Babel Volume XXI
Invasive Intertext: Classical Allusions as Mechanisms of Oppression in the Letters of Poliziano Angus Wilson The letters of Agnolo “Poliziano” Ambrogini are, in the epistolary tradition of 15th century Florence, extraordinarily wellinformed and laden with Classical allusions. According to theories of intertextuality in Latin literature, such allusions must be taken not as isolated instances of performative erudition, but as integrated and conscious implementations of a literary tradition by the author. With this in mind, through an intertextual reading of Poliziano’s letter to Cassandra Fedele, a contemporary Venetian learned woman, and his diffuse references to female figures of antiquity a consistency of attitude emerges that defines more clearly the mechanisms of disempowerment in which the masculine intelligentsia of the time engaged. It is important in a treatment of such a diffuse theme as Poliziano’s characterization of ancient women to carefully define the method of intertextuality which is employed. I shall consider this on the basis of Gian Biagio Conte’s theory, via Stephen Hinds:1 the author cites the original source, the modello codice, the ‘true’ source which is taken as representative of the wider work, and produces in their own work a unique use of the original text, the modello esemplare, the model which is constituted by the succession of imitations and allusions. Therefore, significant in each allusion is not only the content it references in the modello codice, but also the circumstances and context that establish the modello
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