When the Serenissima is No Longer Serene: Staging Chaos in La Veniexiana

ABSTRACT Modern scholars regard La Veniexiana as an apolitical, erotic play, relevant only because women are active leaders of the love game in a patriarchal reversal. Through a close reading of the comedy based on its socio-political context, this article challenges this view. I maintain that chaos is key. I argue that La Veniexiana does not portray a definitive inversion of gendered norms, but rather depicts ever-changing power dynamics which cause chaos. The characters speak different dialects and are both romantic predators and prey. Two confident, rich women speaking Venetian dialect flirt with Giulio, a Milanese citizen speaking pseudo-Italian, who embodies a foreign threat. The erotic and linguistic chaos evokes and mirrors early Cinquecento Venice’s unstable geopolitical situation. Hence, rather than being exclusively concerned with lascivious subjects, La Veniexiana poses an implied controversial question: Will Venetians overpower their conquerors, or will they be complacently conquered?