Dante & the Unorthodox: The Aesthetics of Transgression

577 Pages·2005·3.41 MB·English

by  James Miller

Spine = 32.7mm
FOLD FOLD
DANTE
D
“Always original, often exciting, and sometimes genuinely outrageous, this
smart and substantial collection of essays flamboyantly slaps the received
a
wisdom of Dante studies in the face. Better yet, it shows a great medieval
& THE UNORTHODOX
poet still speaking clearly and sharply to anyone in the twenty-first century
n
with ears to listen.” —Steven Botterill,
The Aesthetics of Transgression
University of California, Berkeley
t
D
uring his lifetime, Dante was condemned as corrupt and banned from
e
Florence on pain of death. But in 1329, eight years after his death, he was
again viciously condemned—this time as a heretic and false prophet—by
Friar Guido Vernani. From Vernani’s inquisitorial viewpoint, the author of the
T &
Commedia“seduced” his readers by offering them a “vessel of demonic poison” h
e t
mixed with poetic fantasies designed to destroy the “healthful truth”of Catho-
A
h
licism. Thanks to such pious vituperations, a sulphurous fume of unorthodoxy has e
s
persistently clung to the mantle of Dante’s poetic fame. th e
The primary critical purpose ofDante & the Unorthodoxis to examine the aes- e
ti U
thetic impulses behind the theological and political reasons for Dante’s allegory c
s
n
of mid-life divergence from the papally prescribed “way of salvation.” Marking o
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the septicentennial of his exile, the book’s eighteen critical essays, three excerpts T o
from an allegorical drama, and a portfolio of fourteen contemporary artworks r
a r
address the issue of the poet’s conflicted relation to orthodoxy. n
s t
g
By bringing the unorthodox out of the realm of “secret things,” by uncensoring
r h
e
them at every turn, Dante dared to oppose the censorious regime of Latin Chris- s
s o
tianity with a transgressive zeal more threatening to papal authority than the i
o
demonic hostility feared by FriarVernani. n d
❦ o
J
a
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James Millerteaches a cycle of courses on Dante for the Comparative Literature
e
and Culture program at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. s

His other books include Measures of Wisdom: The Cosmic Dance in Classical and M
Christian Antiquityand Fluid Exchanges: Artists and Critics in the AIDS Crisis.He i
l
l
has also translated Andrew Pawlowski’s play Dante on the Steps of Immortality.
e
James Miller looks forward to a hot afterlife on the Seventh Terrace of Purgatory. r
,
e
d
i
t
o
r
ISBN 0-88920-457-8
James Miller, editor
PJWOODLAND | [email protected] |WLU Press | Miller, Dante and the Unorthodox | cmyk | spine = 32.7 mm
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW K
FOLD
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D & U
ANTE THE NORTHODOX
The Aesthetics of Transgression
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D & U
ANTE THE NORTHODOX
The Aesthetics of Transgression
(cid:1)
Edited by James Miller
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This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for
the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme,
using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities. We acknowledge
the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario
Book Initiative.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Dante & the unorthodox : the aesthetics of transgression /
edited by James Miller.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88920-457-8
1. Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321. Divina commedia. 2. Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321—Reli-
gion. 3. Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321—Criticism and interpretation. 4. Christianity in
literature. I. Miller, James L., 1951– II. Title: Dante and the unorthodox.
PQ4416.D35 2005 851’.1 C2005-900089-9
© 2005
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
www.wlupress.wlu.ca
Cover by P.J.Woodland. Cover image: Michelangelo. Last Judgment(1535–1541). Detail:
Minos with demons. Sistine Chapel, Vatican. By permission of the Direzione dei Musei,
Stato della Città del Vaticano. Interior design by Catharine Bonas-Taylor.
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used
in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omis-
sions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.
Printed in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence
from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copy-
right licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
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Dedication
In memoriam
Franco Romano Calaresu
1931–1996
In October 1990 a small group of colleagues from the University of Western
Ontario set about reading the Commediatogether, gathering once a fortnight
during term at the house of professors John Thorp and Bonnie MacLachlan,
and proceeding at the stately pace of one canto per meeting. The members of
this group, which came to be called the Circolo Dantesco diLondon,represented
many disciplines in the University: English, German, philosophy, classics,
music, chemistry, physiology. Curiously no Italianist took part. The group was
united not by professional interest in Italian literature but by curiosity about,
and love of, Dante’s great work. The endeavour lasted seven years, and for most
of this time, surprisingly, the circle was unbroken. For its hundredth and final
meeting, the group opened outward to include participants in the Dante & the
Unorthodox conference held at Western in April 1997. Many of the essays in
this present volume were germinated at that conference.
Although the conference and the final meeting were an occasion of joy
for the Circolo, our mood was also tinged with sadness because one of the orig-
inal members did not make it to the end. Franco Calaresu, professor of phys-
iology, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, distinguished researcher and
teacher, a fount of wit and fun, the constitutionally irreverent soul of the
Circolo, died suddenly in the summer of 1996. We missed his promised paper
on Dante’s unorthodox physiology—what fun that would have been!—but,
much more than that, we missed him. We miss him still. It is fitting that this
volume should be dedicated to his memory.
— Ausonio Marras, University of Western
Ontario, London, Canada
The Circolo Dantesco di London
Damjana Bratuz, Franco Calaresu, Angela Esterhammer, Richard Green, Beata
Gundert, Bonnie MacLachlan, Ausonio Marras, James Miller, John Stracuzza,
John Thorp, Pat Warnhof
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La bellezza ch’io vidi si trasmoda
non pur di là da noi, ma certo io credo
che solo il suo fattor tutta la goda.
—Paradiso30.19–21
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Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction: Retheologizing Dante
James Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
PART I—Trapassar
Dante’s Limbo: At the Margins of Orthodoxy
Amilcare A. Iannucci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Saving Virgil
Ed King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Sacrificing Virgil
Mira Gerhard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
PART II—Trasmutar
Dido Alighieri: Gender Inversion in the Francesca Episode
Carolynn Lund-Mead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Fuming Accidie: The Sin of Dante’s Gurglers
John Thorp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Heresy and Politics in Inferno10
Guido Pugliese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Original Skin: Nudity and Obscenity in Dante’s Inferno
Mark Feltham and James Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Anti-Dante: Bataille in the Ninth Bolgia
James Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
vii
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viii CONTENTS
PART III—Trasumanar
Rainbow Bodies: The Erotics of Diversity in Dante’s Catholicism
James Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Dante/Fante: Embryology in Purgatory and Paradise
Jennifer Fraser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
The Cyprian Redeemed: Venereal Influence in Paradiso
Bonnie MacLachlan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
PART IV—Traslatar
“Dantescan Light”: Ezra Pound and Eccentric Dante Scholars
Leon Surette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Ezra Pound in the Earthly Paradise
Matthew Reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
PART V—Tralucere
Dante and Cinema: Film across a Chasm
Bart Testa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
“Moving Visual Thinking”: Dante, Brakhage, and the Works of Energeia
R. Bruce Elder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Driftworks, Pulseworks, Lightworks: The Letter to Dr. Henderson
R. Bruce Elder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
PART VI—Trasmodar
Calling Dante: An Exhibition of Sculptures, Drawings, and Installations
Andrew Pawlowski and Zbigniew Pospieszynski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Curatorial Essay: Prophet of the Paragone
James Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Calling Dante: Notes on the Artists
James Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Calling Dante: A Portfolio of Words and Images
Andrew Pawlowski and Zbigniew Pospieszynski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Calling Dante: From Dante on the Steps of Immortality
Andrew Pawlowski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Notes on Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
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Acknowledgments
So many guides and spirits have kept me on track in the long journey towards
publication of this volume that I must try to compress an oltraggioof thanks
within the duri margini of a few paragraphs. Fortunately my gratitude can be
succinctly expressed—and spiritually expanded—in accordance with Dante’s
fourfold method of allegoresis.
Helping me at every turn on the literal level of the manuscript has been
the exuberantly progressive team at Wilfrid Laurier University Press: direc-
tor Brian Henderson; acquisitions editor Jacqueline Larson; copy editor Beth
McAuley; website and marketing coordinator Leslie Macredie; publicist Clare
Hitchens; designer and typesetter Catharine Bonas-Taylor; and the ne plus
ultraof managing editors, Carroll Klein. Special thanks to Steven Botterill for
his eleventh-hour corrections of the page proofs and for his Bernard-like
encouragement of the project because of (not in spite of) its transgressive
directions.
At the typological level, where multiple life-stories converge on the “road
of our life,” I owe more than I can say to my many students in the Dante
Cycle. Remarkable for daring to read the Poem through their lives and their
lives through the Poem are Jennifer Venn, John Teal, Rick McNeil, Darren
David, Sandra Bialystok, Brooke Murray, Michelle Witen, Clarissa Bégin,
Kevin Hehir, Jody McNabb, Alyson Ford, Claire Heslop, Joanna Goldenberg,
Scott Befford, Mira Gerhard, David Gemeinhardt, Adam Segal, Josh Hundert,
Davin Tikkala, Paula Karger, Amber Riaz, Elizabeth Bohnert, Victoria Kushel-
nyk, Andrea Rector, Mikel Delmas, Bryn Collier, Daniela Simunac, Meighan
Wark, Christel Dahlberg, Vesna Pavlovic, Sean Mulligan, Kristin Moriah,
Ian Dahlman, Jennifer Vatcher, Vanessa Simmons, Joanna Schreyer, Ed “Bul-
locks” King, Tracey Paris, and my own personal St. Lucy, Karen Jones. A
festive hug (cf. Purg.26.33) to you all.
ix