Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RTHRIEL (The Rhyme: Theory and History of the rhyme in Italian and European literature)

Teaser

The project “The rhyme: Theory and History of the Rhyme in Italian and European Literature” addressed an apparently simple, but still unanswered question in literary studies: what is the meaning and function of rhyme in poetry, and how could such a peculiar phonic device...

Summary

The project “The rhyme: Theory and History of the Rhyme in Italian and European Literature” addressed an apparently simple, but still unanswered question in literary studies: what is the meaning and function of rhyme in poetry, and how could such a peculiar phonic device come to be the distinctive feature of poetic language for about a thousand years? The answer suggested and discussed in the project links the function of regular rhyme with the rhetorical and figurative elaboration of the poetic text, drawing a connection between the formal device and the essential structures of poetic language which may give a general explanation of the meaning of rhyme and of its success over the centuries. This perspective, trying to go beyond the merely descriptive or philological approach typical of metrical studies, has been the basis for developing for the first time a general theory of rhyme and a short history thereof in the first centuries of vernacular literature (from its origins to Renaissance). As appeared from the interest shown by a general audience in Dr. Di Santo’s conferences, the topic may be of interest not only for specialists, but also for a wider public, which even today comes often in contact with rhymed texts in many other ways than only through poetry, e.g. through pop music, folklore or advertising. The examination of the problem posed by the origins of rhyme, however, due to the large amount of data emerged in the research work, developed into a second autonomous research line: a plausible solution of this long-standing question, based on the so-far overlooked relation of metrics to music in early romance poetry, may shed light on the function of rhyme at its origin and thus provide a potentially decisive argument to solve one of the major outstanding questions in literary studies, that of the origin of vernacular lyric poetry itself, at least in its formal structures.

Work performed

The research work, which led to the publication of 9 articles, 2 monographs and the proceedings of a workshop organized by Dr. Di Santo, come out to be even more productive than expected (in terms of number of publications, roughly double than what was planned in the proposal). This is because the investigation of the specific topic of the origin and early history of rhyme opened a new and very fruitful research line besides the one originally planned, producing several papers and an entire monograph specifically devoted to this topic. This new research line, far from being exhausted, has shown a great potential for further research and will be the subject of a new broader project in which Dr. Di Santo, in accordance with the Career Development Plan, will lead a small research group of 3-4 people: considering the potential of this new project, the Freie Universität Berlin has renewed for the period of one additional year his position as a researcher, in order to give him the possibility to apply for new grants while finalizing the several publications produced during the Marie Skłodowska-Curie action.
Besides the achievement of these main career development goals, during the fellowship Dr. Di Santo has also improved both his soft and hard skills and fulfilled the dissemination requirements, in accordance with the proposal. This has been carried out through the following measures: a) training-through-research; b) participation in conferences and workshops as a speaker; c) presentation of research results to both specialist and non-specialist audience; d) writing of several scientific essays ; e) ideation, organization and coordination of a workshop attended by both emerging and affirmed international scholars; f) preparation of applications for grants and research funding; g) language courses, with particular focus on German; h) involvement in the organizational and financial management of the project. The dissemination through conferences addressed to a wider public has showed a keen interest of a general audience in the topic of the research, due especially to its marked interdisciplinarity, involving literature, music, folklore and even advertising; more will be done though wikis to be developed with the support of a dedicated structure of the Freie Universität (CeDiS).

Final results

The research work led to progress beyond the state of the art in a twofold way. Concerning the first research line, it suggests a plausible answer to the question of the meaning of rhyme in relation to the poetic language: a question which was so far not only unanswered, but usually not even posed by metrical treatises and specialistic studies on the topic. Much has already been done from a descriptive and philological perspective, which has analysed in detail the metrical schemes generated by rhyme and their historical evolution; however, when it comes to explaining the meaning of these forms and the general function of rhyme, rather than merely discussing their origin and describing their evolution, an evident lack of research and even of interest in scholarship can be observed. Even the most valuable contributions did not go much beyond the analysis of the semantic and, more recently, of the intertextual implications of rhyme: no serious attempt had so far been made to explain the general function of rhyme in poetry and, all the more so, to outline a general theory of rhyme. The results of the project make progress beyond the state of the art in trying to fill this significant gap in relation to the most characteristic formal device of post-classical poetry. The answer to the main question of the general meaning of rhyme, which links rhyme to the rhetorical and figurative elaboration of the poetic text, is the core of a more complex interdisciplinary theory, involving semiotics, music, psychoanalysis, literary history and even philosophy. Hopefully, this new approach will contribute to promote a different way to look at metrical and, more in general, stylistic and formal aspects of literary texts: dealing with them, the first and central question should always be that of their meaning and function in relation to the literary and aesthetic dimension of the text.
The second research line, concerning the quest for the origins of rhyme, may have an even greater impact on scholarship in providing a possible solution to one of the most debated questions in literary studies, that of the origin of vernacular lyric poetry. Rediscovering in early romance poetry a structural relation between the text’s metrical structure (rhyme schemes) and the melodic form (musical phraseology) – which has been so far completely overlooked because it has been hidden by alterations of the melodies due mainly to oral transmission – gives us a potentially decisive clue to trace back rhyme schemes of Troubadour poetry to the Andalusian-Arabic tradition rather than to Medieval Latin poetry, as is generally believed today. This rehabilitates also Dante’s theory of the canzone as exposed in the De vulgari eloquentia, so far considered substantially unreliable for what concerns the relation of the poetic text to the melodic form, and gives an explanation of the function of rhyme and rhyme schemes at the origin of vernacular lyric poetry in close relation to music. Proving the Andalusian-Arabic theory true, besides solving one of the major outstanding literary questions, would also have a wider cultural and social impact, rediscovering a deep connection between Western and Arabic culture even in the field of lyric poetry.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/we05/institut/mitarbeiter/di-santo/index.html.