Sull’utilizzo dell’immaginario economico nella lirica profana di John Donne (con particolare riferimento all’elegia XI, The Bracelet)

Abstract

Through the analisys of the attitude of the two lovers in elegy XI , The Bracelet, this essay aims at highlighting how their behaviour reproduces on the cultural level the negotiations typical of the rising market economy, so that they represent in Donne’s vision the modern allegory of love. This ‘quantitative’ mercantile pattern recurs also in the next love poems, constituting one of the crucial imageries by which Donne represents the proteian, precarious and imperfect nature of the love relation. Such mercantile imagery, alluding to the cultural influence of the market relations, redefines at the same time the autonomy of Donne’s love sphere, showing that it is not so exclusive