“This talk intervenes in recent scholarly discourses on the construction of Early Modern Iberian sovereignty and hegemony via its leverage with African and Asian polities and kingdoms (Bennett, Fromont). In it, I argue that theatrical performances in diplomatic enclaves, such as Rome, deployed strategies of appropriation of power by staging conversion, ceremonies of deposition, and pledges of obedience of North African, West African, as well as Asian sovereigns and rulers. By surveying travel narratives and theatrical pieces by Torres Naharro and Gil Vicente, the paper explores the role that conversion and the dissemination of misinformation regarding foreign powers played in the creation of European hegemony, or its illusion”
14 December, 2020.
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