Dante’s ‘Blind Prison’: Confinement and Carcerality in the 'Inferno' (original) (raw)

Between Hell and Paradise: the Motif of the Dantesque Journey in The Pisan and post-Pisan Cantos

2014

The present article is an analysis of the dantesque Hell and Paradise represented in the literary output of the American poet Ezra Pound. The author of the article focuses on the interpretation of The Cantos, particularly The Pisan Cantos and post-Pisan Cantos created in the final phase of the poet’s literary output (1954-1972) which reflects his personal crisis as an artist, thinker and man. The Pisan Cantos and post-Pisan Cantos, whose guiding motif is Dante’s The Divine Comedy, were created during the poet’s imprisonment near Pisa in 1945 after his indictment for treason and then his stay in St Elisabeth Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Washington D. C. The article examines the motif of Dante’s Hell, Paradise and Purgatory in Ezra Pound’s epic both with reference to the American artist’s traumatic experiences as well as to his spiritual, artistic and philosophical journey during which he searched for inspiration, wisdom and internal harmony.

A Meditation on Hell: Lessons from Dante

Published in Modern Theology 18.3 (July 2002) 375-394. Dante is the greatest theologian of hell in the Western tradition. This essay is my attempt to articulate a portion of my debt to him.

Dante : Aristotelian Layers of the Inferno

Dante : Aristotelian Layers of the Inferno, 2024

This analysis explores how Dante’s Inferno reflects both Aristotelian and Christian concepts of the soul, drawing on Professor Giuseppe Mazzotta's teachings in Yale’s Dante in Translation course. Dante structures Hell in alignment with Aristotle’s divisions of the soul—the vegetative, sensitive, and rational faculties—which Thomas Aquinas later adapted into Christian doctrine. Each circle and punishment in the Inferno mirrors a level of moral corruption, moving from sins rooted in base desires to those involving intellectual deceit and betrayal. Dante’s final circles, including the Malebolge, underscore the unique responsibility of the rational soul when intellect and trust are misused. In this way, Inferno serves as both a moral map of sin and a philosophical exploration of human nature.

A Comparative Analysis of Hell Presented by Dante Alighieri, John Milton and James Joyce

GJHASS, 2022

The research is intended to critically analyze and interpret the description of Hell done by three famous writers of their time and era and the main theme of the research is to find and relate the comparison between all the forms of Hell presented and their effects on the readers. The three writers mentioned, Dante, Milton, and James Joyce portray sin and its repercussions which would be influencing the type of formulation obtained while being in Hell. The research would analyze it and help the readers understand the main motive and succession behind the depiction of Hell.

An Examination of Canto XIX of Dante's Inferno

The opening lines of Canto XIX of Dante's Inferno: "O Simon Mago, o miseri seguaci che le cose di Dio, che di bontate deon essere spose, e voi rapaci per oro e per argento avolterate, or convien che per voi suoni la tromba, pero che ne la terza bolgia state. Gia eravamo, a la seguente tomba, montati de lo scoglio in quella parte ch'a punto sovra mezzo 'l fosso piomba. O somma sapienza, quanta e l'arte che mostri in cielo, in terra e nel mal mondo, e quanto giusto tua virtu comparte! Io vidi per le coste e per lo fondo piena la pietra livida di fori, d'un largo tutti e ciascun era tondo." 1

Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The Great Poem of Christian Europe. Calgary '16 & Mariupol '18

Today we are going to introduce and so to speak to taste Dante’s Commedia. The poem opens with a poet, also named Dante, who finds himself lost in a wood. The ghost of the ancient Latin poet Vergil appears, and offers to guide him on the first part of a journey that will take him through all the cosmos, starting in Hell, going up through Purgatory, and finally, ascending into skies, with another guide. The poem tells the journey of the poet himself throughout the 3 realms, with the many encounters and dialogues. According to Genette’s definitions, then, its narrator may be defined "intradiégétique" et "homodiégétique".  We will focus on his cosmology, which plays a large part in the poem. To this end, we must compare the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems, while also reading a literary account of the unpredictable consequences of the new cosmology.  Going on we will see which is the origin of Hell, according to Dante, and comparing it with the modern/ancient view in Milton’s Paradise Lost.  We shall clarify the structure of Dantean Hell: before from a physical after from a moral point of view. With the prior expression, I mean its orography and hydrology, and even its architectural parts (walls of Ditis’ town, Malebolge).  With the latter one, I mean the ethical criterion for the discernment of sin, in comparison with that which divides the sins in Purgatory. Again, I will explain you an annotated list of many, but not all, sinners and some of their pains.  At the end, if we have time, we will read one of the most famous and relevant episode of Inferno.

A poetic journey through Inferno and Purgatorio

Il volume, concepito per commemorare il settimo centenario della morte del Sommo Poeta, riunisce contributi di studiosi dei più diversi campi della scienza: italianisti, storici e filologi della letteratura ungherese, comparatisti, filosofi, nonché uno storico dell'arte e un musicologo, dimostrano in questo modo tanto la storia dell'influenza di Dante quanto la situazione delle odierne ricerche in Ungheria. Il libro è bipartito: la prima parte raccoglie gli studi di italianisti che studiano le fonti della Commedia e le interpretazioni del linguaggio (verbale e gestuale) e analizzano alcuni loci danteschi e contesti letterari topici. La seconda unità è dedicata alla ricezione di Dante nella letteratura ungherese antica, moderna e contemporanea, nella musica e nelle arti.