“The frame story in Robert Browning’s Balaustion’s Adventure”

I monologhi drammatici, la cui forma più tipica è quella in cui un narratore in veste di personaggio racconta una storia a uno o più ascoltatori impliciti silenziosi, sono testi esemplari per misurare l’interazione fra diegesi e mimesi. Si tratta infatti di costruzioni poetiche complesse nelle quali sono presenti entrambi i modi della narrazione. Il saggio esamina da questa prospettiva Balaustion’s Adventure di Robert Browning, opera che possiede un livello di complessità superiore rispetto a quella dei monologhi drammatici. In particolare, il saggio analizza la cornice del testo browninghiano, per renderne manifesta, attraverso una lettura sintagmatica, la natura testuale ibrida fra diegesi e mimesi e individuare le motivazioni e le finalità di tale complessità.

This essay examines the way in which narrative diegesis and dramatic mimesis interact in Browning’s Balaustion’s Adventure, Including a Transcript from Euripides, a long poem in blank verse made of 2705 lines. The complex structure of this poem is made up of four main sections: 1) an opening narrative frame, where Balaustion tells her four friends how she saved herself by reciting Euripides’ Alcestis at Syracuse (ll. 1-357); 2) the full version of Alcestis, which is not only recited by Balaustion but also commented upon (ll. 358-2396); 3) a personal version accompanied by a new interpretation of the play (ll. 2397-2660); 4) a closing narrative frame where Balaustion once again affirms Alcestis’ extraordinary value (ll. 2661-2705). In particular, the essay focuses on the frame with the aim of exploring the structural originality of the poem and its hybrid texture: with regard to the literary genre, the frame blends drama, historical narratives and epics; as for the mood, mimesis and diegesis alternate in almost every section. What lends continuity to the text is Balaustion, narrator and main character, spectator and performer: with her performative speech-acts, it is she who directs the succession of diegesis and mimesis. Finally, the poem has also a metapoetic function, that consists in the glorification of the extraordinary power of poetry.