Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) skrev pianosviten Gaspard de la nuit 1908 som är baserat på tre dikter av Aloysius Bertrands diktsamling Gaspard de la nuit (1842). I denna uppsats undersöks hur Ondines genomgående melodi är uppdelad och hur ackompanjemanget varierar sig samt satsens struktur i sin helhet. Efter att ha spelat verket i några år, analyserat urtext-noterna med musikteoretiska metoder, läst litteratur samt diskuterat vidare om ämnet har melodin visat sig vara uppdelad i fem delar ackompanjerad med mestadels ett ackompanjemangmönster (vilket har främst fyra variationer som turas om genom satsen) samt inslag av primärt fyra andra i mindre utsträckning och satsen vara en ABA form eller snarare lik en sonatform. Denna analys ger en djupare förståelse kring Ondines musikaliska struktur både i ett macro och mikroskopiskt perspektiv. Däremot får man inte glömma att ta detta med en nypa salt då de teoretiska samt analytiska aspekterna har en tendens att stå i vägen för ett organiskt musikaliskt musicerande. Därför bör man behålla sin tidigare förståelse och kombinera den med en mognare för att uppnå en övertygande interpretation som leder åhörare till den värld som kompositören blåst till liv.

In mainstream literary histories, Aloysius Bertrand (1807-1841) is still remembered as the canonical inventor of the prose poem in France. The established classification of Gaspard de la Nuit (1842) within the realm of the prose poem inevitably involves a retrospective appreciation of Bertrand’s work in light of the better-known authors that succeeded him in the history of this genre, such as Baudelaire and Mallarmé. The result is that Bertrand is often viewed as the inventor and/or the precursor of this genre; an important but, ultimately, minor contributor to its development. This hindsight brings with it a risk of critical anachronism against which Bertrand's contribution is often downplayed, especially because his thematic choices are seen to be outmoded, when compared to works by poets writing decades later. This thesis is a re-examination of Bertrand's Gaspard de la Nuit, incorporating an analysis of the cultural context that contributed to its production. The central argument is that in order to fairly assess Bertrand’s work, it is crucial to consider the poet’s contribution to, as well as his position in, the wider cultural exchange typical of his time. Using this contextual and historical approach, this thesis examines and challenges some of the main traditional considerations of Bertrand, such as his being a petit romantique, his provincialism, his unoriginality, and his role as the precursor and/or inventor of the prose poem. The overall aim is to assess fairly Bertrand’s unique synthesis of contemporary cultural and literary material with his own original work. By emphasising the crucial role of cultural exchange at the time of Gaspard de la Nuit’s production, we are thus able to begin to understand Bertrand in his own terms, rather than those of his successors, ourselves included, challenging commonly-held views and opening up new avenues for research.

Il nostro lavoro nasce dall’esigenza di voler delineare i confini tra metafora e similitudine al fine di distinguere il campo d’indagine di ognuna delle due figure. Il rapporto analogico che le caratterizza ha provocato nel tempo un’associazione costante tra i due procedimenti retorici che tendono, pertanto, ad essere sovrapposti. La nostra tesi si propone di dimostrare che seppur si tratti di due figure affini, similitudine e metafora si realizzano attraverso processi stilistici diversi. Questo studio presenta due grandi parti: una prima parte teorica e una seconda parte applicativa. La prima consta di tre capitoli: nel primo abbiamo esaminato le diverse definizioni che, nel corso degli anni, sono state assegnate alla similitudine e alla metafora; nel secondo, abbiamo presentato le teorie che, nel differenziare le due figure, hanno confuso, a nostro avviso, i loro campi d’indagine; nel terzo capitolo abbiamo analizzato e descritto il procedimento comparativo. Nella seconda parte, abbiamo applicato alla raccolta poetica Gaspard de la Nuit di Aloysius Bertrand, le analisi teoriche presentate nella prima parte del nostro lavoro. Per ogni testo poetico è stato affrontato uno studio di tipo linguistico e retorico: abbiamo analizzato le varie tipologie di similitudini e di metafora presenti in ciascun componimento. / The purpose of this work has its origins in the necessity of defining the boundary between metaphor and simile in order to demarcate the analytical fields corresponding to the two figures. The analogical relationship that characterizes them has provoked over the course of time a constant association between the two rhetorical procedures which have thus tended to become overlapped. This thesis intends to demonstrate that even though treating of related figures, simile and metaphor are produced by means of different stylistic procedures. This study is divided into two main parts: the first theoretical and the second of practical application. The first part consists of three chapters: in the first are examined the diverse definitions that have been assigned over the course of time to simile and to metaphor; the second presents theories which, in differentiating the two figures, have only served to confuse the fields of inquiry; in the third chapter the comparative method is analyzed and described. In the second part of the thesis the theoretical analyses presented in the first part of the work are applied to Gaspard de la Nuit, a collection of poetry by Aloysius Bertrand. Each text is subjected to a linguistic and a rhetorical analysis, thus analyzing the various typologies of similes and metaphors present in each of the compositions.