The series Classicism and Beyond / Il classicismo e oltre is dedicated to the dynamic dialectic of stabilization and destabilization of classicist norm structures in literature from the Italian Cinquecento to the European 18th century, in systematic, general approaches as well as readings of individual texts.
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How can we appropriately describe Giovan Battista Marino's very complex and ambiguous poetics? Torn between strong modernity claims on the one hand and literary tradition as its original starting point on the other, it resists simplistic classifications such as rupture versus continuity. We can in fact identify various convergences, divergences, and hybridizations between literary past and present, which clearly shows us that even an apparently revolutionary poetics such as Marino's can only really be understood in light of its historical context. More specifically, this study demonstrates that three highly productive spheres of critical debate in sixteenth-century Italy (the sacred and secular rhetoric, as well as the controversy over tragicomedy) deeply influenced and formed Marino's poetics.
Ilaria Paltrinieri, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germania.
