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Allegory in Dante
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FOOTNOTE 1: For those who are interested, introductory studies of Dante's allegory accompanied by extensive bibliographies of the subject do exist. For readers of Italian there is the overview of the subject found in the article "allegoria" by Jean Pépin (ED.1970.1), pp. 151-165; for those who read French, Pépin's somewhat fuller treatment (Pepi.1970.1); for the most recent brief treatment in English one may consult Ronald Martinez's entry "allegory" in the Dante Encyclopedia (Lans.1999.1). There is a recent volume of essays devoted this subject: (Pico.1987.1). Those interested in my view of the subject may consult a book and an article written some time ago (Holl.1969.1; Holl.1976.1). (Return to text) |
FOOTNOTE 2: The four senses (and not, as all too often in modern discussions, "levels") of the Bible are generally put forth, and especially in the wake of Thomas Aquinas (Summa theologiae I.i.10), as follows: (1) historical/literal, (2) allegorical, (3) moral or tropological, (4) anagogical. This is difficult material for most modern readers. (The classic work on the subject is Lubac's [Luba.1964.1]; a brief review in English is found in Grant [Gran.1963.1].) The single most important thing to understand is that these senses occur in a historical continuum. For instance, the historical Moses, leading the Israelites out of captivity, gains his allegorical meaning in Christ, leading humankind out of bondage to the freedom of salvation. His moral (or tropological) sense is present now -- whenever "now" occurs, in the soul of the believer who chooses to make his or her "Exodus," while the anagogical sense is found only after the end of time, when those who are saved are understood as having arrived in the final "Promised Land," the blessed life in heaven. To offer a second example, one favored by Dante's early commentators: Jerusalem was the historical city of Old Testament time; it points to the allegorical Jerusalem in which Jesus was crucified; it is the moral or tropological "city" (whether within a single believer or as the entity formed by the Church Militant now) at any present moment; it is, anagogically, the New Jerusalem, which will exist only at the end of time. How the formative principles of this historical method of biblical interpretation inform the Comedy will be addressed below. (Return to text)
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FOOTNOTE 3: There did exist a category to describe "realistic" fiction, called argumentum, as opposed to fabula (things clearly untrue) and to historia (things that have clearly occurred). Argumenta are things that, while not having actually occurred, could have done so. For general discussion see Curtius (Curt.1948.1), pp. 452-455; for discussion with particular reference to Dante see Hollander (Holl.1969.1), pp. 256-258. (Return to text) |
FOOTNOTE 4: If the Comedy is to be understood as being intimately related to the allegory of the theologians, in what precise ways may we understand that Dante has adapted its methods? (An important study of this subject remains Auerbach's study "Figura" [Auer.1944.1].) The main technique he borrows from the theologians centers on the relationship between the first two senses, historical/literal and allegorical. These two senses have more than several sets of synonyms, among which the two most commonly used are "type and antitype," "figure and fulfillment." In addition, historical events are sometimes referred to as "shadows" of things to come. Theologians refer to Moses as the type of whom Jesus is the antitype (a warning: this word is often misused in discussions of Dante's allegory); of the sacrifice of Isaac intended by Abraham as the figure of which the Crucifixion is the fulfillment; of Jonah's three days in the innards of Leviathan as the shadow of Christ's three-day sojourn under the earth between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. While all these historical senses may have moral/tropological and anagogical ones as well, most discussions are directed to their second meaning, the allegorical (or "figural" or "typological") sense. The main contention of those who believe that Dante borrowed this technique of ordering meaning by historical referentiality is that his appropriation of the first two senses is what clearly indicates this indebtedness. One may indeed argue that each sinner or saved soul is seen as the fulfillment of the earthly life that brought him or her to a place in the afterworld -- and this is the view most significantly advanced by Auerbach. To this formulation one may justly respond that, if it is true, it is also not very interesting, except insofar as it guarantees the exceptional claim the poet makes for his poem, that its mode of signifying is to be understood as being that of the allegory of the theologians. Some recent discussions of the question have centered on the far more interesting typological, or figural (these words, one should remember, are synonyms), relationships exhibited by personages in the poem to other figures or events. To take a single instance, one fifteenth-century reader of Dante (Filippo Villani) reported that the Florentines referred to Guido da Montefeltro (canto XXVII) as the "new Ulysses" (Holl.1980.1, p. 142). In such an observation, in which laymen are "reading" a historical being "figurally," we can observe the adaptation of a theological technique to a secular understanding. (For studies of such adaptations see (Mine.1977.1.) In Dante's poems one finds any number of such moments. Pope Celestine V (if it is he who is referred to in [Inf III 59-60], as the most convincing arguments make probable [C.Inf.III.58-60]) is the "antitype" of others before him who showed a similar form of cowardice -- e.g., Pontius Pilate); Francesca, reading a book that leads to her "conversion" to sin and death in the company of a man named Paul, is the "negative antitype" of St. Augustine, reading a book by Paul that leads to his conversion (Confessions VIII.xii [Pine.1961.1, p. 178] -- see Swing for what seems to be the first observation of this striking connection [Swin.1962.1], p. 299, and further discussion by Hollander [Holl.1969.1], pp. 112-113); Cato, the guardian of Purgatory, is presented (cantos I and II) in such ways as to portray him as the pagan antitype of Moses and type of Christ (for the second correspondence see E. Raimondi [Raim.1962.1], pp. 81-83; for both see Hollander [Holl.1969.1], pp. 124-129). Statius, rising from his purgation ready to ascend to heaven ([Purg XXI 7-10]), has long been understood to be in the role of a "post-figured" resurrected Christ because the language of the poem makes this seem only a necessary view of the matter. Users of this electronic version of the poem and of its accompanying apparatus will find, in various notes, further evidence for the presence of the allegory of the theologians as the central underlying technique of signifying in Dante's poem. The main point a first reader of Dante should take from these remarks is that he or she is essentially freed from reading the poem as an allegory, at least as literary allegory is traditionally defined. Cato is not the personification of an abstract virtue, but the historical being whose looks, actions, and significance all point to other historical entities and actions. This way of reading him is not easier than traditional allegorical exegeses, but is much more satisfying. Insofar as that is a true statement, it underlines the importance of attending to Dante's choice of a theological allegory that is denied him by every competent authority, but which he simply chose to make his own.(Return to text)
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