Lexis Poetica, retorica e comunicazione nella tradizione classica

Journal | Lexis
Journal issue | Num. 38 (n.s.) – Giugno 2020 – Fasc. 1
Research Article | Lo spazio, lo sguardo, la voce

Lo spazio, lo sguardo, la voce

Intertestualità e intermedialità nel Peristephanon 9 di Prudenzio

Abstract

A good example of literature’s power to continuously rewrite geographic space by renewing inherited paradigms could be found in Prudentius’ Peristephanon, which provides a sort of re-mapping of the Western landscape in a martyrial perspective. My paper focuses in particular on the narration of Cassian’s martyrdom, providing a new in-depth analysis of Peristephanon IX. Firstly, the poet claims possession of the martyr’s place, Forum Cornelii, by dismissing its pagan past; then, in the ekphrasis of the fresco depicting the martyr, he enacts a complex itinerary of the gaze and elaborates a complex retractatio of the description of Juno’s temple of Verg. Aen. 1.446-465; finally, the introduction of a second-degree narrator provides an authoritative interpretation of the image, leading to appropriate devotion to the saint. The poem, thus, provides both an interesting example of integrated intermediality, and a reflection on the hermeneutical risks of unmediated viewing in a Christian scopic regime.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: March 31, 2020 | Accepted: May 25, 2020 | Published June 30, 2020 | Language: it

Keywords PrudentiusIntermedialityLate Latin PoetryIntertextualityLiterary representation of space


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