A occhi aperti. Sogni letterari nel Rinascimento

Abstract

Dream and literature have in common the aptitude for storytelling, the metaphorical and metamorphic vein, the oscillation between ordinary and extraordinary, rational and irrational. In the light of their intrinsic link, this volume aims to retrace the dreamlike imaginary of the Renaissance, starting from some representative texts. The literary function of the dream is investigated, both conceptually (think about the relation with utopia) and expressively (use of dreamlike pre-texts as narrative devices). The recognition of the prophetic value of the dream, typical of medieval Christian culture, is now replaced by its use as a means of legitimizing subversive ideological contents or as a vehicle for equally bold formal innovations, or as a true metaliterary artifice, through which the artist reflects on his own compositional ideals. The book is signed by a textual Appendix containing the commented edition of Lodovico Dolce’s Dream of Parnassus (1532). Another piece of this multifaceted dreamlike mosaic, the poem illustrates that relationship - characteristic of the Renaissance age - between pictura and pŏēsis that constitutes the Ariadne’s thread of this fascinating journey in the labyrinthine meanders of the dream.