Chivalric and Epic Poetry in XVI century Italy: Ariosto and Tasso

Through a selection of passages the course will focus on the two great literary monuments of the Italian Cinquecento, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (from Cantos I, VI, VIII, X, XII, XVIII, XIX, XXIII, XXIV, XXXIV, XLVI) and Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata (from Cantos I, II, III, VI, VII, XII, XVI, XVIII, XIX, XX). Both poems will be seen in the context of the Cinquecento Italian court culture also differently witnessed by the international success of great prose writers such as Machiavelli ( Il Principe ) and Castiglione ( Il Cortegiano ), and satirists such as Aretino. A selection of passages from Il Principe and Il Cortegiano and from l’Orlandino, Aretino’s parody of the chivalric poems, will also be read and discussed during the course.

Required Texts and critical Bibliography: Romano Luperini, Pietro Cataldi, Lidia Marchiani, La scrittura e l’interpretazione. Storia e antologia della letteratura italiana nel quadro della civiltà europea, vol. 2 (La letteratura umanistico-rinascimentale, 1383-1545), Palumbo, Palermo.