The Icy Fire
Five Studies in European Petrarchism

In this short introductory book, Professor Forster examines Petrarchism as a European phenomenon transcending national boundaries.

Leonard Forster (Author)

9780521295215, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 February 1979

228 pages
19.8 x 12.9 x 1.2 cm, 0.23 kg

In this short introductory book, Professor Forster examines Petrarchism as a European phenomenon transcending national boundaries. He begins with a general survey of themes and conventions, providing, with quotation, something like a repertory of the devices. He then shows in an important historical study how various vernacular literatures were seeking for a renewal of poetic diction at the moment when Petrarchism was available to meet the need. The third study examines specific forms and shows how realism in love-relationships could be accommodated within the tradition. A fourth shows how the literary conventions, applied to England's Virgin queen, could serve political and national ends; and the last shows the devices still being used in Goethe's Faust. This is a learned and engaging book, ranging freely among literatures: Latin, Italian, French, Dutch, English, and German, with translations provided. It gives an introduction to one of the most important and longest-lasting traditions in comparative literary studies.

Introductory note
Notes on illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. The Petrarchan manner: an introduction
2. European petrarchism as training in poetic diction
3. Conventional safety values: alba, pastourelle and epithalamium
4. The political petrarchism of the Virgin Queen
5. Lynkeus' masque in Hoethe's Faust II
Notes
Bibliography
Tailpiece
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]