Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.26362/20250104

Machiavelli’s New Prince Caught in Drag

Davorin Žagar orcid.org/0000-0002-9058-8164 ; Adolfo Ibáñez University, Santiago, Chile

Abstract

This article offers a critical reconsideration of the gendered relation between virtù and fortune in Machiavelli’s principal political texts. In the current feminist studies on Machiavelli, this relation is perceived in either antagonistic or mimetic terms. In dialogue with both strands of feminist readings and with special attention to Pitkin’s interpretation of Machiavelli, this paper seeks to bridge the democratic and feminist face(s) of Machiavelli. From a feminist and gender-dissidence perspective, it then provides an alternative view of the new prince as a man in drag and examines his role in the regulation of social conflict.

Keywords

drag prince; feminism; fortune; gender; Machiavelli; Pitkin; virtù

Hrčak ID:

331683

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/331683

Publication date:

4.6.2025.

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