Dante Tenzonante

This dissertation offers a narrative reading of Dante’s use of the poetic form of the tenzone. I frame Dante’s tenzoni within the history of the form’s use in the Italian vernacular tradition, beginning with Giacomo da Lentini and the scuola siciliana. The practice of writing tenzoni in the Italian tradition ends with Dante, contemporaneous to the beginnings of the Commedia. Through close readings of Dante’s tenzoni, I explore how Dante shapes culture and issues social criticism dialogically. Ultimately, I argue that the form of the tenzoni was fundamental both to Dante’s ethical development and to the codification of the vernacular, leading to the first epic poem in the Italian language.