The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250 : a literary history / Karla Mallette.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mallette, Karla.

Series:

Middle Ages series.

The Middle Ages series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Italian literature--Italy--Sicily--History and criticism.

Italian literature.

Italian literature--To 1400--History and criticism.

Sicily (Italy)--History--1016-1194.

Sicily (Italy).

Sicily (Italy)--History--1194-1282.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (221 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

When Muslim invaders conquered Sicily in the ninth century, they took control of a weakened Greek state in cultural decadence. When, two centuries later, the Normans seized control of the island, they found a Muslim state just entering its cultural prime. Rather than replace the practices and idioms of the vanquished people with their own, the Normans in Sicily adopted and adapted the Greco-Arabic culture that had developed on the island. Yet less than a hundred years later, the cultural and linguistic mix had been reduced, a Romance tradition had come to dominate, and Sicilian poets composed the first body of love lyrics in an Italianate vernacular.Karla Mallette has written the first literary history of the Kingdom of Sicily in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Where other scholars have separated out the island's literature along linguistic grounds, Mallette surveys the literary production in Arabic, Latin, Greek, and Romance dialects, in addition to the architectural remains, numismatic inscriptions, and diplomatic records, to argue for a multilingual, multicultural, and coherent literary tradition. Drawing on postcolonial theory to consider institutional and intellectual power, the exchange of knowledge across cultural boundaries, and the containment and celebration of the other that accompanies cultural transition, the book includes an extensive selection of poems and documents translated from the Arabic, Latin, Old French, and Italian. The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250 opens up new venues for understanding the complexity of a place and culture at the crossroads of East and West, Islam and Christianity, tradition and innovation.

Contents:

Toward a literary history of the Kingdom of Sicily

An archeology of the Sicilian park

Frederick II and the Genesis of a Sicilian romance culture

Rereading Le Origini: Sivilian romance poetry and the language of natural philosophy

Beyond Le Origini: Sicilian romance poetry in a feminine voice

Vernacularity and Sicilian culture

"In youth, the soul attains its desire" (from the Siqilliyyat) / Ibn Hamdis

"Because of long-lasting grief" (from the Siqilliyyat) / Ibn Hamdis

"Oh, garden of love" / Ibn Hamdis

"You tortured me with the two elements" / Ibn Hamdis

"Oh, blonde tribe, my blood is on your hands" / Abu Musa

"My tears expose my love" / Abu Musa

"Oh, Favara of the two seas!" / Al-Atrabanishi

"Pass round the golden carnelian-red [wine]" / Al-Buthayri and Ibn Bashrun

"The radiant moon has been extinguished" / Abu al-Dawʼ

"He sought solace" / Abu Hafs

Introduction to al-Idrisi's Geography

The Travels of Ibn Jubayr

The daughter of Ibn ʻAbbad and Frederick II

Henricus Aristippis's preface to his translation of Plato's Phaedo, ca. 1156

Preface to a translation of Ptolemy's Almagest / by an unknown translator, ca. 1160

On the death of William and the arrival of the Germans / Hugo Falcandus

Lament on the death of William II / Peter of Eboli

Hunting with birds / Frederick II

Frederick II and Lucera

Innocent IV excommunicates Frederick

The destruction of Lucera

Introduction to the Book of Sydrac

"Maravigliosamente" / Giacomo da Lentini

"Armor non vole" / Giacomo da Lentini

"Or come pote sí gran donna intrare" / Giacomo da Lentini

"A l'aire claro ò vista ploggia dare" / Giacomo da Lentini

"Dolze meo drudo" / Frederick II

"Sei anni ò travagliato" / Mazzeo di Ricco

"Già mai non mi conforto" / Rinaldo d'Aquino

"Ancor che l'aigua per lo foco lassi" / Guido delle Colonne

"Oi lassa 'namorata" / Anonymous.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-207) and index.

ISBN:

9786613212283

9781283212281

1283212285

9780812204797

0812204794

OCLC:

629851332