The Rhetoric of Negation, the Style of Praise, and the Vocabulary of Prayer in the Vita Nova
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6093/1593-2214/12920Keywords:
Middle Ages, Dante Alighieri, Vita nova, praise, negation, prayer, ineffabilityAbstract
In the Vita nova, negation, along with love, is one of the driving forces of the narrative machine and touches on many levels of storytelling and writing. This article specifically studies instances in which the linguistic and rhetorical structures of negation interact with the lexicon and theme of praise, one of the central elements of the libello. The combination of praise and negative rhetoric constitutes a variant of the topoi of ineffability, that of the impossibility of praise. The combination of praise and negation is complemented by praise’s opposition to the linguistic and thematic structures of prayer, which instead underpin the section of the libello preceding the one devoted to the style of praise. This article explores this dual relationship between praise and negation and between praise and prayer in the Vita nova, also taking into account its subsequent developments in the Convivio and the Commedia.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Giuseppe Ledda
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