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Trecento Variations in the Epic Tradition: Dante's Commedia, Boccaccio's Teseida, and Petrarch's Africa

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Trecento Variations in the Epic Tradition: Dante's Commedia, Boccaccio's Teseida, and Petrarch's Africa University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2019 Trecento Variations In The Epic Tradition: Dante's Commedia, Boccaccio's Teseida, And Petrarch's Africa Andrea Gazzoni University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Italian Literature Commons Recommended Citation Gazzoni, Andrea, "Trecento Variations In The Epic Tradition: Dante's Commedia, Boccaccio's Teseida, And Petrarch's Africa" (2019). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 3599. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3599 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3599 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Trecento Variations In The Epic Tradition: Dante's Commedia, Boccaccio's Teseida, And Petrarch's Africa Abstract This study investigates the transformations of the epic code of Western tradition in Dante’s Commedia, Boccaccio’s Teseida, and Petrarch’s Africa. Although none of the foundational works of early Italian literature between XIII and XIV century can be defined as an epic in the canonical sense of the term, in that age of cultural transition in which vernacular culture emerged and new subjectivities took shape, an “epic intention” was at work in a culture that was in search of new articulations for its sense of beginning, continuity, and totality. In particular, a new relation to the past, especially to antiquity, had to be negotiated. For all their differences as to form, outcome, language, intention, context, and composition history, the Commedia, Teseida, and Africa were based on the awareness of the historicity of the epic genre as it had been transmitted to late medieval Italy, hence they were conscious of variation as the motor of the evolution of a genre that from antiquity had to be translated into modern culture. The generative presence of the epic in the Italian Trecento has been scarcely acknowledged by scholars in Italian Studies; at the same time, in the domains of comparative literature or literary theory very little attention has been paid to the ways in which the Commedia, Teseida, and Africa both explore and transform the epic tradition. While in theoretico-historical accounts of the epic they have been mostly considered as deviations from the epic models of the classical age, I contend that they provide us with an extraordinary vantage point to understand the dynamics of the epic as such, because of their unique focus on variation. With an introductory chapter on variation in the theory and practice of the epic, I lay the groundwork for the subsequent chapters, where with an alternation of close readings and theoretical vistas I examine the ways in which Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch articulate variation and historicity through an epic code that is polyvalent, polyphonic, and polygenetic. The epic of the Italian Trecento shows us the dynamics of a genre always in the flux of temporality. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Romance Languages First Advisor David . Wallace Keywords Boccaccio, Dante, Epic, Italian, Petrarch, Variation Subject Categories Italian Literature This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3599 TRECENTO VARIATIONS IN THE EPIC TRADITION: DANTE'S COMMEDIA, BOCCACCIO'S TESEIDA, AND PETRARCH'S AFRICA Andrea Gazzoni A DISSERTATION in Italian For the Graduate Group in Romance Languages Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 Supervisor of Dissertation __________________________ David Wallace, Judith Rodin Professor of English Graduate Group Chairperson __________________________ Eva Del Soldato, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages Dissertation Committee Rita Copeland, Sheli Z. and Burton X. Rosenberg Professor of the Humanities Joseph Farrell, Professor of Classical Studies TRECENTO VARIATIONS IN THE EPIC TRADITION: DANTE’S COMMEDIA , BOCCACCIO’S TESEIDA , AND PETRARCH’S AFRICA COPYRIGHT 2019 Andrea Gazzoni ii To the memory of my grandmothers and my father iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Toward the end of this long journey at the University of Pennsylvania, I hesitate and look back at the road traveled. What I see is not the road itself, but the people who have made it worthwhile: teachers, colleagues, friends, loved ones. With them, to study has turned out to be one and the same with studium . First, I thank Marica, without whose support nothing would have been possible. There would be many reasons to thank friends in Philadelphia such as John and Toby Harke, and Sheila Cavanaugh. Two words sum them all: true friendship. I came to Penn with an interest in modern and contemporary epic and ended up by writing a dissertation on medieval Italian epic. In the beginning, I could not expect such a turn in my path; if that happened, it was thanks to the inspiration I received from teachers. To them, I owe more than I can say. If I had not attended their classes, I would have done something else, and certainly would not have had as much fun. I will just name the most important to me, and I am so glad that some of them have been members of my dissertation committee: Kevin Brownlee, Rita Copeland, Eva del Soldato, Joseph Farrell, Carla Locatelli, David Wallace. I thank them for their generosity, enthusiasm, open-mindedness, and support, each in his or her unique way. iv ABSTRACT TRECENTO VARIATIONS IN THE EPIC TRADITION: DANTE’S COMMEDIA , BOCCACCIO’S TESEIDA , AND PETRARCH’S AFRICA Andrea Gazzoni David Wallace This study investigates the transformations of the epic code of Western tradition in Dante’s Commedia , Boccaccio’s Teseida , and Petrarch’s Africa . Although none of the foundational works of early Italian literature between XIII and XIV century can be defined as an epic in the canonical sense of the term, in that age of cultural transition in which vernacular culture emerged and new subjectivities took shape, an “epic intention” was at work in a culture that was in search of new articulations for its sense of beginning, continuity, and totality. In particular, a new relation to the past, especially to antiquity, had to be negotiated. For all their differences as to form, outcome, language, intention, context, and composition history, the Commedia , Teseida , and Africa were based on the awareness of the historicity of the epic genre as it had been transmitted to late medieval Italy, hence they were conscious of variation as the motor of the evolution of a genre that from antiquity had to be translated into modern culture. The generative presence of the epic in the Italian Trecento has been scarcely acknowledged by scholars in Italian Studies; at the same time, in the domains of comparative literature or literary theory very little attention has been paid to the ways in which the Commedia , Teseida , and Africa both explore and transform the epic tradition. While in theoretico-historical accounts of v the epic they have been mostly considered as deviations from the epic models of the classical age, I contend that they provide us with an extraordinary vantage point to understand the dynamics of the epic as such, because of their unique focus on variation. With an introductory chapter on variation in the theory and practice of the epic, I lay the groundwork for the subsequent chapters, where with an alternation of close readings and theoretical vistas I examine the ways in which Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch articulate variation and historicity through an epic code that is polyvalent, polyphonic, and polygenetic. The epic of the Italian Trecento shows us the dynamics of a genre always in the flux of temporality. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv ABSTRACT v PREFACE viii 1. A Tradition at Variance 1 1.1. In Theory 6 1.1.1. Matrix, Variation, Tradition 6 1.1.2. Polyphony and Dialogue 19 1.2. In History 24 1.2.1. The Polyvalent Text: The Existence of the Epic in the Middle Ages 25 1.2.2 Epics of Late Antiquity: A Code Pagan and Christian 32 1.2.3 Allegorical Epic: Universalization and Interiorization 38 1.2.4. Historiae 45 1.3. Authorial Self-Inscriptions 52 1.3.1. Commedia : Dante’s Epic Io 53 1.3.2. Teseida : The Epic Poet as Lover 61 1.3.3. Africa : Composite Epic, Composite Self 68 1.3.4. Possibilities, Totalities 82 2. Architectures of Totality: Dante’s Commedia 84 2.1. Dante and the Epic: Situating the Question 84 2.2. Itinerarium Mentis in Genera 101 2.2.1. “Commedia ” as a Title, or: “This is Not a Genre” 102 2.2.2. Genre-Names in the Commedia 108 2.2.3. The Commedia as a Commentary 120 2.3. Patterns of Transformation: Amplification and Miniaturization 125 2.4. “Forse di retro a me”: Dante to Boccaccio and Petrarch 135 3. A Middleman’s Epic: Boccaccio’s Teseida 140 3.1. The Teseida and the Epic: Situating the Question 140 3.2. How (Not) to Begin an Epic: On Teseida I and II 149 3.2.1 Inconsistency: An Epistle, Two Premessioni , and a Gloss 151 vii 3.2.2. Dyptich: Emilia from Scythia; Arcita and Palemone from Thebes 158 3.2.3. Thebaid and Metamorphoses : Epic Networks 165 3.2.4. To Begin with the Matter of Love (I): Dantean Subtexts 176 3.2.5. To Begin with the Matter of Love (II): The Amazons 180 3.3. Epic and Romance 191 3.3.1. To Give Mars Some Rest: Interval and Detour in Teseida III 200 3.3.2. Indeterminacy 212 3.4. Epic as a Go-Between 214 4. Epic Dreamed: Petrarch’s Africa 225 4.1. The Africa and the Epic: Situating the Question 225 4.2 The Architecture of the Poem: Historia and Digressions 239 4.3.
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