A Closer Look at Dante’s Divine Comedy

The article provides an in-depth analysis of Dante's Divine Comedy, focusing on the autobiographical details and implications in the cantos. The author traces the poet's lineage and identifies the motifs of the text.

Running head: A CLOSER LOOK AT DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY
A closer look at Dante’s Divine Comedy
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1A CLOSER LOOK AT DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY
Bibliographical Entry
Barolini, Teodolinda. Dante's Poets: Textuality and Truth in the Comedy.
Vol. 57. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Summary
According to the author of this article, Dante’s Divine Comedy is an autobiographical
rendition of his own poetic journey. The author proposes that Dante had included in the cantos
certain retrospective ideas and thoughts. According to the opinion of the author, Dante includes
citations that are reminiscent of the journey of the poet (Barolini). Though the article is divided
into three sections, the author has tried to present the chief issue of the incorporation of
autobiographical details. The author points towards Dante’s inculcation of auto-citations in the
two distinct parts namely, Purgatorio and Paradiso. The author cites certain sections where Dante
had paid tribute to poets such as Boethius (Barolini). In this article, the author has tried to
identify and trace the motif of Dante. The author mentions that some sections including the love
poems, project Dante’s indebtedness to the former poets. In order to elaborate his point, the
author goes on to say that Dante had tried to replicate a courtly ambience that was present in his
real world. The author also transitions from Inferno to analyze the love lyrics in Purgatorio. The
author delves into a deeper analysis of the poems that are incorporated in the sections of the text.
The author reinforces his central idea in the section where he tells that Dante included incidents
in his cantos that directly reflected the Boethian ideals (Barolini).The author of this article also
presents a holistic view of the other aspects of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The second chapter
provides an insight into the historiographical details.

2A CLOSER LOOK AT DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY
Quotations
“…where the dense fabric of literary reminiscences, ranging from Vergil and Augustine to
Boethius and the vernacular traditions…” (Barolini).
“…he courtly genre in which he conducted his own early poetic experiments and whose
development he traces throughout the Comedy…” (Barolini).
“…the historical framework is enlarged to incorporate the Provencal tradition …” (Barolini).
My Commentary
In my opinion, one of the major strengths of this article is that it incorporates some
crucial ideas about the autobiographical details and implications in Divine Comedy. The author
has provided a comprehensive view of the instances where Dante had included poems or
incidents that directly reflect his poetic lineage. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the
lines that speak of the poetic history of Dante. The author has quoted the relevant sections of the
text. Further, this article also follows a pattern that lends a coherence to the article. Following the
structure of the original text, this article progresses from one section to the other. One of the
major weaknesses of this article is that it does not properly analyze the sections of Paradiso. In
addition to this, the third chapter of the article does not properly focus on Divine Comedy.
Instead, the third chapter of the article solely focuses on Vita Nova (Barolini), which is another
text of Dante. In my opinion, the article suffers from the problem of digression. Instead of
properly focusing on Divine Comedy, it also takes into consideration the other texts of Dante.
This article could have improved if the author would not have deviated. Despite the flaws, this
article is very detailed and informative at the same time.

3A CLOSER LOOK AT DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY
References
Barolini, Teodolinda. Dante's Poets: Textuality and Truth in the Comedy. Vol. 57. Princeton
University Press, 2014.
.