‘Banville’s Irish commedia dell’arte’

This paper examines the use of the Commedia’Dell Arte in the novels of John Banville. His employment of the stock characters of the popular art-form, as well as his reliance on their artistic representation in the works of Jean-Antoine Watteau will be discussed. The technical theatrical device of the mask and its psychological consequences in Banville’s prose will also be analysed in depth, and the relationship between stylized art forms and their supposed lack of emotional content will be a thread running throughout the article, as will the contrast between the physical nature of the acting profession and the more cerebral or intellectual feature of the novel.