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Imagining the Morlacchi in Fortis and Goldoni

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Imagining the Morlacchi in Fortis and Goldoni Imagining the Morlacchi in Fortis and Goldoni by Branislava Milić-Brett A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Comparative Literature University of Alberta © Branislava Milić-Brett, 2014 Abstract The main objective of this dissertation is to determine how Goldoni’s tragicomedy La dalmatina (1754) fits in the pre-Morlachist current of the Venetian literature of the eighteenth century, and to compare the portrayal of Dalmatians in this tragicomedy and other Goldoni’s plays with the portrayal of the Morlacchi in Alberto Fortis’s Viaggio in Dalmazia (1774). The research led me into two main directions. The first direction is a research of Morlachism. Here, I review the main features of proto-Morlachism to present the portrayal of Dalmatians in Venice prior to the publication of Fortis’s Viaggio, which initiates Morlachism. Then, I elaborate the portrayal of the Morlacchi in Fortis’s Viaggio to define the main features of their image that were going to inspire numerous poets and novelists in the next decades. The second direction of my research is dedicated to Goldoni’s portrayal of the exotic Other in general, and Dalmatians in particular. In order to determine particular features of the portrayal of Dalmatians in La dalmatina, I situate this tragicomedy within two contexts: firstly, within other Goldoni’s plays that deal with Dalmatians, and secondly, within other Goldoni’s plays of the same genre, i.e. his exotic tragicomedies written between 1754 and 1761. ii Мојим родитељима, Јелици и Милораду iii Acknowledgements I am greatly indebted to Dr.Massimo Verdicchio, my supervisor, for his enthusiasm and for the patient guidance he has given me throughout the preparation of this dissertation. Also, I wish to offer my special thanks to the members of the committee, Dr. William Anselmi, Dr. Salvatore Bancheri, Dr. Oleh Ilnytzkyj, Dr. Irene Sywenky, and Dr. Marko Živković, for their constructive suggestions and useful critique of this thesis. I am particularly grateful for the administrative assistance to Dr. Victoria Ruétalo, Jane Wilson, and Eva Glancy. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, to whom this thesis is dedicated, and to Jakša, for his encouragement and for being always there for me. iv Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: Venetian Ideology of proto-Morlacchism ...........................................................10 Chapter 2: Alberto Fortis: Exoticising the Morlacchi .......................................................... 32 Chapter 3: Close Otherness: Multilayered Ties between Goldoni and Dalmatians ............. 57 Chapter 4: Tragicomical Heroines: Goldoni's Gender Exoticism ........................................ 79 Chapter 5: Goldoni's Dalmatina: Tragicomedy of Venetian Demi-Orientalism ................ 122 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 152 Endnotes ............................................................................................................................. 159 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 183 Appendices ......................................................................................................................... 193 Appendix I ............................................................................................................. 193 Appendix II ............................................................................................................. 197 Appendix III ............................................................................................................ 202 Appendix IV ............................................................................................................ 204 Appendix V ............................................................................................................. 209 v Introduction This project deals primarily with the image of Dalmatians in the Venetian literature of the eighteenth century, with their portrayal in Carlo Goldoni's plays, and particularly in the tragicomedy La Dalmatina (1758). My aim is to assess to what degree Goldoni's portrayal of Dalmatians is related to a current of pre-Morlacchism in Venetian literature of the time, and to compare Goldoni's Dalmatian characters with Alberto Fortis's portrayal of the Morlacchi in the Viaggio in Dalmazia (1774). In the second half of the eighteenth century, two notable Venetian writers who did not know each other, Goldoni and Fortis, both included Dalmatia in their literary works. The former, in his plays, dedicates to Dalmatia a relatively marginal place, however, in the context of cultural relations between Venice and Dalmatia, his contribution is considered rather significant. The other, Alberto Fortis, a geologist, dedicated most of his research to Dalmatia. While Goldoni includes a few Dalmatian characters in his comedies, Fortis writes the first detailed ethnographic description of the Morlacchi in the form of travelogue, which carries important socio-cultural and political implications. By comparing the image of Dalmatians in Goldoni's La dalmatina and Fortis's Viaggio in Dalmazia, I hope to reveal their similarities and differences, as well as the nature of Venetian Enlightenment with regard to Dalmatia as Venice's most important colony. I will discuss these works first of all as literary texts, applying close reading. However, it was also necessary to include numerous historical data, relying on the methods of microhistory, as well as to observe the cultural relations between characters of different ethnic 1 background from the point of view of postcolonial criticism, relying primarily on the findings of Edward Said, Maria Todorova, and Larry Wolff. Terminology issue In order to understand the discussion, it is necessary to be familiar with the following terms: a) the use of various ethno-linguistic terms in Dalmatia; b) the relations between the Morlacchi and the rest of the Dalmatians; and c) the difference between proto-Morlacchism and Morlacchism. In this dissertation, I will use the term Dalmatians (Dalmati) rather than Slavs, South Slavs, Adriatic Slavs, Illyrians, Croats, etc., for the following reasons: 1. In public perception, from antiquity and the Middle Ages until today, eastern Adriatic coast from the Kvarner islands to Albania, has been known as Dalmatia. In the eighteenth century, in geographical and political terms, it consisted of three parts: 1. Venetian Dalmatia (the present north and central Dalmatia); 2. independent Republic of Dubrovnik; 3. Venetian Bay of Kotor region.1 At that time, there were several different terms used for Slavic population in Venetian Dalmatia: general terms, such as Dalmatians, Slavs, and Illyrians; or specific ethno-confessional terms, such as Croats (for Roman Catholics), and Serbs and Rascians (for Eastern Orthodox). The Morlacchi were a special, separated group. (see below) 2. In his plays, Goldoni used the term Dalmatians most often, and sometimes Slavs (Schiavoni in Venetian dialect), as well as local designations, such as Raguseo (a person from Dubrovnik). The modern term Slav or South Slav is too general because it implies all South Slavs from Slovenia to Bulgaria. The term Adriatic Slav is appropriate, although it is a bit wider than Dalmatian because it includes inhabitants of non-Dalmatian regions of Slovenian 2 Littoral, Kvarner, Istria, and Montenegrin Littoral; however, this term was not used in the 18th century. 3. Although most of Goldoni's acquaintances and characters were Roman Catholics whose descendants will accept Croatian national identity in the 19th century, and proto- Croatian national ideas were present among them even in Goldoni's times, the term Croatian is less appropriate because Goldoni never used the term, as well as because in his plays and personal life he deals with persons of other ethno-confessional groups from Dalmatia: a) Orthodox Morlacchi from inland Dalmatia who accepted Serbian national identity in the 19th century; b) Orthodox inhabitants of the Bay of Kotor and Paštrovići, who accepted Montenegrin or Serbian national identities in the 19th and 20th centuries; c) members of Italian linguistic and ethno-cultural community from Dalmatian cities. In the eighteenth century, the Morlacchi were a rural population of the hilly and harsh hinterland in Venetian Dalmatia.2 The majority of them were Roman Catholics and around one third were Orthodox Christians by religion. During the Ottoman conquests from the 15th to the 17th centuries, the Morlacchi, originating mostly from Bosnia-Herzegovina, inhabited the deserted area of inland Dalmatia. Since they were Christians, they constantly went to war against the Ottomans, fighting alongside Venice. Having been for centuries under the Ottoman rule3 as poor and deprived Christian Ottoman subjects (raja), they naturally appeared as the local Other to coastal Dalmatians, who were deeply influenced by Venetian and Italian culture and were quite different from the Morlacchi's "rough" way of life and customs. Here, it is important to note that the terms Schiavo, Schiavone (as well as other terms, such as Illirico, Dalmato, Croato, Serbo, Rasciano) for Slavic people of all Dalmatia and Morlacco for Slavs from Dalmatian hinterland
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