Devaluation of renaissance concept of human being in the play Amleto in salsa piccante by A. Nicolaj

The article is devoted to the play Amleto in salsa piccante (Hamlet in Spicy Sauce) by Aldo Nicolaj. The modern Italian playwright starts a cross-cultural dialogue with the tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare to reflect the current state of the humanistic reference points of the past. The play is seen as an example of a postmodern interpretation of the Renaissance concept of Human being, which is considered the main source of Renaissance humanism. The purpose of the article is to highlight the main features of the artistic expression of the Renaissance concept of Human being in the play Amleto in salsa piccante and determine its relevance to the postmodern cultural space. The research is based on the works by A.A. Smirnov, A.A. Anikst, devoted to the renaissance of Shakespeare’s literary creativity. In addition, the author relies on the works by H.A. Berdyaev, A.I. Izvekov about critical periods of European humanism in 20th century, with anthropological crisis among them. The play by Aldo Nicolaj reconsiders the Shakespeare’s tragedy from the viewpoint of its supposed minor characters, that is to say, kitchen servants. This allows the playwright to deconstruct the plot of the tragedy of Prince Hamlet and the image of its protagonist. Through the central characters of the play Amleto in salsa piccante the Italian playwright reinterprets the famous metaphor “All the World is a Stage”. Decentration, deconstruction, satirical reinterpretation, axiological devaluation of the image of Prince Hamlet is achieved by the introduction of hedonistic, homosexual and gastronomic motives that leads to the conclusion that the postmodern era outdated the humanistic concept of Human being.