1. Funding Phase C03
At a Crossroads between Different Forms of Observance: Between Counter-Reformation and the Regulation of Poetry in Italian Literature at the Beginning of the 17th Century
Principal Investigator
Prof. Dr. Florian Mehltretter
Researcher
Dr. Maddalena Fingerle, Laurian Kanzleiter
Project Description
Italian literature at the beginning of the seventeenth century developed at a crossroads between poetological and religious standardization efforts. Texts were under close scrutiny from both the literary community and the Inquisition/Holy Office, and censorship was rife.
The project will research literary communication in its different genres, from letters to poetry to treaties, and, in doing so, will reconstruct the literary culture of vigilance prevalent at that time and its semantics.
Observation as a guiding concept is understood to mean both “observation” (the self-observation of protagonists and the observation of protagonists by others) and a “heeding of regulations/laws/rules/standards”.
A “crossroads” between various forms of observations not only refers to intersections between different standards, but also to crossover points between lines of communication within networks, in which interesting problematic situations, interactions/interdependencies and solutions, as well as evasion strategies – such as in Torquato Tasso and Giovan Battista Marino’s allegory – are created.