L’Île des esclaves. Sofferenza e potere come esperienze trasformative

Abstract

Shipwrecked on the Slave Island, Iphicrate and Euphrosine are compelled by local law to switch over parts with their servants, Arlequin and Cléanthis. They have to live in the opposite role until both of the masters recover from the ill-humaneness which induces them to mistreat their servants. Different perspectives on this pièce are to be exposed by analyzing how this very subversion affects the self-defining systems of each couple of characters. Cultural disorientation causes a “cathartic” reaction built on the unavoidable empathy between the two positions. In the XVIII century Marivaux was able to elaborate an inner revolution whose key values concern any society at any time.