"The Reader's Neck Brought Into Danger by A

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

32 3. Zur Genese, Typologie und Funktion narrativer Metalepsen: Versuch ei- ner systematischen Beschreibung 3.1. Narrative Metalepsen und die Erzähltechnik des entrelacement Transgressive Relationierungen von discours und histoire, von erzählender Welt und erzählter Welt, können auch in diskreterer und weniger spektakulärer Weise realisiert sein, als dies in den meisten der bisher vorgestellten Beispiele der Fall war. Dabei ist vor allem an jene mehr oder weniger konventionalisierten narrativer Formeln zu denken, die primär und offensicht- lich im Dienst der diskursiven Organisation der histoire und Integration ihrer verschiedenen Handlungsstränge stehen. Vertraut sind solche Formeln aus auktorialen Erzähltexten des acht- zehnten und vor allem des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts; besonders häufig begegnen sie - aus naheliegenden, später aber noch näher ins Auge zu fassenden Gründen - in den figuren- und episodenreichen, vielsträngigen Genres des historischen und des Abenteuerromans. Sie sind jedoch, wie man sehen wird, schon vorher variantenreich vertreten und später, auch in erzähl- technisch avanzierter Literatur des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, keinesfalls verpönt. Ich nenne zunächst einige Beispiele: [7] Leaving the Saxon chiefs to return to their banquet as soon as their ungratified curiosity should permit them to attend to the calls of their half-satiated appetite, we have to look in upon the yet more severe imprisonment of Isaac of York. (Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Kap. 22; S. 225) [8] Lasciamoli andare, e torniamo un passo indietro a prendere Agnese e Perpetua, che abbiam lasciate in una certa stradetta. (Alessandro Manzoni, I promessi sposi, Kap. 8; S. 249) [9] Nous laisserons, comme eux, Jehan dormir sous le regard bienveillant de la belle étoile, et nous les suivrons aussi, s'il plaît au lecteur. (Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris, VII, 7; S. 287) [10] Laissons-le suivre le chemin du camp, protégé par l'écuyer et les deux mousquetaires, et revenons à Athos. (Alexandre Dumas, Les trois mousquetaires, Kap. 45; S. 584) [11] Laissons-le, tandis que le diable amusé le regarde glisser sans bruit la petite clef dans la serrure (...) Il est temps de retrouver Bernard. Voici que dans le lit d'Olivier il s'éveille. (André Gide, Les faux-monnayeurs, I, 5; S. 60) Auch weitgehend konventionell anmutende Erzählformeln wie diese lassen sich als Hybridi- sierung oder als 'Performativierung' einer erzählenden oder berichtenden Sprachhandlung beschreiben. Der Erzähler, oder vielmehr die durch das obligatorische 'wir' ("we have to look"; "lasciamoli"; etc.) beschworene Kommunikationsgemeinschaft von Erzähler und Leser, scheint mit den Figuren der Geschichte in einem homogenen raum-zeitlichen Kontinuum zu interagieren. Auch hier wird also Simultaneität und Kontiguität von erzähltem Geschehen, Erzählakt und Rezeption supponiert. Plausibel (im Sinne von 'real möglich' oder 'mit den Ob- 33 ligationen einer faktualen Erzählung vereinbar') wäre eine solche Relation der Simultaneität und Kontiguität nur unter den Bedingungen einer oralen Berichts- oder Kommunikationssitu- ation.63 Eben eine solche, Augenzeugenschaft voraussetzende Kommunikationssituation soll natürlich in den hier betrachteten Textpassagen zum Zweck einer 'szenischen' Vergegenwärti- gung des erzählten Geschehens simuliert oder beschworen werden - der Erzähler agiert in diesen Passagen gleichsam als teichoskopische Berichtsinstanz.64 Nun ist der Bericht des Tei- choskopen im Drama oder in einem Erzähltext65 zwar in der Tat in eine orale Kommunikati- onssituation eingebettet, allerdings handelt es sich um eine dargestellte oder erzählte orale Kommunikationssituation: Der Bericht ist primär und unmittelbar an histoire-interne Zuhörer adressiert. Dagegen ist der Bericht des 'teichoskopisch' agierenden Erzählers an eine histoire- externe 'Zuhörerschaft' gerichtet. Mit anderen Worten: Die plausibilisierende Bedingung einer oralen Berichtssituation ist in den gegebenen Beispielen natürlich nicht erfüllt; vielmehr sind diese durch ihren pragmatischen Kontext zwingend auf das Medium und den Modus der schriftlichen Erzählung festgelegt, wobei die Literalität der Kommunikation in dem Hugo- Beispiel durch die explizite Anrede des Adressaten als einem lesenden noch besonders mar- kiert ist. In einer Synopse narrativer Metalepsen repräsentieren die zitierten Passagen, wie man sehen wird, eher rudimentäre Varianten. Wohl trifft auf sie das Merkmal modaler Hybridität und damit nomineller Simultaneität und Kontiguität von erzählender und erzählter Welt zu; ver- zichtet wird freilich auf die 'Möblierung' des solchermaßen postulierten paralogischen Raums mit outrierten Effekten, wie dies in den eingangs vorgestellten Metalepsen mehr oder weniger drastisch der Fall war. Der systematische Ort solcher Formeln und die für sie zu veranschla- gende Relation von Struktur und Funktion wird später noch ausführlich erörtert. Der folgende Versuch einer systematischen Beschreibung soll mit einer These verknüpft wer- den, die sich auf die historische Genese metaleptischer Konfigurierungen in Erzähltexten be- zieht und die sich, wie ich glaube, angesichts der histoire-integrativen Funktion der meisten Metalepsen, wie aufwendig diese auch immer gestaltet sein mögen, geradezu aufdrängt. Die These lautet, daß auch komplexere und spektakuläre narrative Transgressionen als Strukturen beschreibbar sind, die sich über eine Reihe von Transformationsschritten aus elementaren und nicht-transgressiven narrativen Integrationsformeln generieren lassen, als deren originärer historischer Ort die mittelalterliche Narrativik und namentlich die arturische Epik des 13. Jahrhunderts gelten darf. Der genaue Status und die Reichweite dieser These sollen in Kapitel 3.7 eingehend diskutiert werden; sie wird dort einige modifizierende Einschränkungen bzw. Erweiterungen erfahren. 63 Streng genommen gibt es auch in diesem Fall keine echte, d.h. 'instantane' Simultaneität von Bericht und Berichtetem, äußerstenfalls, wie bereits festgestellt wurde, die asymptotische Annäherung des anterioren Zeitzu- stands des berichteten Geschehens an den seiner Versprachlichung. 64 Dabei beansprucht er freilich eine Omnipräsenz ermöglichende Mobilität, die für den Teichoskopen in einer dramatischen oder narrativen Fiktion schwerlich in Frage käme. Tatsächlich nominieren (oder antizipieren, wenn man so will) die hier zitierten narratorialen Einlassungen eine Kommunikationssituation, die erst unter den Bedingungen telekommunikativer Techniken - etwa des Telephons oder des Radios - zumindest partiell reali- sierbar ist. So wären Formeln wie die hier zitierten in der radiophonen Live-Reportage eines Sportereignisses oder eines Karnevalsumzuges durchaus denkbar. Da es sich indessen bei den zitierten Texten um 'Berichte' ver- gangener, abgeschlossener Ereignisse handelt, setzte ihre extraliterarische Realisierbarkeit, nach der die Welt - R ä u m e als syntopen Erfahrungsraum konstituierenden Telekommunikation, wohl auch noch die Erfindung einer Wellschen Zeitmaschine zur Synchronisierung der Welt - Z e i t e n voraus. 65 Scotts Ivanhoe enthält eine Szene, die die 'klassische' (d.h. homerische) Konfiguration der 'Mauerschau' recht genau und dies offenbar ganz bewusst wiederholt: Rebecca berichtet dem schwerverletzt darniederliegenden Ivanhoe (und damit indirekt auch dem Leser) von dem Kampfgeschehen vor den Toren der belagerten Burg, das Ivanhoe, präsent, aber ans Krankenlager gefesselt, selbst nicht beobachten kann. Vgl. Ivanhoe, Kap. 29, S. 311f. 34 Es wird sich jedoch zeigen, daß, wenn nicht das gesamte, so doch ein großer Teil der hier interessierenden metaleptischen Phänomene unter der Perspektive dieser These sinnvoll sys- tematisierbar ist. Nicht zuletzt wird mit ihr die Genese metaleptischer Erzählweisen als spezi- fischer transgressiver und paradoxer pragmatischer Strukturen in einen Erklärungszusam- menhang mit der historischen Herausbildung komplexer mehrsträngiger und polyzentrischer Handlungsstrukturen und deren erzähltechnischer Bewältigung gestellt. Von der Forschung wird ein solches Novum für den Perceval Chrétiens und den anonymen Prosa-Lancelot gel- tend gemacht oder zumindest im Umkreis dieser Texte situiert.66 Die diskursive Verwaltung polyzentrischer und gleichsam fugierter Erzählwelten dieser Art wird seit Lot mit dem Ter- minus des entrelacement belegt67; gemeint ist mit der textilen Metapher die Parallelführung zweier oder mehrerer Handlungsstränge in einem Text und deren additive Verknüpfung - oder eben Verflechtung - durch eine Erzählinstanz, die den jeweiligen Wechsel des Erzählstranges in mehr oder weniger formelhaften Wendungen begründet oder motiviert.68 Die Herausbildung der entrelacement-Technik im Umkreis des höfischen Romans hat in der Forschung teils divergierende, teils komplementäre Deutungen erfahren; u.a. ist diese Technik als Symptom gesteigerter Komplexität des epochalen Handlungs- und Geschehensbegriffs und als Ausdruck einer gegenüber den chansons de geste grundlegend veränderten, nämlich literalisierten Kommunikationssituation interpretiert worden69; die Entfaltung dieser Technik wurde als das zentrale Moment eines Prozesses der "Verwilderung des Romans als Ursprung seiner Möglichkeit" (Stierle) gesehen. Auf jeden Fall wird man sie Tendenzen einer 'Subjek- tivierung' des Erzählens zuordnen können, d.h. einer Exponierung des Subjekts der Erzählung bzw. des Erzählakts selbst gegenüber der erzählten Geschichte.70 Indem nun, in Verfolgung der oben formulierten These, metaleptisches Erzählen auf die entrelacement-Technik zurück-
Recommended publications
  • The Pathways of Knowledge in Boiardo and Ariosto: the Case of Rodamonte Author(S): Jo Ann Cavallo Source: Italica, Vol
    The Pathways of Knowledge in Boiardo and Ariosto: The Case of Rodamonte Author(s): Jo Ann Cavallo Source: Italica, Vol. 79, No. 3 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 305-320 Published by: American Association of Teachers of Italian Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3656094 . Accessed: 24/04/2014 10:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Association of Teachers of Italian is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Italica. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.59.152.32 on Thu, 24 Apr 2014 10:44:06 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ThePathways of Knowledgein Boiardo andAriosto: The Case of Rodamonte "Allmen by naturedesire to know."- Aristotle,Metaphysics How do we come to know?What can be known?How can trueknowl- edge be distinguishedfrom belief and opinion?What are the effects of knowledge? How does knowledge shape the course of our actions? Theseare some of the questionsthat philosophers were askingin fifteenth- and sixteenth-centuryItaly. The answerswould have differeddepending on whether one adhered to scholastic Aristotelianism,Neoplatonism, "naturephilosophies," or Skepticism,but all schools of thought were engaged in discussions about the nature of knowledge.1 Philosophers, moreover,were not the only ones interestedin the processof knowledge acquisitionand the relationof knowledge to action.In this essay I focus on how the poets MatteoMaria Boiardo and Lodovico Ariosto develop their thoughts on the subjectin their romanceepics, Orlandoinnamorato and Orlandofurioso.
    [Show full text]
  • Renaissance and Reformation, 1978-79
    Sound and Silence in Ariosto's Narrative DANIEL ROLFS Ever attentive to the Renaissance ideals of balance and harmony, the poet of the Orlando Furioso, in justifying an abrupt transition from one episode of his work to another, compares his method to that of the player of an instrument, who constantly changes chord and varies tone, striving now for the flat, now for the sharp. ^ Certainly this and other similar analogies of author to musician^ well characterize much of the artistry of Ludovico Ariosto, who, like Tasso, even among major poets possesses an unusually keen ear, and who continually enhances his narrative by means of imaginative and often complex plays upon sound. The same keenness of ear, however, also enables Ariosto to enrich numerous scenes and episodes of his poem through the creation of the deepest of silences. The purpose of the present study is to examine and to illustrate the wide range of his literary techniques in each regard. While much of the poet's sensitivity to the aural can readily be observed in his similes alone, many of which contain a vivid auditory component,^ his more significant treatments of sound are of course found throughout entire passages of his work. Let us now turn to such passages, which, for the convenience of the non-speciaUst, will be cited in our discussion both in the Italian text edited by Remo Ceserani, and in the excellent English prose translation by Allan Gilbert."* In one instance, contrasting sounds, or perhaps more accurately, the trans- formation of one sound into another, even serves the implied didactic content of an episode with respect to the important theme of distin- guishing illusion from reality.
    [Show full text]
  • A Nomadology of Inamoramento De Orlando and Star Wars
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 12-19-2018 2:00 PM Romance, Politics and Minor Art: A Nomadology of Inamoramento de Orlando and Star Wars Andrea Privitera The University of Western Ontario / Università degli studi di Padova Supervisor Boulter, Jonathan The University of Western Ontario Joint Supervisor Baldassarri, Guido University of Padova Graduate Program in Comparative Literature A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Andrea Privitera 2018 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Italian Literature Commons, and the Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Privitera, Andrea, "Romance, Politics and Minor Art: A Nomadology of Inamoramento de Orlando and Star Wars" (2018). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 5921. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5921 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstracts English While existing theories of romance (in particular, those formulated by Northrop Frye and Fredric Jameson) accurately characterize this literary mode as a highly politicized example of art, this thesis contends that the political nature of romance is broader and more complex than discussed so far. In order to offer a new and comprehensive political theory of romance, this work proposes a comparison between two historically and culturally diverse examples of romance, that is Matteo Maria Boiardo’s chivalric poem Inamoramento de Orlando and George Lucas’ space opera film Star Wars.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Garnier's Bradamante (1582): an English Translation of Act IV, with An
    Robert Garnier's Bradamante (1582): An English Translation of Act IV, With an Introduction Concerning the Historical Development of the Title Character An Honors Thesis (HONRS 499) by Nathan Rush Thesis Advisor Dr. Donald Gilman Ball State University Muncie, Indiana May 2009 Expected Date of Graduation: December 2009 c I ( f '-11 ," -11 ! ( .~ ..;.3 0 Table of Contents ;.' ( , . k -il' ~ , ' f 1. Abstract .................................................................. '" .................................................... 3 2. Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 4 3. Introduction .................................................................................................................. 5 4. Difficulties of Translation .......................................................................................... 16 5. Works Cited ................................................................................................................ 18 6. Translation .................................................................................................................. 20 7. Endnotes ..................................................................................................................... 39 2 Abstract The title character of Robert Garnier's Bradamante (1582) was introduced to French literature through the matiere de France (Matter of France), epic poems written during the Middle Ages. The personage of Bradamante was expanded over time
    [Show full text]
  • The Moslem Enemy in Renaissance Epic: Ariosto, Tasso, and Camoens
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette History Faculty Research and Publications History, Department of 1-1-1977 The oM slem Enemy in Renaissance Epic: Ariosto, Tasso, and Camoens John Donnelly Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. Yale Italian Studies, Vol. I, No. 1 (1977): 162-170. © 1977 Yale Italian Studies. Used with permission. The Moslem Enemy in Renaissance Epic: Ariosto, Tasso and Camoens John Patrick Donnelly, S.J. The Renaissance produced many tracts and descriptions dealing with Mos- lems, such as those by Ogier de Busbecq and Phillipe du Fresne-Canaye,' which remain the main source for gauging western attitudes toward Moslems, but these can be supplemented by popular literature which reflects, forms, and gives classic expression to the ideas and stereotypes of a culture.' This study examines and compares the image.of the Moslem in the three greatest epics of the sixteenth century, Ariosto's Orlando furioso, Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata, and Camoens's Os Lusiadas." All three epics enjoyed wide popularity and present Christian heroes struggling against Moslem enemies. Ludovico Ariosto, courtier to the d'Este lords of Ferrara, first published Orlando furioso in 1516 but continued to polish and expand it until 1532. With 38,728 lines, it is the longest poem of the Renaissance, perhaps of west- ern literature, to attain wide popularity. It describes the defense of Paris by Charlemagne and his knights against the Moors of Spain and Africa. This was traditional material already developed by the medieval chansons de geste and by Orlando innamorato of Matteo Maria Boiardo, who preceded Ariosto as court poet at Ferrara.
    [Show full text]
  • Ariosto and Tasso. Nancy Dersofi Bryn Mawr College
    Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature Volume 1 Article 4 Number 1 Summer 1999 Summer 1999 Review of Valeria Finucci, Renaissance Transactions: Ariosto and Tasso. Nancy Dersofi Bryn Mawr College Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmrcl Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Recommended Citation Dersofi, Nancy (1999). Review of "Review of Valeria Finucci, Renaissance Transactions: Ariosto and Tasso.," Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature: Vol. 1 : No. 1 Available at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmrcl/vol1/iss1/4 This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/bmrcl/vol1/iss1/4 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dersofi: Dersofi on Finucci Valeria Finucci, ed., Renaissance Transactions: Ariosto and Tasso. Durham: Duke UP, 1999. 296 pp. ISBN 0822322951. Reviewed by Nancy Dersofi, Bryn Mawr College This handsome volume of essays on Ariosto and Tassso addresses the contrasting styles of the two Renaissance epic poets whose works are both a milestone in literary history and a turning point in discussions about the nature of the modern narrative and how to read it. In her introduction, Finucci reviews the sixteenth-century argument that viewed Ariosto's Orlando furioso (1532), digressive, fragmented, ironic, as the epitome of chivalric romance and read Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata (1581) as a unified epic premised on a single moral truth, equal to the epic achievements of Homer and Virgil. Recent criticism has taken a different tack, celebrating Ariosto's skepticism and observing discontinuity in Tasso's poetics. Finucci presents her collection of essays as a book designed to explore new perspectives on the poems and to foster dialogue among the various critical approaches they represent.
    [Show full text]
  • Estudio Y Edición De El Vencedor De Sí Mismo De Álvaro Cubillo De Aragón
    TESIS DOCTORAL Título Estudio y edición de El vencedor de sí mismo de Álvaro Cubillo de Aragón Autor/es María del Mar Torres Ruiz Director/es Francisco Domínguez Matito y María Isabel Martínez López Facultad Titulación Departamento Curso Académico 2014-2015 Estudio y edición de El vencedor de sí mismo de Álvaro Cubillo de Aragón, tesis doctoral de María del Mar Torres Ruiz, dirigida por Francisco Domínguez Matito y María Isabel Martínez López (publicada por la Universidad de La Rioja), se difunde bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 3.0 Unported. Permisos que vayan más allá de lo cubierto por esta licencia pueden solicitarse a los titulares del copyright. © El autor © Universidad de La Rioja, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2016 publicaciones.unirioja.es E-mail: [email protected] FACULTAD DE LETRAS Y DE LA EDUCACIÓN DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOLOGÍA HISPÁNICA Y CLÁSICA ESTUDIO Y EDICIÓN DE EL VENCEDOR DE SÍ MISMO DE ÁLVARO CUBILLO DE ARAGÓN TESIS DOCTORAL MARÍA DEL MAR TORRES RUIZ DIRECTORES DR. FRANCISCO DOMÍNGUEZ MATITO DRA. MARÍA ISABEL MARTÍNEZ LÓPEZ LOGROÑO, 2015 MARÍA DEL MAR TORRES RUIZ ESTUDIO Y EDICIÓN DE EL VENCEDOR DE SÍ MISMO DE ÁLVARO CUBILLO DE ARAGÓN TESIS DOCTORAL DIRECTORES DR. FRANCISCO DOMÍNGUEZ MATITO DRA. MARÍA ISABEL MARTÍNEZ LÓPEZ LOGROÑO, 2015 - 1 - - 2 - ÍNDICE GENERAL PRESENTACIÓN 7 I. INTRODUCCIÓN GENERAL 15 1. LVARO CUBILLO DE ARAGÓN: BIOGRAFÍA Y DRAMATURGIA 17 1.1. APUNTES BIOGRÁFICOS 17 1.2. APUNTES SOBRE SU PRODUCCIÓN LITERARIA 20 2. LA LITERATURA DE CABALLERÍAS Y SU TRASCENDENCIA EN EL TEATRO DEL SIGLO DE ORO 26 2.1. EL CONCEPTO DE LA CABALLERÍA 26 2.2.
    [Show full text]
  • Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1532) Orlando Furioso Is an Italian Epic Poem by Ludovico Ariosto Which Has Exerted a Wide Influence on Later Culture
    Galician Princess Isabella character in Orlando Furioso epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto (1532) Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1532) Orlando furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532. Orlando Furioso is a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's unfinished romance Orlando Innamorato (Orlando in Love, published posthumously in 1495). In its historical setting and characters, it shares some features with the Old French Chanson de Roland of the eleventh century, which tells of the death of Roland. The story is also a chivalric romance which stemmed from a tradition beginning in the late 1 Middle Ages and continuing in popularity in the 16th century and well into the 17th. Galician Princess Isabel in Orlando Furioso NOT the Isabel (d’Este) mentioned by Melissa in Canto XIII. Orlando finds XII, Backstory and travels with Orlando XIII, mentioned in XVIII as Zerbino’s lover, Gabrina lies to Zerbino about her XX, Rescues Zerbino XXIII, Death of Zerbino and saved by hermit XXIV, captured by Rodomonte XXVIII, slain by Rodomonte XXIX Classical Types Arethusa, Daphne, Juliet Daughter of the King of Galicia, Lover of Zerbino, Kidnapped and Slain by Rodomonte TLDR Beautiful Moor Loses Star-Crossed Lover, Pulls Surprise Death on Would-be Rapist Summary The Christian Scottish Prince Zerbino wins Isabel’s heart when he attends a tournament in her father’s kingdom of Galicia. The faith-crossed lovers arrange an elopement that will bring Isabel by ship to Scotland, but a storm leaves Isabel stranded with a small crew of survivors.
    [Show full text]
  • Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, the Thousand and One Nights, and the Hundred and One Nights
    Re/Writing the Orient: Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, the Thousand and One Nights, and the Hundred and One Nights Amanda Batarseh Canto XXIII marks a tragicomic turning point in the Orlando Furioso, as the tension sustaining the titular character’s epic stoicism and romantic chivalry falls away to reveal a maniacal anti- hero. This canto’s staging of Orlando’s madness is, in Albert Ascoli’s words, the “center of ‘otherness’ in the poem,”1 unsettling the binary of medieval and classical literary traditions that Ariosto draws on, and suggesting a novel genre of literary expression. In this article, I explore one of Ariosto’s avenues of disrupting ostensible polarities—his use of dynamic intertextual practices that write and rewrite the “Orient.” I contend that the Furioso both expresses and unsettles opposing impulses, something I will argue by reframing Ascoli’s elaboration of crisis (a “double focus” upon “concord and discord”) to encompass the geo-historical domain of Arabic cultural exchange in the medieval Mediterranean.2 Focusing on Ariosto’s resounding echoes of the Thousand and One Nights’ and the lesser-known Hundred and One Nights’ frame tales, I seek to illuminate the Furioso’s double focus upon movement toward and away from Muslim- Arab cultural affiliation, a push-pull that opens a space of difference where literary traditions can converge neither in reconciliation nor domination of one another. I examine in particular how Ariosto’s poem captures the ambiguous hybridity of the medieval Mediterranean: beginning with a cursory analysis of the Saracen figure as an unsettled construction of “self” and “other,” I then move to a parallel investigation of the poem’s dynamic intertextual practices.
    [Show full text]
  • Charlemagnes Paladins
    Charle ne’s 1 Paladins Campaign Sourcebook I by Ken Rolston Chapter 2: A Survey of Carolingian History . , 4 and His Paladins . Chapter 3: Character Design .............. 11 Chapter 4: The Setting .................... 25 Chapter 5 Equipment and Treasure ........ 52 Appendix: Predesigne Credits Editing: Mike Breault Additional Editing: Don ”the Barbarian” Watry Illustrations: Roger Raupp Typography: Gaye OKeefe Cartography: John Knecht Playtesting: Paul Harmaty, Anna Harmaty, Henry Monteferrante, Dana Swain, Richard Garner, Brian Cummings ISBN 1-560763930 Special Thanks Alan Kellogg CHAPTER I One of the greatest challenges facing a DM is The Fantasy Campaign to create a detailed, dramatic, and plausible campaign setting for role-playing. Adapting a This type of campaign mdds a weak-magic historical setting like the Carolingian period of- AD&D fantasy campaign with various historical fers some spectacular advantages for meeting and legendary elements associated with Charle- this challenge. The historical and legendary per- magne and his times. Except for some restric- sonalities and events of Charlemagne’s time pro- tions on player characters md magical items, vide a wealth of epic themes for a role-playing players are expected to usg their PCs pretty campaign. much like they would in any pther AD&D game We suggest you choose one of the following setting. three strategies to develop an AD&D@role-play- The big advantage of this is that the players ing campaign set in the time of Charlemagne. As get all the abilities they are accustomed to, while you read this book and consider how to use it in the DM has access to abunda it campaign setting your campaign, keep the following three options detail to adapt for fantasy scenarios (many his- in mind.
    [Show full text]
  • Ludovico Ariosto: Orlando Furioso
    Ludovico Ariosto: Orlando Furioso (1532) Jo Ann Cavallo (Columbia University ) Genre: Poetry (any). Country: Italy. One of the best known works in Italian literature, the Orlando Furioso, is a continuation of the romance epic Orlando Innamorato, which was left unfinished at the ninth canto of Book Three when Boiardo died in 1494. Like Boiardo, Ariosto weaves together Carolingian and Arthurian themes into an intricately interlaced plot, creatively imitating a vast range of works—from classical epic poetry and history to medieval lyric and novella traditions—in order to surprise, delight, and signify. As he continues to mix imaginary sites and the geographical reality of a rapidly expanding globe, Ariosto not only meticulously completes the various threads of Boiardo’s poem, but also adds original episodes following his own creative genius and Weltanschauung. It is generally thought that Ariosto began writing his “gionta” (sequel) in 1505 after the publication of a mediocre fourth book by Niccolò degli Agostini. The first edition of the poem in 40 canti was completed in 1515 and appeared in print in 1516. Ariosto continued to work on the poem throughout his lifetime, producing a second edition in 1521 that contained relatively minor revisions and a definitive third edition in 1532 that included four additional episodes inserted within the poem, bringing the number of canti from 40 to 46. Ariosto had also worked on a continuation, in which Charlemagne’s realm was subsequently threatened both internally and externally by powerful behind-the-scenes forces fomenting violence, but this unfinished sequel, commonly referred to simply as the Cinque canti [Five canti], was never published during Ariosto’s lifetime and only appeared in print in 1545 as an “addition” to the Furioso thanks to Ariosto’s son Virginio (see Quint, introduction, Cinque canti).
    [Show full text]
  • Ariosto and the Arabs»: Contexts of the Orlando Furioso
    «Ariosto and the Arabs»: Contexts of the Orlando Furioso Villa I Tatti, 18-19 October 2017 Abstracts Among the most complex and engaging artifacts of early modern Italian culture, Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, first published in 1516 and twice revised before its definitive edition in 1532, emerged from a world that was rapidly expanding on a number of fronts while simultaneously subject to a disastrous breakdown of political, social, and religious certainties. Taking inspiration from the celebrated poem by Jorge Luis Borges, “Ariosto y los Arabes” (1960), this interdisciplinary conference will focus on the role of the Muslim world as the essential ‘other’ in Ariosto’s text. Our aim is to investigate the composite political, religious, and linguistic landscape as well as the relational systems that might be reconstructed around the Furioso, from the various perspectives of its earlier sources, contemporary resonance, and subsequent reception. Situated at the apex of one of the foundational European literary traditions – the chansons de geste that issued from the fictional rout of Charlemagne’s troops at Roncisvalle – subsequently grafted onto Crusade narratives and embedded in the histories of the European conflict with the Ottoman empire, Ariosto’s poem presents itself as a prism through which to examine the various links in the chain of interactions that characterized the Mediterranean region from late antiquity through the medieval period, into early modernity, and beyond. Key-note Endings: Storytelling from a Mediterranean perspective Karla Mallette (University of Michigan) This talk examines important threads in narrative traditions and how they traveled in the Mediterranean in the centuries leading up to the life of Ariosto.
    [Show full text]