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, Valery, 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.
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, Valery, 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.
"Oppenheimer's project is very important for anyone interested in
poetics. He treats the sonnet not as a genre so much as a mode of
thought, which makes his an original study of the sonnet's role in
the development of 'the modern mind.' The world he recreates is a
complex blend of classical, medieval, and modern understanding.
Oppenheimer brilliantly dramatizes the way thought and the context
for thought are mutually dependent. He demonstrates by
scholarship
and the example of a series of fine translations that for the
modern mind the sonnet has been both barometric and constitutive.
Anyone interested in the Renaissance, the sonnet, comparative
literature, or poetics will find this a useful study."--Wyatt
Prunty, The Johns Hopkins University
"A learned, well-tempered and fascinating book about the
sonnet....A cunningly constructed homage to its ostensible
subject."--Chapman
"Recommended for college and university collections treating poetry
and literary history."--Choice
"Oppenheimer's project is very important for anyone interested in
poetics. He treats the sonnet not as a genre so much as a mode of
thought, which makes his an original study of the sonnet's role in
the development of 'the modern mind.' The world he recreates is a
complex blend of classical, medieval, and modern understanding.
Oppenheimer brilliantly dramatizes the way thought and the context
for thought are mutually dependent. He demonstrates by
scholarship
and the example of a series of fine translations that for the
modern mind the sonnet has been both barometric and constitutive.
Anyone interested in the Renaissance, the sonnet, comparative
literature, or poetics will find this a useful study."--Wyatt
Prunty, The Johns Hopkins University
"A learned, well-tempered and fascinating book about the
sonnet....A cunningly constructed homage to its ostensible
subject."--Chapman
"Recommended for college and university collections treating poetry
and literary history."--Choice
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