Vernacular song in Dante's Florence
This thesis explores points of contact and affinity between traditions of medieval vernacular song (sung poetry in vernacular languages) and the vernacular poetic works of Dante Alighieri, focusing in particular on the pre-exile <em>Rime</em> (c. 1283–1302) and the <em>Vita nova<...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2023
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| _version_ | 1811139326406295552 |
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| author | Hughes, L |
| author2 | Leach, E |
| author_facet | Leach, E Hughes, L |
| author_sort | Hughes, L |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This thesis explores points of contact and affinity between traditions of medieval vernacular song (sung poetry in vernacular languages) and the vernacular poetic works of Dante Alighieri, focusing in particular on the pre-exile <em>Rime</em> (c. 1283–1302) and the <em>Vita nova</em> (c. 1293/94) in their Florentine context. It offers a polemical reassessment of Dante’s early activities as a lyric poet, situating them at the intersection of diverse (and diversely preserved) literary and musical traditions. Each chapter interrogates a key aspect of Dante’s lyric poetry by exploring it anew from the perspective of a contemporary tradition of Florentine vernacular song. In this respect, the dissertation builds on a recent critical trend in Dante Studies which seeks to approach Dante’s intellectual and artistic development in more meaningfully historicized terms. Alongside this historical focus, the thesis also engages closely with critical discourses emerging from New Lyric Studies, seeking to understand the ways in which lyric poetry — capaciously understood as an embodied, enacted, iterable event — enabled (and enables) appropriable subjectivities. Chapter 1 (‘<em>Dante-Trovatore</em>: Singing Poetry, Poeticizing Song’) explores Dante’s complex and frequently misconstrued relationship to the musical performance of secular vernacular poetry, what in <em>De vulgari eloquentia</em> he calls the ‘ars cantandi poetice’ (II, iii, 9). Chapter 2 (‘Dante-<em>Giullare</em>: “Popular” Poetry’) interrogates Dante’s relationship to <em>giullare</em> poetry (broadly conceived) and, more generally, explores the thorny methodological problems inherent in studying ephemeral repertoires of medieval song. Chapter 3 (‘Dante-<em>Laudese</em>: The Poetics of Praise’) examines the plausible influence of laude (devotional vernacular poetry) on Dante’s often invoked but seldom interrogated ‘stilo de la […] loda’ (VN XXVI [17]). In addition to these three chapters, a brief excursus after Chapter 1 examines Dante’s allusion in the opening lines of <em>Purgatorio</em> to Ovid’s account of the song contest between the Pierides and the Muses (Met. V, 294–678). |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:04:19Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:e56e45a1-50de-41a3-8691-8b644f7c2007 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:04:19Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:e56e45a1-50de-41a3-8691-8b644f7c20072024-05-07T15:06:38ZVernacular song in Dante's FlorenceThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:e56e45a1-50de-41a3-8691-8b644f7c2007Dante StudiesMedieval MusicologyEnglishHyrax Deposit2023Hughes, LLeach, ESoutherden, FThis thesis explores points of contact and affinity between traditions of medieval vernacular song (sung poetry in vernacular languages) and the vernacular poetic works of Dante Alighieri, focusing in particular on the pre-exile <em>Rime</em> (c. 1283–1302) and the <em>Vita nova</em> (c. 1293/94) in their Florentine context. It offers a polemical reassessment of Dante’s early activities as a lyric poet, situating them at the intersection of diverse (and diversely preserved) literary and musical traditions. Each chapter interrogates a key aspect of Dante’s lyric poetry by exploring it anew from the perspective of a contemporary tradition of Florentine vernacular song. In this respect, the dissertation builds on a recent critical trend in Dante Studies which seeks to approach Dante’s intellectual and artistic development in more meaningfully historicized terms. Alongside this historical focus, the thesis also engages closely with critical discourses emerging from New Lyric Studies, seeking to understand the ways in which lyric poetry — capaciously understood as an embodied, enacted, iterable event — enabled (and enables) appropriable subjectivities. Chapter 1 (‘<em>Dante-Trovatore</em>: Singing Poetry, Poeticizing Song’) explores Dante’s complex and frequently misconstrued relationship to the musical performance of secular vernacular poetry, what in <em>De vulgari eloquentia</em> he calls the ‘ars cantandi poetice’ (II, iii, 9). Chapter 2 (‘Dante-<em>Giullare</em>: “Popular” Poetry’) interrogates Dante’s relationship to <em>giullare</em> poetry (broadly conceived) and, more generally, explores the thorny methodological problems inherent in studying ephemeral repertoires of medieval song. Chapter 3 (‘Dante-<em>Laudese</em>: The Poetics of Praise’) examines the plausible influence of laude (devotional vernacular poetry) on Dante’s often invoked but seldom interrogated ‘stilo de la […] loda’ (VN XXVI [17]). In addition to these three chapters, a brief excursus after Chapter 1 examines Dante’s allusion in the opening lines of <em>Purgatorio</em> to Ovid’s account of the song contest between the Pierides and the Muses (Met. V, 294–678). |
| spellingShingle | Dante Studies Medieval Musicology Hughes, L Vernacular song in Dante's Florence |
| title | Vernacular song in Dante's Florence |
| title_full | Vernacular song in Dante's Florence |
| title_fullStr | Vernacular song in Dante's Florence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Vernacular song in Dante's Florence |
| title_short | Vernacular song in Dante's Florence |
| title_sort | vernacular song in dante s florence |
| topic | Dante Studies Medieval Musicology |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hughesl vernacularsongindantesflorence |