Against the theoretical background of the ongoing research on 'antipodean' literautre and culture, this essay examines Jack Maggs (1997) by the Australian novelist Peter Carey, one of the most remarkable examples of postcolonial texts “writing back” to the English literary canon which particularly invites speculation on the multifaceted paradigm of the antipodes within the cultural frame of British-Australian relations.

Scholars in the last few decades have pointed out the manifold relations of Shakespeare’s The Tempest with the increasingly sceptical frame of mind of early modern English culture. As Robert Peirce argued in 1985, different forms of sceptical thought may be identified in the play. Along with the philosophical background which saw the revival of Pyrrhonism and of Sextus Empiricus’ thought, the article examines The Tempest in the light of recent investigations of early modern visual culture, a period in which the reliability of human vision was deeply undermined by the new discoveries in the fields of medicine, science, technology and art theory, as well as by the controversial debates on the illusions of magic, demonic deceptions and witchcraft. Different forms of ethical and epistemological scepticism in The Tempest are explored, taking into account a variety of structural features which include the weaving of multiple ‘narrative’ voices in the opening act; the condition of the shipwrecked crew «in troops [...] dispersed [...] ’bout the isle» (I, 2, 220), in which each group is ignorant of the truth about the others; and the role of Ariel, who reflects all the characters’ conflicting views as a moving mirror. Prospero’s island, whose circular space introduces a sort of ‘unstable perspective’ allowing virtually infinite viewpoints all around it, is examined in the light of the far reaching ideological implications of early modern theories of linear perspective (Panofsky) and of the «unresolvable contradictions that structure the Western discourse on vision, representation and subjectivity» (Massey).

Against a multifaceted theoretical background which has investigated the changing cultural contexts of the performances of The Tempest, my paper primarily focuses on Prospero’s Books (1991) by Peter Greenaway. The film mostly raises the issue of the performability of the play in the light of the radical redefinition of the status of textuality, and of the notions of writing/reading and performing space, within the context of what Gunther Kress calls “the new media age” (Kress 2003). The books of Prospero’s library, whose pages are continuously read aloud, quoted and visualized in frames that appear on the screen, often embedded one into another, are not only interactive hypertexts which break the bounds of conventional writing and reading: they also explore the potentialities of a new ‘performing space’ which high-definition digital tools free from the constraints of any physical medium, thus allowing enhanced forms of interaction between word, image, sound and video. In this sense Greenaway addresses the major issue of the ‘performability’ of the text (McGann 1995) in the context of new modes of interaction of different media, which largely respond to Richard Grusin and David Bolter’s notion of ‘remediation’: “a medium is that which remediates. It is that which appropriates the techniques, forms and social significance of other media and attempts to rival or refashion them in the name of the real. A medium in our culture can never operate in isolation, because it must enter into relationships of respect and rivalry with other media. ” (Bolter-Grusin 1999, 98) Against this over-elaborate contamination of media, blending illusion and reality, Sir John Gielgud’s performance of Prospero acquires particular relevance. While enhancing the film’s deliberate cross-identification between Prospero and Shakespeare, the 87 year-old actor increasingly becomes a sort of “third figure in an indivisible trinity” (McMullan: 2008, 157) whose finely enunciated recitation and priest-like stage presence bear echoes of his four precedent performances of the same role for the theatre. Gielgud’s virtuosity as an experienced Shakespearean actor is thus deliberately used to break the cinematic illusion and to reinforce Greenaway’s weaving of codes, media and performing levels.

Il saggio analizza The Merchant of Venice in una prospettiva interdisciplinare e focalizza l'attenzione sul ritratto del mercante che Shakespeare propone, alla luce di intricate economie di scambio nel Mediterraneo del XVI secolo. Il saggio propone una analisi della fitta tessitura linguistica del play, a partire dai complessi giochi di risonanza di termini come good, bond, venture, usance, nell'ambito della interazione di pratiche testuali e discorsive legate alla mercatura, tra l'area veneta e l'Inghilterra elisabettiana.

Focusing on the relevance of Italian models as a crucial component in English Renaissance drama, this work engages in the ongoing critical debate which in the last two decades has moved on towards increasingly more comprehensive and dynamic notions of text, intertextuality and interdiscursivity.Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is here examined in the light of wide-ranging patterns of trans-national exchanges between sixteenth-century Venice and England. The major centre of attention is the migration of both literary and non-literary texts and discourses which offer new insights into the variety of socio-cultural, theological and economic conflicts embedded in the discussions on money-lending and trade inElizabethan England, where the moral and legal justification of interest was a vital issue in the transition from feudal economy to modern capitalism.