The Lottery Fantasy and Social Mobility in Eighteenth-Century Venetian Literature: Carlo Goldoni, Pietro Chiari, and Giacomo Casanova

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the lottery fantasy as a cultural figure and literary topic in the works of Carlo Goldoni, Pietro Chiari, and Giacomo Casanova. The lottery fantasy is to be understood as the dream of social ascension through sudden, life-changing wealth, which exercised a powerful allure on eighteenth-century Europe. The three authors addressed this figure in literary form, through the comedy, the novel, and the memoir, giving distinctly different representations and moral assessments of the lottery as a social and cultural practice. Despite their differences, all three works engage with the fundamental issue underlying the lottery fantasy: an increasing pressure towards social mobility in the nonmeritocratic society of the Old Regime. The article uses Roger Caillois’ categorisation of play as an analytical lens for examining how the three works link the aleatory game of the lottery to cultural practices aimed at meritocratic, social mobility.