Declaration of Authorship I, Matthew James Cawson, hereby declare that this thesis and the work p... more Declaration of Authorship I, Matthew James Cawson, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated.
This article explores the links between the emergence of the commedia dell’arte and the Holy Roma... more This article explores the links between the emergence of the commedia dell’arte and the Holy Roman Inquisition, examining the historical and theological context of anti-corporeality within Catholic doctrine. I begin by identifying the philosophical background to Cartesian dualism, establishing it in the preSocratic tradition of Orphism and Pythagoreanism and argue that the real impact of body-mind dualism on the common man came not from theological or philosophical enquiry, but from the anticorporeal doctrine of the Inquisition. I argue that the commedia dell’arte emerged as a reaction against this anti-corporealism and within its form, particularly through the mask, embodied deeply anathematic, fundamentally heretical principles. Its impunity from Inquisitorial persecution lay in exactly that which made it anathema: the mask and the body. Its avoidance of the written word beyond innocuous scenarios, its emphasis on improvisation, physicality and the pantomimic virtuosity of its per...
Declaration of Authorship I, Matthew James Cawson, hereby declare that this thesis and the work p... more Declaration of Authorship I, Matthew James Cawson, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated.
This article explores the links between the emergence of the commedia dell’arte and the Holy Roma... more This article explores the links between the emergence of the commedia dell’arte and the Holy Roman Inquisition, examining the historical and theological context of anti-corporeality within Catholic doctrine. I begin by identifying the philosophical background to Cartesian dualism, establishing it in the preSocratic tradition of Orphism and Pythagoreanism and argue that the real impact of body-mind dualism on the common man came not from theological or philosophical enquiry, but from the anticorporeal doctrine of the Inquisition. I argue that the commedia dell’arte emerged as a reaction against this anti-corporealism and within its form, particularly through the mask, embodied deeply anathematic, fundamentally heretical principles. Its impunity from Inquisitorial persecution lay in exactly that which made it anathema: the mask and the body. Its avoidance of the written word beyond innocuous scenarios, its emphasis on improvisation, physicality and the pantomimic virtuosity of its per...
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