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Dante, one of the harshest imaginations to ever write itself into a poem believed that, for instance, depression was a sin meriting eternal punishment by drowni
by DrStormyDaniels 5y ago
Dante, one of the harshest imaginations to ever write itself into a poem believed that, for instance, depression was a sin meriting eternal punishment by drowning over and over in a pool of filth and kept from rising to the surface by the pressure of cannibals possessed with rage devouring each other just above them, forever, and at best they could bubble or gurgle up, because they cannot speak as their mouths are filled with slime, the sigh that ‘Tristi fummo ne l’aere dolce che dal sol s’allegra’. In the linked essay the author makes out Dante to be an advocate of new age positivity, something more commensurate with Snow White than Satan.
- gattilorenz 5y agoI don't see the contradiction in what you are pointing out, but more importantly I don't see a widely accepted view that the part you are referring to is about people with depression: it seems about people with rage problem (iracondi) and "accidiosi", which most scholars seem to identify with "those who kept their rage inside at all time, instead of expressing it". Who claims the people in the Styx are depressed?
- DrStormyDaniels 5y agoInterestingly, "those who kept their rage inside at all time, instead of expressing it" would come very close to Freud's general sense of repression, inhibition, and Melancholia. Thus depression. And it wouldn't chime badly with Blake's sense of angelic morality either. The symmetric contrast of outward and inward rage is theological in character, rather than poetic, which would more likely consider individual spirit before imposing moral abstractions like ideal rage. Current academic consensus on Dante is heavily influenced by Theology, notably Aquinas, it overlooks the heretical aspects of Dante's poetry. As for Scholars who view the interpretation as depression, Ernst Curtius is one.
- DrStormyDaniels 5y agoOscar Wilde took it that way as well, if you value his opinion.
- gattilorenz 5y agoThanks for the clarification, I admit my knowledge of Dante is mostly coming from high school,and we (I assume) ignore English scholars
- DrStormyDaniels 5y agoDante is incredibly hard to read, maybe he is worth it, I admit for myself I do not know.