The Cambridge Companion to Dante's ‘Commedia'

Accessible and informative account of Dante's great Commedia: its purpose, themes and styles, and its reception over the centuries.

Zygmunt G. Bara?ski (Edited by), Simon Gilson (Edited by)

9781108421294, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 December 2018

326 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.58 kg

This newly commissioned volume presents a focused overview of Dante's masterpiece, the Commedia, offering readers of today wide-ranging insights into the poem and its core features. Leading scholars discuss matters of structure, narrative, language and style, characterization, doctrine, and politics, in chapters that make their own contributions to Dante criticism by raising problems and questions that call for renewed attention, while investigating contextual concerns as well as the current state of criticism about the poem. The Commedia is also placed in a variety of cultural and historical contexts through accounts of the poem's transmission and reception that explore both its contemporary influence and its continuing legacy today. With its accessible approach, its unstinting focus on the poem and its attention to matters that have not always received adequate critical assessment, this volume will be of value to all students and scholars of Dante's great poem.

Introduction Zygmunt G. Bara?ski and Simon Gilson
1. Narrative structure Lino Pertile
2. Dante Alighieri, Dante-poet, Dante-character Giuseppe Ledda
3. Characterization Laurence E. Hooper
4. Moral structure George Corbett
5. Title, genre, metaliterary aspects Theodore J. Cachey, Jr
6. Language and style Mirko Tavoni
7. Allegories of the corpus James C. Kriesel
8. Classical culture Simone Marchesi
9. Vernacular literature and culture Tristan Kay
10. Religious culture Paola Nasti
11. Doctrine Simon Gilson
12. Politics Claire E. Honess
13. Genesis, dating, and Dante's 'other works' Zygmunt G. Bara?ski
14. Transmission history Prue Shaw
15. Early reception until 1481 Anna Pegoretti
16. Later reception from 1481 to the present Fabio Camilletti.

Subject Areas: Literary companions, book reviews & guides [DSRC], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Literature: history & criticism [DS]