Fairytales—A World between the Imaginary : Metaphor at Play in “Lo cunto de li cunti” by Giambattista Basile

This book investigates Basile’s contribution to the establishment of fairytales as a literary genre; the focus is on his masterpiece Lo cunto de li Cunti. The volume examines Basile’s work’s debt to tradition and its influence on posterity, while also studying the author’s unique use of metaphors in the rich Neapolitan dialect. As this study reveals, metaphors in Lo cunto de li cunti are not used simply as a mean of embellishment; rather they are employed as a way to inform the reader of the rich folkloric tradition of Naples during the baroque times, as well as of Basile’s discontent with the socio-political situation of his times. The use of metaphors is so pervasive that one could argue that the book is itself a metaphor through which Basile conveys his ideals and his utopia of a liberated Naples and a more just society; as well as the importance of the Neapolitan dialect and its linguistic registers. Furthermore, the book also proposes a new interpretation of the female characters of the tales and it instigates a discussion on gender roles in both modern and past societies.