Post-Unification Italy between Bourgeois Drama and the Thesis Play

Notes on Ricciardi’s Comedy Un’elezione

Abstract

This article examines Giuseppe Ricciardi’s Un’elezione, ovvero I due candidati in order to reassess a neglected area of post-unification Italian theatre. It argues that the comedy occupies a deliberately unstable position between the thesis play and bourgeois drama. Through an analysis of its programmatic paratext, narrative structures and final resolution, the article shows that Ricciardi used the play to denounce electoral corruption and promote civic engagement in the ongoing process of Italian state-building. It also demonstrates that this militant project did not develop outside the theatrical expectations of the period. Ricciardi embeds his political discourse within the conventions of bourgeois comedy: reassuring domestic settings, recognisable social situations and structural features designed to appeal to contemporary spectators and readers alike. Un’elezione therefore combines a particularly explicit political didacticism with dramaturgical patterns intended to secure the audience’s recognition and approval. By analysing this tension, the article invites a broader reconsideration of forgotten Italian thesis dramas and examines how Ricciardi bends a successful theatrical formula to militant ends without abandoning a theatrical model aligned with the expectations of his intended public.