Representation of temporality, perpetuity and eternity in Dante's Commedia.

Gessi, Elena (2018) Representation of temporality, perpetuity and eternity in Dante's Commedia. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

My doctoral research analyses different aspects of temporality in the Divina Commedia of Dante Alighieri and it traces interactions between the levels of temporality, perpetuity and eternity. These relationships ought to have generated far more critical discussion than they have done thus far, concerning what Dante actually means by time, perpetuity and eternity. Overall, the scholarship on the general representation of time in the Divina Commedia is remarkably fragmentary and has yet to be synthesized into a comprehensive account. Thus, my research connects the three cantiche, Dante’s sources, the variety of different uses and representations of the figures of time within the poem, the poem’s astronomical figurations, and its scriptural and historical temporal perspectives. My project focuses on the main models and the taxonomies Dante engages with – these are the Augustinian, the Boethian and the Platonic. The research shows that the reiterations and transformations of these models are represented through figures, motions, rhythms and linguistic devices. Mostly, Dante presents us with hybrid figures, which have a sort of ‘patchwork’ nature. They might display biblical and classical features at the same time, revealing in this mixture the original voice of the author as poet and as compilator. My research indicates how Dante combines selected elements from different traditions in his attempt to provide the most comprehensive illustration of his conceptions, which themselves are hybrid and syncretic.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Literature and Creative Writing (former - to 2011)
Depositing User:	Megan Ruddock
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2018 12:42
Last Modified:	21 Jun 2022 13:03
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/69367
DOI:

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