Abstract
Reviewed by: Federica Coluzzi, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
In her dense and charismatic study, L’umana Commedia di Dante (2016) published by Longo Editore Ravenna, Erminia Ardissino builds an alternative hermeneutical system for the textual and critical exploration of the Comedy that seeks to redirect the reader’s interpretative perspective towards a substantial reappraisal of the “human” dimension of the poem, seen as complementary yet comparatively under investigated to the vastly expounded “divine” element. The core of Ardissino’s argument is the idea that a fil rouge runs through Dante’s entire literary production: an ‘intense’ and all-encompassing reflection upon the essence of human nature as open to infinite possibilities, unpredictable and dynamic, subject to continuous transformations. Accordingly, from the moment of his creation the human being appears to be animated by a force that necessarily draws him towards the realization of a transcendent purpose, that of perfection. This appears a perpetual movement substantiated by key-values in Dante’s ideological system such as freedom, hope and the power of imagination. Poetically, this translates into the musical form of the terzina, and the ubiquitous Dantean imagery of travel, populated by a sophisticated system of metaphors and similes of navigation, movement and transformation. Initially hinted at in the libello giovanile, the continuous development of the Dantean anthropological ideology can be seen unfolding in the treatise Convito and De Monarchia, and reaching its fullest expression and utmost perfection in the third cantica of the Comedy. Through the means of a syncretic network of intertextual and contextual references to the minor works, Ardissino identifies the Comedy as the point of convergence and sublimation of Dante’s overall poetical, theosophical, political and anthropological discourse.
The strategy adopted in the construction of the critical discourse, where the introductory section paves the ground for her central argument, is most noteworthy. Interestingly, in fact, the study opens with a succinct, carefully constructed overview of the dynamics of Dante’s creative reception in twentieth- and twenty-first century literature and visual arts. Interestingly, what Ardissino suggests is a reconsideration of the manifold significance and function of the Dantean anthropology as a magnetic force of attraction for contemporary readers as well as a source of creative inspiration in poetry and prose, cinema and theatre alike. In both cases, what characterises their creative memory of Dante’s Comedy is an empathic, emotional and imaginative connection to the humanity represented within the poem itself. Building on a wide range of scholarship in this field – Havely’s Dante Modern Afterlife (1998); Hawkins’and Jacoff’s The Poets’ Dante. Twentieth Century Responses; Braida’s and Cale’s Dante on View. The Reception of Dante in Visual and Performing Arts (2007), to name a few—Ardissino’s selection of exemplary instances of creative appropriation is remarkable for the unconventional variety of artistic forms and genres taken into account, providing an innovative outlook on the post-modernist responses to Dantean textuality. Going beyond the canonical Italian and Anglo-American dimension, in fact, Ardissino examines the literary and visual presence of Dante in the work of the Japanese novelist Kenzabuto Oe (Letters for Nostalgic Years, 1987) and the Austrialian poet John Kinsella (The Divine Comedy. Journey Through a Regional Geography, 2008), or the Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski (La double vie de Veronique, 1991).
Overall, Ardissino’s study of Dantean anthropology is structured in three macro-thematic spheres of discussion, each of which approaches the topic from a discrete yet complementary hermeneutic perspective. In the first three chapters, in fact, Ardissino launches the explanatory reading of Dante’s anthropological universe in an ascending path of interpretation that initially discusses the Dantean idea of ‘divenire’ as ‘eterno movimento’, subsequently moves on to expounding the element of ‘desiderio’ as the ‘strumento del divenire’, and ultimately culminates in the theoretical and textual exploration of ‘Amore’ as the ‘fine di tutt’i disii’.
Chapter one centres on ‘il divenire’, ‘la metamorfosi’ as the innate force that relentlessly animates the human being throughout his life in his unceasing effort towards the realization of his innate potentialities: a tension towards God’s perfection. Notably, Ardissino postulates the essential discontinuity between Ovid’s archetypical conception of metamporphosis as a transformation of the ‘sostanza’, and Dante’s divenire appropriates and subverts the Ovidian principles to configure a teleological movement towards perfection that ultimately elevates the being beyond the earthly dimension to acquire ‘una valenza trascendente e divina, che non nega ma perfeziona e sublime quella precedente’. Chapter two explores the manifold nature of Dantean desire as both the amorous and erotic force of the Vita Nuova and the ‘desiderio di conoscenza’ of the Convivio, and ultimately channelled in the Commedia as a ‘risposta a Dio, che attire l’essere umano verso la sua perfezione, portandolo al di fuori dei confine terreniverso orizzonti superiori’. In chapter three, the critical discourse moves from the theological to the textual dimension that unfolds Dante’s manifold representation of spiritual love not only as the as the ultimate, sublime desire but also as the unifying principle that ties together his entire literary production: from the early lyrical poems of Vita Nuova to the last canto of Paradiso.
Chapter four and five constitute the second macro-thematic sphere of her study, focusing on two additional elements seen as the necessary conditions for the realisation of the principles of Dantean anthropology: respectively, that of ‘Libertà’ and ‘Speranza’.Whilst the former expounds the Dantean ethical discourse on ‘volontà’, ‘responsabilità individuale’ and ‘libero arbitrio’ through a close reading of Purgatorio XVI, XVII, and XVIII, interpreting them as forces powering the human eternal search for perfection. Concurrently, the latter considers hope—both an inner strength and ‘virtù teologale’—as the element that ensures the persistence of movement towards the achievement of the ‘sommo Bene’. Ardissino’s critical investigation, however, feels most vibrant and inspired in the last thematic sphere of the study. Chapter six delivers a theoretical discussion the gnoseological potency of human imagination or ‘alta fantasia’ as an instrument that enlightens the human mind, enabling it to transcend its earthly dimension and experience the divine and provides a direction to its movement towards perfection. In chapter seven Ardissino’s brings her critical investigation to a close with a reflection on Poetry as the utmost realisation of Dantean imagination as expressed in the exemplary sea metaphor systematically reiterated and reinvented throughout the whole Comedy.
Relying on attentive selection and punctual textual criticism of exemplary episodes as well as reference to ancient and medieval sources, Ardissino’s book is a rich and complex contribution to Dante studies. It is a vigorous and illuminating exposition that guides the reader through a less travelled path in Dantean criticism as it attempts to foster a substantial re-evaluation of the ideological significance, narrative function and lyrical beauty of the anthropological universe represented in the Comedy and beyond.