Overturn the upside-down world. Stylistic implications of the carnivalesque traced in Giordano Bruno’s <i>The candle-bearer</i>

Abstract

The paper provides a proposal research on the thematic and linguistic contents presented on the Candelaio by means of Bakhtin's category of the Carnival. This research has a double aim. The first purpose is to identify some contradictory and highly problematic elements according to the interpretation, which is usual within the comedy genre, based on both a philosophical reading and a theatrical technique typical of the Mannerism. The other objective is to outline in its fundamental lines a hypothetical project upon the Candelaio. After a short review of the main thematic elements, the analysis of the carnivalistic aspects focuses on some dialogical and linguistic elements that are connected to the rhetoric of parody. In addition to the obscene deformation of the biblical-lyturgical statements, some of the most meaningful phenomena are given by the participants taking part in the dialogues, with their ability to lower the tone, and by the usage of the bakhtinian hybrid utterance, which is employed by the author with a dual effect. In general, the analysis, which is here summarily presented with the intention to postpone a systematic study, seems to confirm the importance of the carnivalistic code as not only a linguistic but also an imaginative device of the comedy: his dual value persists and allows not to make absolute generalization about the negativity of the depicted world.

Keywords

• Candelaio
• Bachtin
• Carnevalesco
• Costruzione ibrida
• Vicissitudine