Presenter: Marta Albalá-Pelegrín (Cal Poly, Pomona)
Respondent: Fabien Montcher (Saint Louis University)
Moderator: Pier Mattia Tommasino (Columbia University)
This talk intervenes in recent scholarly discourses on the construction of Early Modern Iberian sovereignty and hegemony via its leverage with African polities and kingdoms. In it, Marta Albalá-Pelegrín argues 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 and West African sovereigns and rulers. Portuguese relationships with West African sovereigns contributed to promote Iberian sovereignty in Europe. By surveying public and private letters, as well as Castilian and Portuguese theatrical pieces by Torres Naharro and Gil Vicente, this talk explores the role of performances and the dissemination of misinformation regarding foreign powers in the creation of European hegemony, or the illusion of it.