Oratory and the Public Sphere

Abstract

In this essay I argue that the performance genre known as narrative theater conceives of an engaged Italian public in contrast to the portrayal of Italians as passive pawns at the mercy of a tightly controlled media. By examining the role of oratory and how it sustains a dialogic practice between performer and spectator, I analyze the potential for the type of rational and rigorous public sphere that Habermas envisioned for the pre-industrial bourgeoisie. I draw upon revisions of that ideal in order to suggest that an alternative sphere exists through narrative theater where an Italian public engages important discourses of national interest.