Date of Award
4-27-2010
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Wayne Erickson - Committee Chair
Second Advisor
Dr. Calvin Thomas - Committee Member
Third Advisor
Dr. Paul Schmidt - Committee Member
Abstract
In the Commedia of Dante, a poem 14,233 lines in length, some 7,500 words occur only once. These are the hapax. Fewer than 2% of these constitute a minute but distinct subset—the hapax for which there are one or more words in the poem whose spelling is identical but whose meaning is different. These are what I call same-spelling hapax. I identify four categories: part-of-speech, homograph, locus, and name. Analysis of the same-spelling hapax illuminates a poetic strategy continuously in use throughout the poem. This is to use the one-word overlap of Rhyme and line number. Not only is it highly probable that a same-spelling hapax will be a rhyme-word, but it is also probable that it will occupy a rhyme-word’s most significant position—the one place—the single word—where the two intertwined formal entities that shape each canto coincide. Every three lines, their tension-resolving this-word-only union intensifies the reader’s attention and understanding alike.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/1350188
Recommended Citation
Soules, Terrill Shepard, "The Same-Spelling Hapax of the Commedia of Dante." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2010.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1350188