The Performative Power of Diplomatic Discourse in the Italian Tragedies Inspired by the Wars Against the Turks

Abstract

The sixteenth century saw the climax of tensions between Venice and the Ottomans as the latter extended their power over the Mediterranean. As a result, these conflicting relations became a source of inspiration for Italian playwrights who centred some of their tragedies on the relations between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Budapest, the siege of Vienna, the attack of the Famagusta fort in Cyprus and the Battle of Lepanto were turned into dramatic episodes at the time when a new crusading fever seized the Venetian state. Some tragedies, such as Bragadino by Valerio Fuligni (1570), Irene (1579) by Vincenzo Giusti and Isifile (1582) by Francesco Mondella, stage a besieged Venice where the protagonists’ speeches testify to the paradigmatic development of a performative diplomatic discourse. The absent presence of the enemy constitutes a new form of geopolitical pressure in the early modern European context. The Sultan’s invisibility and silence provoked reactions. These are precisely the paradoxically dramatic instruments that Italian playwrights chose on which to build their plays as they questioned the best way to counter these new martial techniques. In these plays the diplomatic speech comes and counteracts the silent absence of the Sultan and becomes the true instrument of peace-making. While essays on diplomacy questioned the most efficient strategies to transmit a political message, they constantly contrasted silence and speech. The performative power of diplomatic speech was something to consider in its full verbal expression as well as in its silent one.