Dante's Comedy and the Ethics of Invective in Medieval Italy
Humor and Evil- Authors:
- Publisher:
- 2019
Summary
Dante's Comedy and the Ethics of Invective in Medieval Italy proposes a new approach to invective and comic poetry in Italy during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and opens the way for an innovative understanding of Dante’s masterpiece. The Middle Ages in Italy offer a wealth of vernacular poetic invectives—polemical verses aimed at blaming specific wrongdoings of an individual, group, city or institution— that are both understudied and rarely juxtaposed. No study has yet provided a scholarly examination of the connection between this medieval invective tradition, and its elements of humor, derision, and reprehension in Dante’s Comedy. This book argues that these comic texts are rooted in and actively engaged with the social, political, and religious conflicts of their time. Political invective has a dynamic ethical orientation that is mediated by a humor that disarms excessive hostility against its individual targets, providing an opening for dialogue. While exploring medieval comic poems by Rustico Filippi (from Florence), Cecco Angiolieri (from Siena), and Folgore da San Gimignano, this study unveils new biographical data about these poets retrieved from Italian state archives (most of these data are published here in English for the very first time), and ultimately shows what the medieval invective tradition can add to our understanding of Dante’s Comedy.
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Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2019
- ISBN-Print
- 978-1-4985-6778-7
- ISBN-Online
- 978-1-4985-6779-4
- Publisher
- Lexington, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 338
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Contents No access
- List of Figures No access
- Acknowledgments No access
- Chapter OneThe Invective Genre in Danteand His ContemporariesAn Introduction No access Pages 1 - 46
- Chapter TwoThe Role of Invectivein Medieval Tuscany No access Pages 47 - 82
- Chapter ThreeRustico Filippi of Florence and theGuelph and Ghibelline Wars No access Pages 83 - 138
- Chapter FourCecco Angioleri of SienaBlame and Parody Underthe Governo dei Nove No access Pages 139 - 198
- Chapter FiveWar Propaganda, Activism,and Knighthood inFolgore da San Gimignano No access Pages 199 - 230
- Chapter SixHumor and Evil inDante’s Global Invective No access Pages 231 - 296
- Chapter SevenConclusionThe Ethics of Invective Poetryin Wartime: An Act of Aggressionor Encounter With the Other? No access Pages 297 - 300
- Bibliography No access Pages 301 - 328
- Index No access Pages 329 - 336
- About the Author No access Pages 337 - 338





