Between Rolfe and Corvo : Life in the Margins of Make-Believe

MIKEŠ, Michal. Between Rolfe and Corvo : Life in the Margins of Make-Believe. Online. In Play, Masks and Make-believe : Ritual Representations, 5 December 2020, London Centre for International Studies, Cambridge University - online. 2020, [citováno 2024-04-23]

Basic information

• Original name: Between Rolfe and Corvo : Life in the Margins of Make-Believe
• Authors: MIKEŠ, Michal
• Edition: Play, Masks and Make-believe : Ritual Representations, 5 December 2020, London Centre for International Studies, Cambridge University - online. 2020.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 60204 General literature studies
• Country of publisher: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: Frederick Rolfe; Baron Corvo; make-believe; self-fashioning; transition; ritual
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

When Frederick Rolfe as ‘Don Friderico’ designs an ecclesiastical procession in his tale “Doing Little, Lavishly”, his savage ‘divels’, all those boys he had befriended during his time in Italy, masquerade as the Seven Sleepers. Despite employing standard Roman Catholic imagery in this masquerade, Rolfe ever accentuates that the costumes used are of his own unique fashioning—two aspects that also provide a fitting reflection on Rolfe’s life at this transition. To escape his failure as a seminarian, Rolfe self-fashioned himself into Baron Corvo, a complex make-believe that also defined his relationships, real or fictive, as with his constant search for the ‘Divine Friend, Unknown, Most Desired’. Not surprisingly, Rolfe’s novel identity was never widely accepted, even by his few friends, which led him to become a liminal person who was, paradoxically, neither Rolfe nor Corvo, while at the same time both. That Rolfe depended on make-believe to define and structure his life is apparent from his various autobiographical works. This presentation will consider how those works, traditionally glossed over even by his biographers, illuminate fundamental aspects of his fascinating personality.

Links

• MUNI/A/1204/2019, interní kód MU: Name: Researching Communication in English: Paradigms, Strategies, Developments - II (Acronym: ReComE 2020)

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A