Series | Medieval and Modern Philologies
Volume 27 | Monograph | Metafore e linguaggio figurato nel Medioevo e nell’opera di Dante
Metafore e linguaggio figurato nel Medioevo e nell’opera di Dante
open access | peer reviewed- Gaia Tomazzoli - Sapienza Università di Roma, Italia - email orcid profile
Abstract
This book offers an innovative analysis of Dante’s figurative language in relation to both the theoretical framework developed in his works and the discursive strategies realised in his poetry. In doing so, it also provides an overview of Medieval theories of figurative language, with their respective concerns and overlaps. The first part, composed of four chapters, explores how Dante discusses figurative language in a selection of crucial passages from Vita nova, De vulgari eloquentia, Convivio, the epistle to Cangrande, Monarchia, and the Commedia. Each of these passages is investigated with respect to the specific issues at stake in each work, thus tracing a clear progression in Dante’s thought on figurative language, which is mirrored by an increasingly complex and conscious metaphorical practice. Such issues are then contextualised in the wider picture of the various theories of figurative language established by different Medieval disciplines (artes poetriae; artes dictaminis; biblical exegesis; artes praedicandi; epistemology). The second part provides an in-depth analysis of metaphors in Dante’s Commedia, through a close reading of multiple case studies. This section presents the methodology adopted for the identification and classification of Dante’s metaphors, and its main outcomes in terms of both quantitative and qualitative data. Its three chapters explore the linguistic components of the metaphors (meaning shift, morphology, syntax), then their stylistic features (semantics and pragmatics), and finally their distribution and mutual connections. The contemporary approaches adopted throughout the book contribute to the increasing complexity of Medieval disciplines dealing with figurative language.
Keywords Linguistics • Metaphor • Medieval rhetoric • Stylistics • Figurative language • Dante
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-725-8 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-725-8 | ISBN (PRINT) 978-88-6969-726-5 | Published June 6, 2023 | Accepted Feb. 14, 2023 | Submitted Dec. 20, 2022 | Language it
Copyright © 2023 Gaia Tomazzoli. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
