La "barbarie glorieuse" pendant la Renaissance européenne

The thesis deals with the notion of "barbarian/barbarism" from Greek and Roman antiquity to the European Renaissance history and theatre. From a methodological point of view, though the notion of "barbarian" is analysed from an interdisciplinary perspective, the hermeneutic approach of the history of ideas and New Historicism are privileged. The main idea of the thesis is that during the XVIth century in Europe the interpretation of barbarism as a historical and cultural event has shifted from a negative position to a more positive one. The idea of “glorious barbarism” tries to explain such a change in European thought. The thesis is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter the notion of barbarism is analysed from Greek and Roman antiquity to the Renaissance. The second chapter deals with the development of cartography during the XVIth century in Europe and its relation to the redefinition of Europe’s borders. This chapter also deals with the study of some European political treatises developing a reflection on the barbaric past of Europe. The third chapter deals with the analysis of European XVIth century theatre and its relation to the representation of barbarism, with particular attention to Italian, English and Spanish plays staging a conflict between civilization and barbarism. Finally, the forth chapter deals with the analysis of the myth of Amazons during the XVIth century both in the arts and in literature. The Amazons are interpreted as the female translation of the figure of the barbarian. This cultural, artistic and political process emerges particularly in representation of female characters in European XVIth century theatre.