Bibliotheca Dantesca: Journal of Dante Studies: Volume 4, Issue 1

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01/01/2021
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  • Publication
    From the "Allora" to the "Non Ancora:" Luzi's Essays on Dante
    (2021-12-12) Peterson, Thomas E
    In five critical essays on Dante extending from 1945 to 1999 Mario Luzi presents his view of the Divina Commedia as a living work that requires its readers to enter into its internal creative process in order to comprehend its moral and teleological meanings. At the center of the essays is the figure of Dante, identical to the poem’s protagonist, whose absolute identification with the objects of his thought gives rise to a poetry of prophecy, proclamation and testimony rooted in the experience of exile. Dante sees exile as the universal condition of humanity, which presupposes a spiritual struggle and itinerary on the part of the individual: from the “allora” of sin and perdition to the “non ancora” of penitence and expiation, and hence to the prospect of salvation. In closing, the essay considers the relation between Luzi’s critical Dantism and the impact of Dante on his poetry.
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    Interpreting Dante’s 'Commedia': Competing Approaches
    (2021-12-12) Corbett, George
    This article first addresses the emphasis on the truth of the literal sense of Dante’s Commedia in twentieth-century scholarship, whether the poem is conceived as a mystical vision (Bruno Nardi, 1884-1968), figural fulfillment (Erich Auerbach, 1892-1957), or allegory of the theologians (Charles S. Singleton, 1909-1985; and Robert Hollander, 1933-2021). Secondly, it analyses the interpretative approach of the French Dominican scholars Pierre Mandonnet (1858-1936) and Joachim Berthier (1848-1924), who draw on symbolic theology (and the four senses of Scripture) but, unlike Singleton and Hollander, insist that the literal sense of the poem is a “beautiful lie.” Thirdly, it shows how literalist approaches underpin key twentieth-century discussions of Dante’s theology, contribute to broader secularizing trends in Dante Studies, and represent a rupture with the seven-hundred-year-long commentary tradition on the poem as a whole.
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    Empty Flags and Fallen 'Angeli': Dante and the Imagery of the Capitol Riot
    (2021-12-12) Olson, Kristina
    After the mob attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, which disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election, several photographs of the insurrectionists have begun to emerge. Jacob Chansley, known as Jake Angeli, was one of the many insurrectionists photographed on the Senate dais after the chamber had been evacuated of all elected officials, who were escorted into safety. Angeli wore a horned, double raccoon-tail helmet, painted his face the colors of the US flag, and carried a spear with the American flag. While the appearance of the Confederate flag born into its halls by the same mob is un-doubtedly more disturbing, Angeli’s eccentric ensemble evokes the language of violence and treason from Dante’s Inferno. From the horns of the Mino-taur, guardian of the violent in the Seventh Circle, to the tripartite-facial colors of Lucifer, the emperor of the despondent kingdom whose three mouths eter-nally masticate traitors to country, homeland and God, Angeli’s insurrectionist garb should be considered for its unintended symbolism with Dante’s poetic imagination. As I explain in this contribute, though insurrectionists and neofas-cists have often coopted medieval iconography, and Dante’s own name has recently become appropriated by Italian nationalist rhetoric in disturbing ways, a closer look at his Inferno, evoked by these and other symbols of this mob, show these domestic terrorists to be participants in sins of political violence and treason, as many other fallen “angeli.”
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    Dante as Orpheus: Georgics 4 and Inferno 5
    (2021-12-12) West, Kevin R.
    Critics have long struggled to explain the apparent contradiction between Inferno 5.31, where the violent winds of the second circle of hell are said never to rest, and Inferno 5.96, where the wind is calm while Dante speaks with Francesca da Rimini. I argue that the winds calm specifically because they also calm when Orpheus visits the underworld in search of Eurydice in Georgics 4. With this briefest of allusions Dante fashions himself as another Orpheus, a poet whose art can soothe hell itself, into which he has dared (as a character) to descend.
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    New Light on Dante’s Construction of Geryon
    (2021-12-12) Hosle, Paul
    This essay aims to improve our understanding of Dante’s construction of Geryon in Inferno 16-17. First, I address the vexed question concerning the truth-status of the monster vis-à-vis that of the poem. After rejecting alternative interpretations, I defend the exclusively allegorical reading of Geryon and suggest that it should be seen as a conscious corrective reaction to Virgil’s metapoetic construction of Fama in Aeneid 4. In the second part of the essay, I demonstrate an unappreciated wordplay between Gerion(e) and girone and argue that this serves as a key to appreciating his allegorical nature. The latent anagrammatic wordplay underscores his symbolic mirroring of the structure of Hell and instantiates both the motif of hybridity and that of deception.
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    Surprising Encounters: Manzoni’s Dantean Rhetorical Palimpsest ('Promessi sposi' VII-VIII and XXXIII-XXXIV)
    (2021-12-12) Nussmeier, Anthony
    Previous investigations of Alessandro Manzoni’s Dantean borrowings have unearthed a quantity of stilemes and syntagm that have revised substantially the thesis that Dantean reminiscences in Manzoni are “pochissimi” and possess only an “affinità generica” (A. Mazza). Rodney J. Lokaj’s systematic study of Manzoni’s reuse of Dante in the “comic key” has contributed greatly to our understanding of Promessi sposi as a treasure trove of references, veiled and unveiled, to the sommo poeta. Inf. 5 has been thought commonly to be the touchstone of intertextuality between Dante and Manzoni. This essay unearths further connections between Inf. 5 and Promessi sposi, and also explores a series of Dantean stilemes and syntagm present from Inf. 3 and Purg. 24 and used by Manzoni throughout the novel, beyond what De Sanctis called Manzoni’s “commedia di carattere” (Promessi sposi [PS], chapters I-VII). As a result of the systematic borrowing of Dantean episodes and lexicon, it is evident that Manzoni borrows consciously from the poet, and that such borrowings are not incidental to the narrative. Finally, this essay argues via Manzoni’s Osservazioni sulla morale cattolica that his antiphrastic use of Inf. 5 in Promessi sposi constitutes a correction to Dante’s depiction of mercy in the early canti of the Comedy, for in PS chapters VIII and XXXIV–site of the thickest network of references to Inf. 3 and 5–Manzoni provides an antidote to Dante’s somewhat-unorthodox and long-debated depiction of pietà by emphasizing mercy for others and the pairing of compassion and sound judgement (compassione e giudizio [PS ch. XXXIV]), respectively.
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    The Dante Lesson in Fuyumi Soryo’s 'Cesare: Il creatore che ha distrutto'
    (2021-12-12) Parker, Deborah
    This study examines the treatment of Dante’s Divine Comedy in a graphic novel by the female Japanese mangaka (manga artist), Fuyumi Soryo—Cesare: Il creatore che ha distrutto (2005-present). The manga focuses on the Renaissance condottiere, Cesare Borgia. Soryo collaborates with Motoaki Hara, an Associate Professor in the School of Cultural and Social Studies in the Department of European and American Studies at Tokai University, who specializes in medieval and Renaissance Italy. One chapter, Divine Comedy, features a lesson delivered by the eminent Renaissance commentator, Cristoforo Landino on Inf. 33. Among the students are Cesare Borgia and Giovanni de’ Medici (future Leo X), both of whom who were actually at the University of Pisa together in the late 1400s. Landino’s lecture generates lively debates on civic responsibility and leadership. My analysis considers western and eastern readings of this unusually rich chapter. While there have been scholarly studies of Gō Nagai’s Dante Shinkyoku (Divine Comedy), there have been none of Soryo’s work. The Divine Comedy chapter warrants attention for its inventive, innovative, and bold treatment of the Ugolino episode.