Teaching the Italian Renaissance Romance Epic ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo

Abstract

Reviewed by: Teaching the Italian Renaissance Romance Epic ed. by Jo Ann Cavallo Samuel Zawacki Jo Ann Cavallo, ed. Teaching the Italian Renaissance Romance Epic. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2018. pp. 382. In her latest publication, Jo Ann Cavallo compiles and organizes an immense amount of knowledge on the Renaissance romance epic. With thirty contributors, the text is difficult to synthesize succinctly. However, each essay brings to the table a pedagogical approach, with each contributor incorporating anecdotes and observations from courses previously taught on topics pertaining to the Renaissance romance epic. The subject matter encompases nearly every facet of the genre, ranging from its Arthurian origins to its modern video game incarnations. While dozens of epics are discussed throughout the book, three authors come under analysis more prevalently than the rest: Matteo Maria Boiardo, Ludovico Ariosto, and Torquato Tasso. Teaching the Italian Romance Epic gives its readers a neatly compartmentalized guide to the genre. Cavallo starts by introducing her project as a volume which "offers tools and ideas for teaching the Italian Renaissance romance epics from a wide range of perspectives and methodologies," while simultaneously calling on instructors to "reflect on issues of utmost relevance in today's increasingly interconnected and globalized—yet resistantly compartmentalized and even polarized—world" (x). She then goes to give a brief description of each of the book's ten parts. Each part is comprised of two to five essays, totaling thirty essays beyond introductory and supplementary materials. While each part is different from the next, as the book progresses, a clear trajectory arises: Cavallo starts with the basics—the language used and the genre's precursors—then [End Page 350] takes her readers on a carefully curated journey through time, leaving them with a well-rounded survey of the Italian Renaissance romance epic. Beginning with the fundamental debate over editions and translations, Marco Dorigatti ("Italian Editions: A Bibliographic Survey of Epic and Chivalric Poems") elucidates the crucial distinctions between modern editions of the most important chivalric epic poems written in Italy between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Moving the discussion from editions to translations, Joshua Reid ("Teaching the Italian Romance Epic in Translation: Materials and Methods") gives new readers a succinct description of the most important translations, both historical and modern, of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso. With sample citations of each translation and a discussion of the importance of cross-translational analysis, Reid creates a quick reference guide of sorts for both students and instructors alike. Part II introduces readers to the Arthurian chivalric epics produced during the Middle Ages to highlight the foundation set for Renaissance poets to come. Leslie Zarker Morgan ("From Roland to Orlando: French Charlemagne Tradition and its Development in Italy") presents the evolution of Roland from his incarnation in the Chanson de Roland through his translation into Orlando in texts such as the cantari, Orlando innamorato and Orlando furioso. By adding a syllabus of suggested readings on the development of Roland, Zarker Morgan gives readers ample opportunity for further exploration. Focusing specifically on the cantari, Maria Bendinelli Predelli ("Adventure, Love, and Prowess in Medieval Italian Cantari") highlights the important sub-genre. Placing emphasis on the communal and performative aspects of the oral tradition, Bendinelli Predelli further evidences broad dissemination of Roland's tale. Having covered the tools needed to understand the romance epic, Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso become the focus. In Part III, the contributors help students wade through centuries of analysis and critique. Giovanna Rizzarelli ("Teaching Ariosto's Furioso through Sixteenth-Century Editions") proposes that students analyze Ariosto's Orlando furioso through different lenses such as genre, theme, and image, while Gael Montgomery ("The Transformation of Angelica") advocates for a reading of Angelica's character in its different permutations, across all three authors in question. Going beyond the literary medium, Chris Picicci ("Figurative Arts, Music, and Film for Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso") and Evelyn Birge Vitz ("Teaching Boiardo and Ariosto through Performance") propose analyses of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso through art, music, film, and theater. Picicci provides a detailed course summary and his methodology for introducing students chronologically to iterations of the romance epic through figurative art, musical composition, and modern film. Birge Vitz, on...