Alfieri Revisited by John Lindon (review)
2004; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 99; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/mlr.2004.a827510
ISSN2222-4319
Autores Tópico(s)Renaissance Literature and Culture
ResumoMLR, 99.2, 2004 509 Chapter 7 ('II dominio metaforico') is a thorough and stimulating analysis of Dante's metaphors and similes, w4iich highlights in particular how they work in networks and systems. Even in terms of expression, then, there is a movement from approximation to fulfilment. Perhaps the critic's most original interpretation here is that, in the final image of the poem, 'rota' (Paradiso, xxxm. 144) is not the wheel of a cart, nor the potter's wheel, but a clock-wheel (the clock image had been used already twice in Paradiso). The eighth chapter ('L'approdo paradisiaco') shows us the new complexity of syntax and rhythmic 'respiro' in the Paradiso, and it is refreshingto hear a great Dante critic admitting the poet's defects, especially in handling periodic sen? tences such as those in Inferno, 11.13-24, and contrasting them with his later expertise. The final chapter ('Per Dante nel terzo millennio') anticipates the possible 'fortuna' of Dante in the new century. Though his importance may be declining in Italian schools, the Anglo-Saxon world, especially North America, is displaying such enthusiasm forthe poet's works that his fortune is unlikely to dwindle to the levels it reached between 1500 and 1700. Future readers will struggle to understand the Beatrice myth in all its complexity, but Francesca will remain popular, as will the Ulysses canto, applicable as it is to the new frontiers of science from GM foods to animal and human cloning. At the end the critic speculates on what might bring a radical change to the course of Dante studies: discovery of an autograph manuscript, new documents on his lifeor works, or the discovery of a new literarymodel fromhis library.The volume closes with a fine example of a possible candidate for the latter: Bede's comparison of human existence with a swallow flittingbrieflythrough a warm, well-lit room is just possibly a passage Dante knew (and Bede is indeed mentioned in Paradiso, x. 131). The final gestation of this book took place during a term as Visiting Professor at Magdalen College, Oxford: those ofus who were fortunate enough to hear the lectures he gave then on this material will be pleased to reacquaint ourselves with Pasquini's sound interpretations, but the book is of even more importance for those who could not be there. Early in the volume the critic quotes Cavalcanti's line on the opening sonnet of the Vita nova: 'insegna sottile e piano'. The phrase could just as well be applied to Pasquini himself, as subtlety and clarity are also the hallmarks of his Dante scholarship. Magdalen College, Oxford Martin McLaughlin Alfieri Revisited. Ed. by John Lindon. (Supplement to The Italianist, 21) Reading: Department of ltalian Studies, University of Reading. 2001. 80 pp. ?12. ISSN 0261-4340. This supplement to The Italianist finds its timely niche among the numerous celebratory events precipitated in 1999 all over the cultural globe both by the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth and by the rapidly approaching 200th anniversary of his death (Florence, October 1803). As stated by the editor, John Lindon, the vol? ume gathers 'papers presented at an international study-day organized by University College London's Centre for ltalian Studies' (p. 5). It is not by chance that this celebratory event took place in England; rather, on the one hand, this becomes a further testimonial to the interest and affection the poet had forthis country (that he was not alone in this is of course a well-known fact, and to this purpose it should suffice to mention the well-documented and still valid study of Arturo Graf, L'Anglomania in Italia nel secolo XVIII (Turin: Loescher, 1911)) and on the other, it also conlirms the renewed interest in this relationship. The firstofthe six essays springs from the tireless pen of Vittore Branca, a scholar whose love forAlfieri's work has remained evidentover the years in essays (the one on 510 Reviews style, from 1948, remains a milestone) and editions of his tragedies. The main thrust of Branca's intervento is here focused, through a precise analysis of Alfieri's stylistic choices measured on the variations from one stesura to...
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