Guittone d’Arezzo

Chapter 1 demonstrates the dialogic nature of Guittone d’Arezzo’s performance of conversion through the intertextual relationship between his pre- and post-conversion poetry, written as ‘Guittone’ and ‘Frate Guittone’, respectively. This analysis is the first step in a discussion of the ‘corrective intertextuality’ used by authors (including Dante) to construct teleological narratives of subjectivity, often with recourse to religious authority. The chapter confronts the tension between irony and sincerity inherent in Guittone’s particular, intertwined performances of subjectivity and conversion across his whole corpus. The chapter gives an in-depth account of the destabilizing effects of (Frate) Guittone’s two voices and two phases of poetic writing.