A SELECT ANTHOLOGY OF RENAISSANCE MYTHOGRAPHY.
Item
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Title
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A SELECT ANTHOLOGY OF RENAISSANCE MYTHOGRAPHY.
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Identifier
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AAI8611337
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identifier
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8611337
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Creator
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DIMATTEO, ANTHONY JOSEPH.
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Contributor
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Patrick Cullen
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Date
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1986
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Modern
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Abstract
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Purpose of the work is two-fold: to promote a critical awareness of Renaissance mythography, and provide modern access to its language.;Introduction states that Renaissance mythography, the mapping out of story according to prevailing modes of interpretation, can be studied as an open site of the Renaissance mind at work. To understand how this mind interpreted, author assesses various features of Renaissance inquiry into myth. The Patristic background for the study of pagan myth is examined. Critical concepts that governed the understanding of myth are explained, chiefly, the interrelated ideas that myth and poetry are identical, that their meaning is polysemous and allegorical, and that myth transforms or transumes the literal meaning of language. Author first evaluates the mythographic texts of Fulgentius, Albricus, Bersuire and, in closer detail, Boccaccio. Then appraised are the texts of Pictor, Giraldi, Conti, Cartari, Sabinus, Fraunce, Bacon, Alciati, Valeriano, and Bocchi. Summary emphasizes the increasing freedom and variety of mythographic readings in the Renaissance. Author states that through the study of Renaissance mythography, a modern scholar can experience the complex internal arena of the Renaissance mind in which many ideas from the history of theology, rhetoric, and poetics restlessly alter one another.;In the anthology, excerpts from the mythographic texts are introduced and translated. The mythological figures chosen for the anthology are Pluto, Erebus, Diana, Orpheus, and Cupid. An afterword highlights some innovations that occurred in mythography during the Renaissance. Author argues that mythography gradually opened out towards life and nature to include new possibilities of interpretation. While inquiry lost certitude of meaning, it gained the freedom to explore.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
