Synopses & Reviews
This book provides an introduction to Dante that is at once accessible and challenging. Fifteen specially-commissioned essays by distinguished scholars provide background information and up-to-date critical perspectives on Dante's life and work, focusing on areas of central importance. Three essays introduce the three canticles of the Divine Comedy, and others explore the literary, intellectual and historical background to Dante's writings, his other works and his reception in the commentary tradition and in literature in English. The book also includes a chronological table and suggestions for further reading.
Synopsis
Fifteen specially-commissioned essays by distinguished scholars provide an introduction to Dante that is at once accessible and challenging.
Table of Contents
List of charts; List of contributors; Preface; Note on translations; Chronological table; 1. Life of Dante Giuseppe Mazzotta; 2. Dante and the lyric past Teodolinda Barolini; 3. Approaching the Vita nuova Robert Pogue Harrison; 4. The unfinished Author - Dante's rhetoric of authority in the Convivio and De vulgari eloquentia Albert Russell Ascoli; 5. Dante and the empire Charles Till Davis; 6. Dante and Florence John M. Najemy; 7. Dante and the classical poets Kevin Brownlee; 8. Dante and the Bible Peter S. Hawkins; 9. The theology of Dante Christopher Ryan; 10. A poetics of chaos and harmony Joan Ferrante; 11. Introduction to Inferno John Freccero; 12. Introduction to Purgatory Jeffrey T. Schapp; 13. Shadowy prefaces: an introduction to Paradiso Rachel Jacoff; 14. Dante and his commentators Robert Hollander; 15. Dante in English David Wallace; Further reading; Index.