Abstract
Dante’s linguistic research has long been studied in terms of a literary and linguistic attempt of canon formation that led him to become the “father of Italian language”. However, what about focusing on the revolutionary power of Dante’s determination to raise the vernacular to the status of poetic language of the highest subject? What are its implications, as far as politics and identity are concerned? Indeed, we have to consider that, even if in Dante’s time the vernacular was the most spoken language, it was a minority one in terms of poetry, not worthy of elevated literary undertaking. Then, what this life-long linguistic experimentation tells us about the poet’s life? This paper looks into these questions and explores issues of linguistic identity from the point of view of the exiled poet, along with the dichotomy between Dante as canon builder and revolutionary thinker. We conduct a reflection about Dante being an intellectual and linguistic theorist who reshape traditional rules opening them to modernity, and Dante becoming a classic of world literary tradition. In order to carry out this investigation, we provide an overview of Dante’s works in Latin and vernacular, then analyzing linguistic theory as exposed in the De vulgari eloquentia, to finally look more specifically into the plurilingualism and pluristylism of the Commedia, which he engages in after abandoning the DVE’s project. This leads us to consider Dante’s overarching scope as plural minority author and essential part of the canon at the same time.
Presenters
Annalisa Maria GuzzardiStudent, PhD, City University of New York - The Graduate Center, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
DANTE, IDENTITY, LITERARY CANON, LANGUAGE, EXILE, POETRY, REVOLUTION, MINORITY, PLURALITY
