This essay analyses some passages of Dante's work in order to reconstruct a theory of language as the specificity of man. In its ordinary function (sermo proprius), language returns to the interlocutor the mental representation of the speaker; in its metaphorical function, instead, it creates images that, without it, could not exist. Through Vita Nuova, De vulgari eloquentia, Convivio, and Epistle XIII, an idea of metaphor emerges as a cognitive device capable of generating images of the things. All this, inserted in the apophatic discourse of a Neoplatonic matrix, finds its application in the Comedy, where metaphor is the main tool for creating images of the ineffable.
«Per assumptionem metaphorismorum» (Ep. XIII, 84): per una teoria dantesca della metafora
Paolo Pizzimento
2020-01-01
Abstract
This essay analyses some passages of Dante's work in order to reconstruct a theory of language as the specificity of man. In its ordinary function (sermo proprius), language returns to the interlocutor the mental representation of the speaker; in its metaphorical function, instead, it creates images that, without it, could not exist. Through Vita Nuova, De vulgari eloquentia, Convivio, and Epistle XIII, an idea of metaphor emerges as a cognitive device capable of generating images of the things. All this, inserted in the apophatic discourse of a Neoplatonic matrix, finds its application in the Comedy, where metaphor is the main tool for creating images of the ineffable.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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