale. La nostra ambizione è di approfondire la passione della lettura e della scrittura, creando uno spazio aperto alla discussione e alle diverse discipline. The military and political events which upset Florence between the end of Quattrocento and the first decades of the sixteenth century, are part of Machiavelli's motivation to write The Prince. Nonetheless, even his most celebrated theatrical work-the Mandragola-is deeply affected by the instability and the moral crisis of the time. The analysis of the text-beyond its comic surface-points out how Machiavelli is aware of the subversion of the values of the humanistic tradition, and of the ambiguous need of adaptation to a reality, which has lost any trace of the past ideality. Preliminary to the reading of the comedy, it is presented an outline of the historical context in which Machiavelli worked (1). The focus on one of the many sources of the Mandragola-the Calandria by Dovizi da Bibbiena (2)-allows then to give the right importance to the theme of the body and of its reckless manipulation, in a realm of usefulness dominated by greed and selfish behaviors (3). The prevalence of contradiction on moral integrity is a consequence of this scenario, reflected in the description of the characters (4). Following Giulio Ferroni's reading, it seems that adaptation (an idea extrapolated from the Prince) is the only way to survive in a world, which is indeed approaching the catastrophe of the sack of Rome (5). On the other hand, the problematic features of the character of Lucrezia, along with the self-undermining presentations of the manly institutions embodied in the figures of Nicia, Timoteo and Ligurio, suggest the possibility of a critique of the suffocating immanence of the hopeless world portrayed by the Mandragola (6).

Pimps, Cuckolds, and Philosophers:: Machiavelli’s Literary Self-Presentation

Political Science Reviewer, 2022

S upposing Fortune is a woman-what then? Are there not grounds for the suspicion that Niccolò Machiavelli, insofar as he was a philosopher, was very inexpert in his dealings with women? Machiavelli upholds virtù, the essential quality of man, as a means of conquering Fortune and guaranteeing success in human enterprises. 1 The Greeks conceived of virtue as graceful submission to the caprices of Fortune's ever-spinning wheel. In place of such stoicism, Machiavellian virtù substitutes virility, courage, and cunning. Machiavelli advocates a virtue that dictates action-moral or immoral-in the face of necessity. The virtuous is defined as that which facilitates political success, and the virtuous man must know how to acquire (power, money, fame, love) in order to succeed. 2 In The Prince, Machiavelli famously explains that one need not submit to Fortune but instead can conquer her by "beating her and striking her down" (Prince XXV). 3 The young and impetuous man, the prince, exercises virtù by opposing