Words For/Against Power
Pietro Aretino’s Poetical Devices as Demystification of the Present
abstract
Investigating the Ragionamento (1534) and the Dialogo (1536), this paper aims at reviewing Pietro Aretino’s relationship with power, both political and cultural. The author takes advantage of his poetical abilities as means of self-affirmation and political blackmail, developing between Rome and Venice a new poetic language, in which metaphor takes on a value that is anything but literary. Aretino wants to establish a concrete relationship with the recipients of his texts through the very act of writing. To do so, he credits the idea of a physicality and complete reality of all the elements that make the message possible, creating political images that reveal the vile nature of the corrupted authority.
Keywords: Pietro Aretino • Power • Sex • Metaphor • Image