Ariosto, the Orlando Furioso, and English Culture

by Everson, Jane E.; Hiscock, Andrew; Jossa, Stefano

• ISBN13: 9780197266502
• ISBN10: 0197266509
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2019-03-31
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Marking the fifth centenary of the publication of the first edition of the Italian masterpiece, Ariosto, the Orlando Furioso and English Culture, 1516-2016 brings together an international team of Renaissance scholars from a wide variety of disciplines to analyse in detail the diffuse impact which the epic poem had upon English culture from the Tudor century to the present day. Translated into English in the 1590s by Sir John Harington, godson of Elizabeth I, the influence of Ariosto's poem can be traced in literature, music and the visual arts, from Spenser and Milton to modern media adaptations. In addition, the collection reflects upon the ways in which successive editions and translations, examples of critical reception, rewritings and adaptations in different media (in particular opera) all shaped the rich and evolving understanding of the adventures of Orlando, Angelica, Medoro, Olympia, and Sacripante in the cultural and artistic production of England across the centuries.

Author Biography

Jane E. Everson, Emeritus Professor of Italian Literature, Royal Holloway University of London,Andrew Hiscock, Professor of Early Modern Literature, Bangor University of Wales,Stefano Jossa, Reader in Italian, Royal Holloway University of London

Jane E. Everson is Emeritus Professor of Italian Literature in the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Royal Holloway. She is Associate Fellow of the Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London, and Honorary Visiting Fellow of the University of Leicester. She has published widely on the chivalric epic tradition, Renaissance literature and culture. She directed the AHRC-funded projects: The Italian Academies 1525-1700: a themed collection database; and The Italian Academies 1525-1700: the first intellectual networks of early modern Europe.


Andrew Hiscock is Professor of Early Modern Literature at Bangor University, Wales, and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the Institut de Recherche pour la Renaissance, l'Age Classiques et les Lumieres, Universite Paul-Valery, Montpellier III. He has published widely on English and French early modern literature. He is a Fellow of the English Association, a trustee of the Modern Humanities Research Association, English editor for the journal MLR, series editor for the Yearbook of English Studies and series co-editor for the Arden Early Modern Drama Guides.


Stefano Jossa is Reader in Italian Studies at Royal Holloway, University of
London, and has recently held Visiting Professorships at the Polytechnic (ETH) of Zurich, the University of Parma and the University of Roma Tre. His research interests include literature and culture in the Italian Renaissance and the construction of Italian national identity expressed through literature. He is the author of La fantasia e la memoria. Intertestualita ariostesche (Liguori 1996); Rappresentazione e scrittura. La crisi delle forme poetiche rinascimentali (1540-1560) (Vivarium 1996); Ariosto (il Mulino 2009); La fondazione di un genere. Il poema eroico tra Ariosto e Tasso (Carocci 2001).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
1. Introduction, Jane E. Everson, Andrew Hiscock, & Stefano Jossa
Part I: Before Reading - The Image
2. The Visualization of Orlando Furioso: From the Original Editions to Modern Video Art, Lina Bolzoni
3. Reading the Poem 'in the Very Picture'. New Evidence on Harington's Original Sin, Luca degl'Innocenti
4. Ariosto's Seascapes: the British Isles and the Orlando Furioso, Eleonora Stoppino
Part II: From the Elizabethans to the Enlightenment
5. 'englishing th'Italian Ariost': Orlando Furioso among the Elizabethans. Adaptation and Audience, Andrew Hiscock
6. Milton and Ariosto, Tobias Gregory
7. Fiordispina's English Afterlives: from Harington to Ali Smith, Ita Mac Carthy
Part III: Gothic and Romantic Ariosto
8. Ariosto in England in the Eighteenth Century: From Antipathy and Ambivalence to Enthusiasm, Jane E.Everson
9. Lessons in Madness: Orlando Furioso on the 18th-Century Operatic Stage (with Special Reference to Handel), Tim Carter
10. Walter Scott and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Susan Oliver
11. Authorising Ariosto: The Construction of Ariosto in Early Nineteenth-Century British Periodicals, Maureen McCue
Part IV: Text and Translation in the Modern Era
12. Antonio Panizzi, Textual Editor of Ariosto, Marco Dorigatti
13. The Furioso in Translation: 'Lascivious' Ariosto in Two Modern English Versions, Martin McLaughlin
14. Orlando Furioso, Writing and the Construction of Meaning, Nicola Gardini
15. Entertainment and Irony: Orlando Furioso from Modern to Postmodern, Stefano Jossa
Bibliography