ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the link between patriarchal femininity and theatricality through their shared dynamic of pretence, or fiction. With its play on identities, the pretence of carnival provided a particularly theatrical flavour to the Venetian cultural context, as well as featuring in Carlo Goldoni's plays in terms of actual content. The depiction of both female and male stage performers at varying stages of their careers in the comedies serves as a form of metadiscourse which disturbs theatrical pretence, in that the character can appear in the eyes of the audience to elide with the real actor or actress performing the part. Metadiscursive references to acting, singing and dancing serve to highlight the centrality of pretence to theatre. The association of pretence with fraudulent deception is also given a mercantile dimension in the plays. In the context of theatre as a performance art, femininity as patriarchy's Other is incorporated into the mainstream theatrical text as a problem to be solved.
