| 
click to enlarge Buy online:
UK, Europe or Asia
(in pounds sterling)
USA and the Americas
(in US dollars)  Dante Alighieri
(1265-1321)
Italian poet
 10 other titles  Languages in contact
3 other titles | Legenda: Oxford, 2010
£45.00 ($89.50 US) Hardback 300pp
ISBN: 978-1-906540-78-4
Dante’s conception of language is encompassed in all his works and can be understood in terms of a strenuous defence of the volgare in tension with the prestige of Latin. By bringing together different approaches, from literary studies to philosophy and history, from aesthetics to queer studies, from psychoanalysis to linguistics, this volume offers new critical insights on the question of Dante’s language, engaging with both the philosophical works characterized by an original project of vulgarization, and the poetic works, which perform a new language in an innovative and self-reflexive way. In particular, Dante’s Plurilingualism explores the rich and complex way in which Dante’s linguistic theory and praxis both informs and reflects an original configuration of the relationship between authority, knowledge and identity that continues to be fascinated by an ideal of unity but is also imbued with a strong element of subjectivity and opens up towards multiplicity and modernity. With the contributions: Sara Fortuna, Manuele Gragnolati, Jürgen Trabant — Introduction: Dante’s Plurilingualism
Giulio Lepschy — Mother Tongues in the Middle Ages and Dante
Jürgen Trabant — Millena variatio: Overcoming the Horror of Variation
Irène Rosier-Catach — Man as a Speaking and Political Animal: A Political Reading of Dante’s De vulgari eloquentia
Mirko Tavoni — Volgare e latino nella storia di Dante
Stefano Gensini — Le idee linguistiche di Dante e il naturalismo fiorentino-toscano del Cinquecento
Franco Lo Piparo — Aristotele e Dante, filosofi della variabilità linguistica
Zygmunt G. Barański — The Roots of Dante’s Plurilingualism: ‘Hybridity’ and Language in the Vita nova
Bettina Lindorfer — Language as a Mirror of the Soul: Guilt and Punishment in Dante’s Concept of Language
Elena Lombardi — Plurilingualism sub specie aeternitatis and the Strategies of a Minority Author
Carlo Ginzburg — Dante’s Blind Spot (Inferno XVI-XVII)
Lino Pertile — ‘Trasmutabile per tutte guise’: Dante in the Comedy
Gary Cestaro — Is Ulysses Queer? The Subject of Greek Love in Inferno XV and XXVI
Francesca Southerden — Lost for Words: Recuperating Melancholy Subjectivity in Dante’s Eden
Manuele Gragnolati — (In-)Corporeality, Language, Performance in Dante’s Vita Nuova and Commedia
Sara Fortuna, Manuele Gragnolati — Dante After Wittgenstein: ‘Aspetto’, Language, and Subjectivity from Convivio to Paradiso
Emma Bond, Manuele Gragnolati, Anna Laura Lepschy, Giorgio Pressburger — Epilogue: Riscrivere Dante in un’altra lingua. Conversazione con Giorgio Pressburger su Nel regno oscuro Reviews:
- ‘From the introduction to the concluding interview with Giorgio Pressburger, this volume of essays is characterized by both authoritative contributions from major figures in Dante studies (Baranski, Gragnolati, Pertile) and also by genuinely original lines of enquiry. Dante’s Plurilingualism constitutes an indispensable point of reference for contemporary Dante studies, an ideal companion to the new Dante editions that have recently appeared, and also acts as a constant spur to reread all of the poet’s works, and to appreciate the ‘plurilingualism’ that is inherent even in those works that that precede the Comedy.’ — Federica Pich, Lettere Italiane 2011, 323-28
- ‘Although we also find essays that offer a strong historicizing or linguistic focus and others that are powerful contributions to the methodologies and findings traditionally associated with Dante studies, the volume remains of particular note (and importance) for its concern to open Dante up to dialogue across disciplines and to relate him to contemporary debates.’ — Simon Gilson, Modern Language Review 107.1, January 2012, 292-93
- ‘Colpisce e affascina, in Dante’s Plurilingualism, una ben percepibile disposizione all’audacia interpretativa, al “saggio” come esperimento intellettuale; ciò che convince, nell’insieme, è che non si sia di fronte alla mera esibizione di uno “stile” critico – pur di- versamente delineato –, ma ad un molteplice tentativo di indagine su Dante, inteso come oggetto e al tempo stesso soggetto non tanto di una determinata stagione della lingua e della letteratura italiane, quanto di una più ampia e complessa storia culturale.’ — Martino Marazzi, L'Alighieri 39, June 2012, 160-64
- ‘Proprio nella lingua che usiamo, con cui scriviamo, possiamo essere convinti che Dante sia arrivato prima di noi e che ci abbia lasciato una grandissima eredità. Gli interventi di questo volume riescono a mettere in evidenza tutti gli aspetti per cui la lingua di Dante e il suo modo di utilizzarla appaiono ancora oggi come un ‘miracolo inconcepibile’.’ — Irene Baccarini, Dante VIII, 2011, 227-30
Distribution: | UK, Europe and Asia: Oxbow Books
10 Hythe Bridge St
Oxford OX1 2EW
UK
Tel +44 (0) 1865 241249
Fax +44 (0) 1865 794449
Email oxbow@oxbowbooks.com
Web www.oxbowbooks.com | | USA, South America and Canada: The David Brown Book Company
PO Box 511
Oakville CT 06779
USA
Toll free: +1 800 791 9354
Tel +1 860 945 9329
Fax +1 860 945 9468
Email queries@dbbconline.com | |
