"Scrittura e alterità in Francesco Petrarca"
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Date
2001
Authors
Lollini, Massimo, 1954-
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Annali d'Italianistica
Abstract
In this essay on "Scrittura e alterità in Petrarca," Massimo Lollini is interested in ethics as a point of intersection between philosophy and literature. Lollini studies how the notion of otherness in literature emerges in Petrarch's writings, which, for Lollini, constitute a necessary premise to modern critical discourse on alterity. In the writing process Petrarch discovers two main form of alterity, first of all, the alterity of the face of Laura, which he cannot "write" or present in its proper form (Canzoniere 308: 5-8). Lollini then argues that the ethical moment in the Canzoniere is located precisely in Petrarch's awareness of the impossibility to reduce the face of the other to a pure representation because in that face there is something infinite (Canzoniere 339: 9-14). The second fundamental dimension of alterity explored by Petrarch is related to his reflection on time and death, through which he introduces a notion of truth grounded not on the ontological and transcendental plane but on the ethical discourse.
Description
Keywords
Ethics of writing, Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374, Alterity, Face, Levinas, Emmanuel
Citation
"Scrittura e alterità in Francesco Petrarca," Annali d'Italianistica Volume 19 (2001): 71-92.