David Gibbons provides a working definition of metaphor as it was understood in Dante's time and, by close readings from the early lyrics to the Paradise, gives a new, comprehensive account of Dante's gift for this rhetorical figure. If to be a matter of metaphor is, according to Aristotle, a sign of genius - and Dante was known in the sixteenth century as 'poeta metaforicissimo' - then Gibbons's volume goes a long way to explaining a major facet of Dante's creative brilliance. The heart of the book is an analysis of metaphor in the Paradiso, but the volume also reaches back to Dante's earliest lyrics and concludes with a look forward to Petrarch's use of this important device.
Gibbons has substantially revised his 1997 doctoral dissertation for Cambridge University, which he characterizes as more literary criticism than literary theory. He argues that any theory of metaphor that is developed in a vacuum then applied to Italian Renaissance writer Dante is likely to prove unsatisfactory. Instead, he begins with a close study of the texts, and modifies his conclusions in light of theoretical approaches. He does not index subjects. Distributed in the US by David Brown Book Company. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
In the sixteenth century, when Dante's critical fortunes were at their lowest ebb, his use of metaphor was still considered remarkable enough to describe him as a 'poeta metaforcissimo'.
In the sixteenth century, when Dante's critical fortunes were at their lowest ebb, his use of metaphor was still considered remarkable enough to describe him as a 'poeta metaforcissimo'. David Gibbon's book, which takes its title from this epithet, seeks to account for the specifically Dantean nature of that genius which Aristotle said was the mark of those who used the metaphor well. Probing first the relationship between theory and practice, Gibbons offers a working definition of metaphor based on those available to the poet himself , and looks at Dante's earliest metaphorical efforts in his lyric poetry. The heart of thos book is an analysis of the metaphor in the Paradiso, by common consent the most metaphorical poetry Dante ever wrote.
The heart of the book is an analysis of metaphor in the Paradiso, but the volume also reaches back to Dante's earliest lyrics and concludes with a look forward to Petrarch's use of this important device.
