'A me stesso di me pietate vène.' Lyric Subjectivity in Guido Cavalcanti's Rime

This thesis examines articulations of subjectivity in the love-lyric corpus of Guido Cavalcanti (c.1258-1300). That Cavalcanti has a central role in the development of the modern lyric subjectivity is widely accepted in scholarship. The present study aims to deepen current understanding of Cavalcanti’s poetry by analysing ways in which the subject of the enunciation is articulated in the Rime. This research adopts a traditional critical approach (i.e. philological, lexicographic, and semasiological) in conversation with linguistics, narratology, and literary theory. The main textual strategies which contribute to the expression of subjectivity in the cavalcantian corpus are analysed in the context of the Duecento Italian love-lyric tradition. Chapter 1 historicises and maps the main debates concerning the issue of subjectivity in medieval texts which prove significant for reflecting upon the cavalcantian subject and defines the thesis’ methodological framework. Chapter 2 and 3 discuss the most significant results of a comprehensive indexing and analysis of deictics. It provides an examination of the ways in which subjectivity is encoded in the Rime, as related to the main coordinates of the discourse (person, time, space). Chapter 4 examines Cavalcanti’s use of apostrophe and the direction of the poetic message as strategies to redefine the lover-beloved polarity of the lyric tradition. Chapter 5 analyses voices that are “other” to the traditional one of the poet-lover in the Rime and their contribution to the articulation of a specific subjectivity in the lyric discourse.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Mele, Valentina

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Webb, Heather

• Guido Cavalcanti
• Dante
• Lyric Subjectivity
• Medieval Love Poetry

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/ed681eda-637c-4231-8bf5-84c1648505c9/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.54852

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/307760