Exposing Political Treachery in Italian Carolingian Narratives: The Case of Gano di Maganza from Renaissance Epic Poetry to Late Nineteenth-century Hand Puppet Theater
Exposing Political Treachery in Italian Carolingian Narratives: The Case of Gano di Maganza from Renaissance Epic Poetry to Late Nineteenth-century Hand Puppet Theater

Author(s): Jo Ann Cavallo
Subject(s): Politics, Studies of Literature, Sociology of Politics, History of Art, Italian literature
Published by: Addleton Academic Publishers
Keywords: Carolingian epic; Gano di Maganza; Astolfo; Sarina puppetry;
Summary/Abstract: At first glance, Carolingian epic literature, epitomized by the eleventhcentury Chanson of Roland, is centered on the struggle of Western European Christian forces to recapture lands previously conquered by invading Saracens from Northern Africa. Yet from their origin in medieval France, these chivalric narratives have also been deeply concerned with the vicissitudes of heroic figures struggling against the abusive power of their own political state. As endless permutations of these stories circulated in the Italian peninsula and Sicily in the following centuries, one constant feature was the genre’s attention to evil lurking at the highest echelons of political power. If Friedrich Hayek began his chapter entitled “Why the Worst Get on Top” with Lord Acton’s famous quote that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” an untold number of poets, storytellers, and puppeteers illustrate this political dictum through fictional stories set in the most powerful court of medieval Europe.

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