The Birth of the Modern Mind Self, Consciousness, and the Invention of the Sonnet

by Oppenheimer, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780195056921
• ISBN10: 0195056922
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1989-07-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This revolutionary study presents new facts and an original theory about the origin of the thought and literature that may be considered "modern." Using fifty-one new translations of sonnets from four languages spanning seven centuries, Oppenheimer argues that "modern" thought and literature were born with the invention of the sonnet in 13th-century Italy. In revealing the sonnet as the first lyric form since the fall of the Roman Empire meant not for music or performance but for silent reading, the book demonstrates that the sonnet was the first modern literary form deliberately intended to portray the self in conflict and to explore self-consciousness. The wide-ranging essay of Part I traces the influences of the sonnet, as invented by Giacomo da Lentino, combining historical fact with the history of ideas and literary criticism. Part II illustrates, in bilingual format, the sonnet's growing appeal and variety during the centuries that followed with translations from Italian, German, French, and Spanish. The selection presents sonnets by more than thirty-five poets, among them Dante, Petrarch, Goethe, Rilke, Ronsard, Valéry, Ibarbourou, and Lorca. The concluding section discusses previous scholarship, offers proofs of the sonnet's introspective and silent inventions, and for the first time establishes the source of the form, in Platonic-Pythagorean mathematics.

Table of Contents

The Birth of the Modern Mind: New Facts and a Theory	p. 1
Sonnets in the European Tradition	p. 41
A Note on the Translations	p. 43
Italian Sonnets
Giacomo da Lentino	p. 48
Jacopo Mostacci	p. 58
Pier della Vigna	p. 60
Giacomo da Lentino	p. 62
Federico II	p. 64
Dante Alighieri	p. 66
Francesco Petrarca	p. 70
Michelangelo Buonarroti	p. 74
Benvenuto Cellini	p. 76
Faustina Maratti Zappi	p. 78
Gabriele D'Annunzio	p. 80
Umberto Saba	p. 82
German Sonnets
Andreas Gryphius	p. 86
Gottfried August Burger	p. 88
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	p. 90
August von Platen	p. 94
Heinrich Heine	p. 98
Ricarda Huch	p. 100
Rainer Maria Rilke	p. 102
Georg Trakl	p. 112
Marie Louise Kaschnitz	p. 114
French Sonnets
Maurice Sceve	p. 118
Pierre de Ronsard	p. 120
Joachim du Bellay	p. 122
Gerard de Nerval	p. 124
Paul Verlaine	p. 126
Arthur Rimbaud	p. 128
Albert Samain	p. 130
Paul Valery	p. 132
Vincent Muselli	p. 134
Spanish Sonnets
Juan Boscan	p. 138
Luis de Gongora	p. 140
Lope de Vega	p. 142
Miguel de Unamuno	p. 146
Antonio Machado	p. 148
Juana de Ibarbourou	p. 152
Federico Garcia Lorca	p. 154
Notes on the Poets and Poems	p. 157
Scholarly Background: The Origin of the Sonnet	p. 169
Bibliography	p. 191
Index	p. 195
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.