Leo Africanus Discovers Comedy: Theatre and Poetry Across the Mediterranean

Leo Africanus Discovers Comedy: Theatre and Poetry Across the MediterraneanOverview Using the North African diplomat Hasan al Wazzan, known in Europe as Leo Africanus (c. 1488 after 1532), as its guide, this book offers a comparative journey through the worlds of Italian and Islamic theatre in the late medieval and early modern period. On both sides of the Mediterranean, a vigorous popular theatre was carried on in vernacular verse. Whereas in Europe by the fifteenth century literary poets had taken to drama as serious form

Overview

216 pp., 19 ill.
ISBN: 978-0-7727-2212-6 softcover
Published: 2021

Contents

Introduction

Africa

Italy

Conclusions

Glossary of Arabic Words

List of Illustrations

Cited Works

Praise

“From the pen of one of our greatest storytellers, the missing piece of the transcultural puzzle of rhetoric, theatre, and history. East meets West in a thrilling narrative from the inimitable voice that inspired generations of readers and scholars.” — Jody Enders, University of California, Santa Barbara

“In its discussion of Leo Africanus (Hasan al-Wazzan) and the part he played in the reception of Aristotle’s Poetics at the turn of the sixteenth century, this brilliant book paints a fascinating picture of the intellectual bridge both Leo and the Poetics constituted between the Arab East and Christian West.” — Philip Kennedy, New York University

“This marvelous book traces the fault lines and dynamics of cultural transmission and exchange in a way that reveals the interdependence and fruitful cross fertilization of these two cultures, allowing for a deeper understanding of these two rich intellectual and performative traditions.” — Jill Ross, University of Toronto

Reviews

Annali di'talianistica, Volume 40 (2022), pp. 461-63. Reviewed by Julia Bolton Holloway, University of Colorado, Boulder.