Dante’s Self-Characterization in the Vita Nova: Auctoritas through Love and Writing

Though Dante Alighieri deems writing of oneself inappropriate in his Convivio, he appears as a protagonist or source of exemplary poetry in almost every one of his works. His Vita Nova can be considered the most self-reflective of these works, since it recounts the personal emotions, thoughts, and events of Alighieri’s youth, as part of and in addition to a commentary on his own poetry. Written as an autobiographical first person narrative, Dante clearly wants his Vita Nova to say something about him as a person, to portray a certain image to his readers, whether accurate or artificial. This thesis examines the images that Dante constructs of himself through his use of the first person in the Vita Nova and the techniques the poet employs to create these images and self-representations.