Dalla menzogna al silenzio. Il viaggio "mistico" della scrittura Dantesca nella "Divina Commedia". ( Italian text)
Item
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Title
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Dalla menzogna al silenzio. Il viaggio "mistico" della scrittura Dantesca nella "Divina Commedia". ( Italian text)
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Identifier
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AAI8821071
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identifier
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8821071
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Creator
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Carugati, Giuliana.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Fred J. Nichols
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Medieval
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Abstract
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Placing Dante against the background of a redefined "mystical" tradition, this dissertation, written in Italian, aims at showing how the text of the Commedia re-enacts the striving toward silence which is the main characteristic of such a tradition.;The first chapter is aimed at a re-definition of "mystical experience." Through an analysis of the different traditions of Christian mysticism up to Dante's time, "mystical experience" is shown to take place at the boundaries of language, or writing, where organized meaning in the form of absolute metaphor yield to silence.;The second chapter shows that "mysticism" in the culture of early Christianity and of the Middle Ages originates in the tradition of biblical exegesis, centered upon the concept of allegory--a concept which stands for the whole of the new Christian economy. Dante's work is shown to be an outcome of this tradition.;The third chapter deals with some aspects of the Commedia, interpreted as central to its meaning. An analysis of the appeals to the reader scattered through the poem, as well as of the figure of Virgil, reveals that Dante makes an effort to denounce the fictionality of his construct, as he attempts to surmount it in order to arrive at a "purified" language.;The fourth chapter analyzes the figure of Ulysses. Seen both as the mythical navigator toward the sunset--representing the voyage of the soul toward eternity--and the fraudulent user of language, Ulysses stands not so much for a "damned" other of the poet, as for the danger of the poet's own enterprise is facing, a danger which is not different from the "mystical" experience itself.;The fifth chapter examines the metaphor of vision and its closeness to ineffability. Vision is shown to be not what it purports to be, but its opposite, lack of vision. A close reading of canto 33 shows that Dante is indeed surmounting both fiction and philosophical discourse, only to sink into ultimate silence. The Commedia has thus not just represented a voyage through the other world, but has performed its own textual, "mystical," voyage, from fiction to silence.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
