ABSTRACT

Negative constructions occur frequently in the Gerusalemme liberata. Turning to the consideration of historical context, the normative tendency characterizing the background of the Counter-Reformation against which Torquato Tasso composed his poem can itself be seen as based on negation. Negation was one of four types of comparison: contrast, negation, detailed parallel, and abridged comparison. The negative occurs frequently in epic poems such as the Aeneid, in Ariostos Orlando furioso, and in Tassos Gerusalemme liberata. Strings of negatives can be seen to emphasize and enliven the content of lists through variation. Many of the negative strings in the poem occur in speech. The medieval expansion of the means of amplificatio included litotes as part of the eighth figure, oppositio. The next negative construction to be dealt with is the non or né + ma type of antithesis, namely oppositio. The non + ma construction is an emphatic, and in the poem at times heavily normative, form of amplification.