Description
Book SynopsisPetrarch''s Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, a collection of lyric poems on sacred and profane love and other subjects, has traditionally been viewed as reflecting the conflicted nature of its author. However, award winning author Thomas E. Peterson argues that Petrarch’s Fragmenta is an ordered and coherent work unified by narrative and theological structures.
By concentrating on the poem’s reliance on Christian tenets and distinguishing between author, narrator and character, Peterson exposes the underlying narrative and theological unity of the work. Building on recent Petrarch scholarship and broader studies of medieval poetics, poetic narrativity, and biblical intertextuality, Peterson conducts a rigorous examination of the Fragmenta’s poetic language. This combination of stylistic and philological analysis recasts Petrarch’s poetry in a new light revealing its radically innovative and liberating character.
Trade Review"Peterson’s stimulating book has the merit of inducing the reader to revisit the complexity of the Canzoniere as a work in which, in an innovative way, a story of transformation is narrated." -- Susanna Barsella, Fordham University * Speculum, Vol 94 no 3, July 2019 *
Table of ContentsIntroduction * Petrarch Today: A Focus on Narrativity * Humanism and Poetic Theology * A History of Return Chapter 1: Historical Context and PoeticForm * The Poetry of the Tradition * Style, Genre,Structure * The Proem of the Fragmenta (Rvf 1-10) Chapter 2: Temporality andDesire * Entering the Selva of the FirstCentenary * The Dimension of Fable in the 'Raccolta of 1342' * Further Consequences ofFable Chapter 3: The Language of Tears (Rvf 92-122) * A Parable of Return * Nature, Landscape, Solitude* The Secretum and Canzone Chapter 4: In fresca riva: Landscape and History(Rvf 125-183) * Canzoni 125-129 * Saint Peter and the AvignonChurch * Antithesis and Parallelism Chapter5: The Penitent Lover (Rvf 184-263) * The Fading Myth of Daphne * Out of the Labyrinth, Away From the World * APoetics of Quietude Chapter 6: Songs of Grief and Lamentation (Rvf 264-317) *"Quelle pietosebraccia" (264, 14) *"Come va 'l mondo!" (290, 1) * Augustinian Time and the Process ofGrieving Chapter 7: Songs of Consecration (Rvf 319-366) * The In Between Time of Parable * Friendship and Dialogue,Memory and Solitude * Seeds of Grace Conclusion * Historical Reception and the Figure of Petrarch*"Altr'uom" (Narrative, Style, Theology) * An Autopoietic Unity Notes Bibliography
