Italian Studies Seminar ‘Tasso’s epic poem and the crisis of Renaissance Literature’ Renzo Bragantini, University of Rome

School of Languages, Literatures & Culture, & The Moore Institute
Italian Studies Seminar

By a close reading of some pivotal episodes of Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata, as well as of some passages from his treatises (Discorsi dell’arte poetica; Discorsi del poema eroico), the lecture aims to point out how Tasso distances himself from some central issues of Renaissance literature. From a theoretical point of view, just to make an example, Tasso accepts with many distinctions the theory of imitation as it was carried out in the XVIth century. He also accepts the authority of Aristotle, but nevertheless he tries, as the so-called Lettere poetiche show at length, to escape some of the major Aristotle’s rules. But there is more to the issue, since in his poem Tasso tries to conflate unity and variety, emphasizing the latter. This is probably Tasso’s most important contribution to Renaissance literature. By choosing variety Tasso opts for a poem where love has a central and yet disturbing role, in no way lesser to war episodes. His option leads to a substantial imbalance, which the poet will try to capsize in the Gerusalemme conquistata.

As far as more general issues are concerned, in his poem Tasso seems to be doubtful about the possibility that humans can shape their destiny, and skeptical of human reason – which he often considers as deceitful – blaming love as a mental disarray, which diverts humans from their duties. Some of these stances are to be found also in Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, yet Tasso brings them to a break point. After Tasso’s work, nothing will be the same in late Renaissance literature.

RENZO BRAGANTINI is Full Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Rome, “La Sapienza”. He has taught at the universities of Macerata, Venezia, Potenza, and Udine. He has been appointed Visiting Professor in the following Universities: Yale, University of California Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins University, Universidade de São Paulo, University of Toronto. He is the author of Il governo del comico. Nuovi studî sulla narrativa italiana dal Tre al Cinquecento, Manziana (Roma), Vecchiarelli, 2014; and of, among others, the essays, I classici italiani nei libretti di Da Ponte, in Scrittori in musica. I classici italiani nel melodramma tra Seicento e Novecento, a cura di A. Rostagno e S. Tatti, Roma, Bulzoni, 2016 («Studi [e testi] italiani», XXXVI 2015), pp. 123-35; L’amicizia, la fama, il libro: sulla seconda epistola a Mainardo Cavalcanti, in Boccaccio 1313-2013, a cura di F. Ciabattoni, E. Filosa, K. Olson, Ravenna, Longo, 2015, pp. 107-15.

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Professor Paolo Bartoloni

Head of Discipline, Italian
Arts Millennium Building
National University of Ireland, Galway
University Road, Galway
Ireland

Tel. +353 (0)91 492392
Fax. +353 (0)91 495501
E-mail: paolo.bartoloni@nuigalway.ie

Recent publications:
Objects in Italian Life and Culture: Fiction, Migration, and Artificiality (Palgrave, 2016)
Sapere di scrivere. Svevo e gli ordigni di La coscienza di Zeno (Edizioni Il Carrubo, 2015)