Indeed, in 17th-century England, some writers talked about Dante as a de facto Protestant, employing him in their anti-Catholic propaganda. Dante was interested in exploring the universal truths, as he understood them, but the vehicle he chose to do so is extremely specific. Most classical epic poems deal with the actions of a great hero from the historical past.
The protagonist of the Divine Comedy , conversely, is Dante himself, set in , the year he turned Throughout the poem, he refers to his own family, other works he had written, and autobiographical experiences.
On the way, he meets real, historical individuals and not vague abstractions crafted merely to exemplify a specific sin. Similarly, the entire underworld has a gripping topography, which exemplifies the organization of the sins. At the same time, it also makes the work vivid and easy to read. Because of the conical structure of hell, at no time does the reader lose track of where Dante is in his descent through human evil.
Source: University of Arizona. The Divine Comedy is a fulcrum in Western history. It brings together literary and theological expression, pagan and Christian, that came before it while also containing the DNA of the modern world to come.
A poll of writers and critics, Stories that Shaped the World, was published in May. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Stories that shaped the world Literature. Share using Email. By Christian Blauvelt 5th June To Hell and back Dante narrates The Divine Comedy in the first person as his own journey to Hell and Purgatory by way of his guide Virgil, the poet of Roman antiquity who wrote the Aeneid, and then to Heaven, led by his ideal woman Beatrice, a fellow Florentine for whom he felt romantic longing but who died at a very young age.
The turn of the spheres These are stunning images, but made all the more powerful by the language in which Dante chose to convey them: not Latin, the language of all serious literary works in Italy to that point, but Florentine Tuscan. In Paradise which Virgil cannot enter because he is a heathen, though a "virtuous" one , Dante is met by Beatrice, the woman who came from Heaven to ask Virgil to help her friend.
She was an admired friend of Dante's in Florence she died in , and is idealized in the poem. Dante had a friend and patron named Con Grande Della Scala. This is an excerpt from that letter:. The title of the work is, "Here beginneth the Comedy of Dante Alighieri, a Florentine by birth, not by character. It differs, then, from tragedy in its content, in that tragedy begins admirably and tranquilly, whereas its end or exit is foul and terrible; and it derives its name from tragus , which is a "goat" and oda , as though to say "goat-song," that is fetid like a goat, as appears from Seneca in his tragedies; whereas comedy introduces some harsh complication, but brings its matter to a prosperous end, as appears from Terence, in his comedies.
He held a number of significant public offices at a time of great political unrest in Italy, and, in , he was exiled for life by the leaders of the Black Guelphs, the political faction in power at the time. He completed Inferno, which depicts an allegorical journey through Hell, around Dante roamed from court to court in Italy, writing and occasionally lecturing, until his death from a sudden illness in The struggle for power in Florence was a reflection of a crisis that affected all of Italy, and, in fact, most of Europe, from the twelfth century to the fourteenth century—the struggle between church and state for temporal authority.
The main representative of the church was the pope, while the main representative of the state was the Holy Roman Emperor. In Florence, these two loyalties were represented by the Guelph party, which supported the papacy, and the Ghibelline party, which supported imperial power. Dante, as a visible and influential leader of the Whites, was exiled within a year.
Dante became something of a party unto himself after his exile.
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