Divine dialectic : Dante's incarnational poetry / Guy P. Raffa.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A fresh reading of Dante's major literary works - the Divine Comedy and the Vita nuova - that combines central tenets of incarnational theology and dialectical thought to challenge a dominant paradigm in Dante criticism.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Original in conception and carefully argued, this study draws deeply on incarnational theology, dialectical thought, and late-20th-century Dante scholarship in pursuit of its claim that Dante's characteristic mode of thinking is to "'have it both ways' on issues that normally cry out for a definitive 'either/or' solution." Raffa (Univ. of Texas, Austin) begins from consideration of "Incarnation Manque in the Vita nuova," before going on to examine a series of major episodes from the Commedia that, he claims, consistently exemplify this feature of Dante's thinking: the "incarnational failure and parody" of many characters and episodes in Inferno, the "incarnational dialectic writ large," in Virgil and Beatrice in Purgatory and in the "shadowed spheres" of Paradise (especially the canto of Justinian), and the "incarnational dialectic of martyrdom and mission" in the Heavens of the Sun and of Mars. His conclusion that one should endorse rather than repudiate the many apparent paradoxes presented by Dante's thought and writing is substantially persuasive. Lucid, erudite, and thought provoking, this is an important contribution to Dante studies that will be obligatory reading for advanced students and scholars of the Commedia. S. Botterill University of California, Berkeley