'Defying Gravity': Prose Epic and Heroic Style in Lucrezia Marinella's 1602 Vita di Maria Vergine. (11th June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brazeau, Bryan
• Is Part Of: Classical receptions journal. Volume 13:Number 1(2021)
• Page Start: 107
• Page End: 125
• Publication Date: 2021-06-11
• Subjects: Civilization, Classical -- Periodicals; Classical literature -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Philosophy, Ancient -- Periodicals; Classical antiquities -- Periodicals; 880.09
• DOI: 10.1093/crj/claa029
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1759-5134

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines Lucrezia Marinella's literary-theoretical declaration at the beginning of the 1602 Vita di Maria Vergine by contextualizing her claims within contemporary debates on whether epic, particularly Christian epic, can be written in a style of high prose. It demonstrates that although Marinella seems to rely more heavily on Aristotle's Rhetoric, her choices in writing this epic in a high prose style were greatly influenced by the Poetics and contemporary discussions surrounding the text (along with a misunderstanding of the text itself). The essay also contains (as an appendix) the first English-language translation of Marinella's literary theoretical preface, 'To the Readers'.