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Critical Insights: Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) is one of the most important poets in the history of Western literature. His famous epic poem, The Divine Comedy, has been translated again and again over the centuries and was recognized almost immediately as a major work of literary art.
The epic has also been regarded as one of the most significant literary contributions to the realms of philosophy, theology, history, and even politics. The Divine Comedy, however, was only one of several major works composed by Dante. Others include Convivio (The Banquet, consisting of both poems and prose), La vita nuova (The New Life, another collection of poems and prose), De monarchia (Concerning Monarchy), and De vulgaria eloquentia (Concerning Vernacular Eloquence).
Inspired by classical thought and classical writers, crucial in the history of the use of vernacular Italian, central to the tradition of Christian philosophy and theology, and undeniable in his impact on many later writers, Dante carved out a special place for himself during a life full of turbulence and serious dangers. The present volume will explore not just The Divine Comedy but many of his other works as well, taking into account deliberately diverse perspectives, including the biographical, historical, sociological, historical, and aesthetic.
An introductory essay by Edwin Wong highlights Dante’s complex attitudes toward some of the great writers, from the classical period, who preceded him. Edwin Wong’s opening essay, titled “Amplifications of Antiquity in Dante’s Divine Comedy,” provides a lively overview of Dante’s reasons for writing as well as of his relations with his classical predecessors.
Following the introductory essay is a collection of four Critical Context essays designed to help readers view Dante's work through a critical lens and from a historical vantage point.
The Four Critical Context Essays Include:
- The Life of Dante and the Commedia, Brandon Schneeberger
- Recent Literary Criticism of Dante’s Commedia, Melissa Anderson
- Why Did Dante Call the Divine Comedy a Comedy? or, How to Do Things with Genres, Edwin Wong
- “Listen, Pal, There Was a Man Named Dante”: Refractions of The Divine Comedy in Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, Steven D. Ealy
Following the Critical Context essays is the Critical Readings section of this book, which contains the following essays:
- Dante’s Vita Nuova: A Survey of Recent Introductions and Afterwords, Matthew M. Thiele
- “By the testimony of reason and authority”: Reason, Rhetoric, and Literature in Dante’s Monarchia, Matthew M. Thiele.
- Which Translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy Is the “Best”?, Robert C. Evans
- Dante’s Art and Ideas: Opinions of Important Translators and Editors, Robert C. Evans
- Rare Illustrated Editions of Dante’s Divine Comedy (With Some Thoughts on Using Illustrations to Read and Teach Dante), Robert C. Evans
- The Dante Paintings of Joseph Anton Koch, Robert C. Evans
- Unfamiliar Illustrations of the First Canto of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Rhianna Ragan
- Depictions of Cerberus, the Three-Headed Dog, by Various Illustrators of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Kelsie Kato
- “It was enough to make you dream for nights”: Dante’s Inferno on the Screen: Milano Films’ L’Inferno, Christopher Baker
- Norman Bel Geddes’s Stage Designs for Dante’s Divine Comedy, Robert C. Evans
Each essay in Critical Insights: Dante Alighieri includes a list of Works Cited and detailed endnotes. In the final section, Resources, easy-to-follow lists are provided to help guide the reader through important dates and moments in the author’s life, beginning with a Chronology of Dante Alighieri Life. This is followed by a list of Works by Dante and a Bibliography. Finally, this section closes with an About the Editor section, Contributors, and a detailed Index.
The Critical Insights Series distills the best of both classic and current literary criticism of the world’s most studied literature. Edited and written by some of academia’s most distinguished literary scholars, Critical Insights: Dante Alighieri provides authoritative, in-depth scholarship that students and researchers will rely on for years. This volume is destined to become a valuable purchase for all.
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