Petrarch and Dante: Anti-Dantism, Metaphysics, Tradition (William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian Literature) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0268022119 ISBN 13: 9780268022112

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009

Synopsis

Since the beginnings of Italian vernacular literature, the nature of the relationship between Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) and his predecessor Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) has remained an open and endlessly fascinating question of both literary and cultural history. In this volume, nine leading scholars of Italian medieval literature and culture address this question involving the two foundational figures of Italian literature. Through their collective reexamination of the question of who and what came between Petrarch and Dante in ideological, historiographical, and rhetorical terms, the authors explore the emergence of an anti-Dantean polemic in Petrarch's work. That stance has largely escaped scrutiny, thanks to a critical tradition that tends to minimize any suggestion of rivalry or incompatibility between them. The authors examine Petrarch's contentious and dismissive attitude toward the literary authority of his illustrious predecessor; the dramatic shift in theological and philosophical context that occurs from Dante to Petrarch; and their respective contributions as initiators of modern literary traditions in the vernacular. Petrarch's substantive ideological dissent from Dante clearly emerges, a dissent that casts in high relief the poets' radically divergent views of the relation between the human and the divine and of human's capacity to bridge that gap.

About this title

Review:

"This outstanding collection of nine essays by leading Anglo-American scholars provides a rigorous re-examination of the relationship between these two towering cultural figures, focusing on three components ('Anti-Dantism, ' 'Metaphysics, ' and 'Tradition') of what is viewed as their substantive ideological opposition. . . . It is rare for a multi-authored volume of this kind to display not only such sustained excellence, but also such unflinching critical focus. It constitutes, without question, the most important existing contribution to our understanding of the two poets' relationship, and its authoritative and meticulously researched essays will deservedly remain fundamental points of reference for a long time to come."--Modern Language Review

About the Author:

ZYGMUNT G. BARANSKI is Serena Professor of Italian, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of New Hall. THEODORE J. CACHEY, JR., is professor of Italian at the University of Notre Dame.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0268022119
• ISBN 13: 9780268022112
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 426
• Editor: Baranski Zygmunt G., Cachey Jr. Theodore J.