SOURCE: Da Pozzo, Giovanni. “Last Assaults and Delayed Victory in Tasso's Liberata.¹” Italica 74, no. 3 (autumn 1997): 319-38.

In the following essay, Da Pozzo considers impulses toward both indeterminacy and finality in Gerusalemme liberata.

In the series of critical interpretations over the past ten years, a variety of methodological combinations have been presented regarding the reading of Tasso's main poem both in its singular parts as well as a complete work. These combinations demonstrate not only the ability to renew contemporary critical activity in this field of study, but they also contain these interpretative contributions within the Mannerist field, where Tasso seems to have been placed. It is certainly not necessary to refer to the most significant critical contributions as it would be equivalent to telling the recent history of Tasso's criticism, which is already available in specialized literary reviews.

As for Mannerism,² with which Tasso is often associated, one...