Epoca, stile, campi di possibilità: la teoria di Auerbach per il poema tra Boiardo, Ariosto e Tasso

Starting from the rare instances in which Erich Auerbach mentions Ariosto in Mimesis, particularly the notion that Orlando Furioso should be described in terms of “feats of arms” (Waffentaten) rather than “war” (Krieg), this article aims to develop an “Auerbachian” interpretation of three poems largely overlooked in the seminal work on the representation of reality in Western literature: Inamoramento de Orlando by Matteo Maria Boiardo, Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, and Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso. In addition to this integration of Mimesis, the essay offers a possible theoretical explanation for the absence of these poems with the insufficient consideration of the category of literary genre in favor of that of “epoch”, while maintaining Auerbach's approach of comparing stylistic choices as “fields of possibilities”.