Teaching the Italian Renaissance Romance Epic
- Editor: Jo Ann Cavallo
- Pages: 392
- Published: 2019
- ISBN: 9781603293662 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603293655 (Hardcover)
“[A] phenomenal resource for both teaching and scholarship. . . . Literally every chapter is illuminating, well-documented, and useful—and a pleasure to read.”
—Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching
The Italian romance epic of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with its multitude of characters, complex plots, and roots in medieval Carolingian epic and Arthurian chivalric romance, was a form popular with courtly and urban audiences. In the hands of writers such as Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso, works of remarkable sophistication that combined high seriousness and low comedy were created. Their works went on to influence Cervantes, Milton, Ronsard, Shakespeare, and Spenser.
In this volume instructors will find ideas for teaching the Italian Renaissance romance epic along with its adaptations in film, theater, visual art, and music. An extensive resources section locates primary texts online and lists critical studies, anthologies, and reference works.
Karina F. Attar
Maria Bendinelli Predelli
Bryan Brazeau
Allison DeWitt
Marco Dorigatti
Susan Gaylard
Patricia E. Grieve
Stefano Gulizia
Julia L. Hairston
Barbara Russano Hanning
Morten Steen Hansen
Grant Herreid
Julia M. Kisacky
Stephen P. McCormick
John C. McLucas
Gael Montgomery
Leslie Zarker Morgan
Andrea Moudarres
Stefano Nicosia
Chris Picicci
Andrea Privitera
Roberto Puggioni
Joshua Reid
Bernd Renner
Giovanna Rizzarelli
Charles S. Ross
Janet Levarie Smarr
Maria Galli Stampino
Walter Stephens
Phillip John Usher
Evelyn Birge Vitz
Preface (ix)
Introduction (1)
Part I: Editions and Translations
Italian Editions: A Bibliographical Survey of Epic and Chivalric Poems (19)
Teaching the Italian Romance Epic in Translation: Materials and Methods (28)
Part II: Medieval Intertexts
From Roland to Orlando: French Charlemagne Tradition and Its Development in Italy (41)
Adventure, Love, and Prowess in Medieval Italian Cantari (56)
Part III: Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso in the Classroom
Teaching Ariosto’s Furioso through Sixteenth-Century Editions (69)
The Transformation of Angelica (80)
Figurative Arts, Music, and Film for Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso (87)
Teaching Boiardo and Ariosto through Performance (98)
Part IV: Comparative Themes and Topics
Magic, Monsters, and Marvels: Teaching Renaissance Culture through Italian Romance Epic (107)
Ariosto’s Orlando furioso and Madness in Renaissance Drama (118)
Learning to Perform as a Cavaliere: Orlando furioso and Signs of Status (128)
“Truthful Jesting”: Satirical Elements in Ariosto’s Orlando furioso (136)
Welcome to Paradise: The Earthly Paradise Topos as Pedagogic Structuring Principle (146)
Part V: Transcultural Encounters
Medieval and Early Modern Cartography and Its Intersections with Travel Texts and the Epic: From Marco Polo to Boiardo and Ariosto (157)
Muslims in the Novella and Romance Epic Traditions (166)
Digital Approaches to the Italian Romance Epic in the Classroom (175)
Part VI: Beyond the “Three Ferrarese Crowns”: The Italian Romance Epic in Translation
Margutte’s Pupils: The Ethics of Laughter in Pulci’s Morgante (185)
Folengo’s Baldus and Orlandino (191)
Teaching Tullia d’Aragona’s Il Meschino, altramente detto il Guerrino (The Wretch, Otherwise Known as Guerrino) (199)
Teaching Moderata Fonte’s Floridoro (210)
Naming the Enemy: Linguistic Slippery Slopes in Lucrezia Marinella’s Enrico; or, Byzantium Conquered: A Heroic Poem (216)
Part VII: Renaissance and Early Modern European Literary Contexts
The Italian Romance Epic and English Renaissance Literature (225)
A Painting of Trojans / A Map of America: Early French Reactions to Ariosto (234)
Moorish Lovers, Moorish Invaders, and the Call to Empire: The Inspiration of Ariosto in Early Modern Spain (241)
Part VIII: The Italian Romance Epic in Art, Music, and Theater
Ariosto in the Hands of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Artists (251)
Singing Italian Renaissance Epic Verse (259)
Tasso and the Italian Madrigal (271)
Teaching Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata through Italian Theater and Drama (280)
Part IX: The Italian Romance Epic in Modern Fiction and Video Games
Rewriting Italian Romance in Twentieth-Century Italy (289)
Teaching the Italian Renaissance Epic through Digital Role-Playing Games (297)
Part X: Resources
Primary Works in Translation (307)
Anthologies of Primary Works (308)
Primary Works Online (308)
Audio Resources (308)
Prose Adaptations (309)
Comic Books (310)
Critical Readings for Instructors and Students (310)
World Maps (319)
Web Sites (319)
Reception in the Arts (320)
Popular and Folk Performance Traditions (323)
Notes on Contributors (327)
Works Cited (335)
Index (371)
“Promises to keep romance epic relevant and lively in all sorts of curricula in the humanities.”
—William J. Kennedy, Cornell University
“The critical acumen, comprehensive scholarship, and dazzling array of breakthrough topics in this volume are impressive.”
—Annali d’Italianistica
