Garcilaso de la Vega and the Italian Renaissance (Studies in Romance Literatures)

Daniel L. Heiple

ISBN 10: 0271010169 / ISBN 13: 9780271010168

Published by Penn State University Press, 1994

Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0271010169I3N10

Synopsis:

Following studies by Goodman, Waley, and Darst, this new study of Garcilaso's work rejects as unfounded the traditional readings of Garcilaso's poetry based on the idea of sincerity and the poet's frustrated love for the Portuguese lady-in-waiting Isabel Freire. In place of the much-abused concept of sincerity, Heiple argues that the intellectual currents of the Renaissance are much more important for the analysis of Garcilaso's poetry. He analyzes in Garcilaso's poetry the uses of Renaissance concepts of mythology, poetic style, theories of love, primitivism, and iconological traditions. Especially important in these analyses are the poetic practices of Petrarchism as defined by Pietro Bembo and the reaction against them proclaimed by Bernardo Tasso.

Heiple studies each of the sonnets, tracing their roots in the Hispanic cancionero poetry through Petrarchism and Neoplatonism to the specific reactions against the Italian Petrarchan mode, ending with the sonnets in imitation of the classical epigram. Several longer poems, Canción IV, Elegy II, and Ode ad florem Gnidi, are discussed within the contexts of Renaissance poetic conventions and ideas, bringing to the fore Garcilaso's incisive wit. By abandoning the traditional search for biographical elements in the love poems, Heiple is able to bring new relevant information to the interpretation of well-known texts and provide new readings for many of Garcilaso's poems.

About the Author: Daniel L. Heiple is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Tulane University and author of Mechanical Imagery in Spanish Golden Age Poetry (1984).

Bibliographic Details

Title: Garcilaso de la Vega and the Italian ...
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Publication Date: 1994
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket