La riscrittura di Ovidio nella Favola di Narcisso di Luigi Alamanni

Abstract

My paper deals with the analysis of the mythological short poem La Favola di Narcisso by Luigi Alamanni, focusing on the rewriting of the episode of Narcissus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This study takes into account the particular literary devices through which the author aims to reproduce and reinforce the rhetorical richness of the Latin example, such as the amplificatio, the modification of dispositio and the respect of decorum. Furthermore, the intertextual relationships between the Favola and the most important vernacular and Latin writers are highlighted; Petrarca’s poems Rvf 23 and 50, suggesting the idea of painful love, are the primary models for Alamanni and will serve as the main sources. Alamanni’s rewriting of the Ovidian text, as well as the connections between the different parts of the poem, lead to a new interpretation of the story of Narcissus. As the prologue and the conclusion of the Favola clearly point out, the episode of Narcissus represents a negative exemplum of amorous behaviour, in coherence with the author’s poetics and with the poetical culture of the Renaissance. Finally, the Favola is placed in the literary tradition of the mythological short poems, the translations of Ovid and in the tradition of the lyrical-narrative octave.