Laughter and Violence in the Italian Renaissance: The Physical and Emotional Abuse of the "beffa", c. 1400-1600

我的项目通过对一种有待充分研究的现象的分析来调查意大利文艺复兴时期明显的暴力文化：beffa。这是一个残忍的笑话，是近代早期意大利特有的，意在嘲弄和羞辱受害者。这种幽默的暴力很少被挖掘，尽管它经常导致受害者伤痕累累，流血不止，或者因为羞愧而离开家乡。这种兴趣源于我的研究生论文，论文关注的是贝法可能揭示的精英男性社交能力、男性价值观和意大利法院险恶的本质。最后一章探讨了幽默在哪里变得“过于残酷”，并触及了情感和身体暴力。这些女侍臣被这种幽默所带来的痛苦逗乐了，这表明暴力和享乐在这种文化中是交织在一起的。这为现有的人际暴力史学提出了新的发人深省的问题，而我的硕士论文由于其特定的关注点而无法考虑这些问题。该项目提供了更实质性地检查这一询问的机会。它超越了对精英男性的关注，还包括其他变量，如女性、其他社会阶层和年龄组。这项研究将被组织成主题章节：性别、阶级和年龄，作为分析类别，并代表受这种幽默影响的不同人际关系。它将参考各种来源，如法律文件、艺术、文学和档案材料，并将重点放在威尼斯和佛罗伦萨，并在必要时与其他意大利城市和文艺复兴时期的法国进行比较。

My project investigates the expressly violent culture of the Italian Renaissance through the analysis of aphenomenon that remains to be fully studied: the beffa. This was a cruel joke, unique to early modernItaly, that intended to mock and humiliate the victim. The violence of this humour has been littleexplored despite the beffa often resulting in the victim bruised and bloodied or so ashamed that they lefttheir hometown.This interest evolved from my postgraduate thesis which focused on what the beffa could reveal aboutelite male sociability, masculine values and the sinister nature of the Italian courts. The final chapterexplored where the humour became 'too cruel' and touched on its emotional and physical violence. Themale courtiers were amused by the anguish this humour created which suggested that violence andenjoyment were intertwined in this culture. This poses new thought-provoking questions for the existinghistoriography on interpersonal violence which, due to the specific focus, my MA thesis could notconsider.The project provides the opportunity to examine this interrogation more substantively. It goes beyond thefocus of elite males to include additional variables such as women, other social classes and age groups.The research will be organised into thematic chapters: gender, class, and age, acting both as analyticalcategories and representative of the different interpersonal relationships impacted by this humour. Itshall consult varied sources such as legal documents, art, literature, and archival material, and focus onVenice and Florence drawing comparisons where necessary from other Italian cities and fromRenaissance France.