{"title":"Reason in Madness: Ariosto’s Ambiguous Irony between Truth and Morality","authors":"Elena Casanova","doi":"10.1353/cjm.2023.a912673","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Irony has always been a central focus of Ariosto scholarship: in particular, the interrelation between the endless flux of words and adventures that fill the Furioso , and the binary oppositions at the base of the poem has been considered a key ironic feature. Ariosto’s demiurgical distance is however not a sign of indifference: I argue that, while Ariosto’s irony transmits an estrangement from the traditional chivalric values, the author’s trust in the affirmative power of language and in its didactic function lies at the root of the Furioso ’s moral irony. Irony is, in fact, a vehicle for Ariosto’s ethical stance, but also a warning against the hypocrisy of courtly norms. First, I analyze the moral function of the Furioso ’s ironic narrator and Ariosto’s intimate relation to his audience, which thrives on complexity, difference, and multiplicity. I then look at the role that contradictions and (mis)quotations play within the poem’s ironic structure. Finally, I investigate how the Satire might represent the outer threshold of Ariosto’s irony. In fact, if in the Furioso Ariosto’s escapism could take shape thanks to the fantastic element, the Satire ’s ironic movement is revealed under a new, “barer” guise that walks a thin line between irony and moral satire.","PeriodicalId":53903,"journal":{"name":"COMITATUS-A JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE STUDIES","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"COMITATUS-A JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE STUDIES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cjm.2023.a912673","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract: Irony has always been a central focus of Ariosto scholarship: in particular, the interrelation between the endless flux of words and adventures that fill the Furioso , and the binary oppositions at the base of the poem has been considered a key ironic feature. Ariosto’s demiurgical distance is however not a sign of indifference: I argue that, while Ariosto’s irony transmits an estrangement from the traditional chivalric values, the author’s trust in the affirmative power of language and in its didactic function lies at the root of the Furioso ’s moral irony. Irony is, in fact, a vehicle for Ariosto’s ethical stance, but also a warning against the hypocrisy of courtly norms. First, I analyze the moral function of the Furioso ’s ironic narrator and Ariosto’s intimate relation to his audience, which thrives on complexity, difference, and multiplicity. I then look at the role that contradictions and (mis)quotations play within the poem’s ironic structure. Finally, I investigate how the Satire might represent the outer threshold of Ariosto’s irony. In fact, if in the Furioso Ariosto’s escapism could take shape thanks to the fantastic element, the Satire ’s ironic movement is revealed under a new, “barer” guise that walks a thin line between irony and moral satire.
期刊介绍:
Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies publishes articles by graduate students and recent PhDs in any field of medieval and Renaissance studies. The journal maintains a tradition of gathering work from across disciplines, with a special interest in articles that have an interdisciplinary or cross-cultural scope.