In the Footsteps of Dante : Crossroads of European Humanism

Dante, the pilgrim, is the image of an author who stubbornly looks ahead, seeking and building the "Great Beyond" (Manguel). Following in his footsteps is therefore not a return to the past, going __à rebours__, but a commitment to the future, to exploring the potential of humanity to "transhumanise". This dynamic of self-transcendence in Dante’s humanism (Ossola), which claims for European civilisation a vocation for universalism (Ferroni), is analysed in the volume at three crucial moments: Firstly, the establishment of an emancipatory relationship between author and reader (Ascoli), in which authorship is authority and not power; secondly, the conception of vision as a learning process and horizon of eschatological overcoming (Mendonça); finally, the relationship with the past, which is never purely monumental, but ethically and intertextually dynamic, in an original rewriting of the original scriptural, medieval, and classical culture (Nasti, Bolzoni, Bartolomei). A second group of contributions is dedicated to the reconstruction of Dante’s presence in Portuguese literature (Almeida, Espírito Santo, Figueiredo, Marnoto, Vaz de Carvalho): they attest to the innovative impact of Dante’s work even in literary traditions more distant from it. Dante, the pilgrim, is an author who stubbornly looks ahead, seeking and building 'the great beyond' (Manguel). Following in his footsteps is therefore not a return to the past, à rebours, but a commitment to the future: to the exploration of the potential of the 'transhumanisation' of humanity. This dynamic of self-transcendence in Dante's humanism (Ossola), which claims for European civilisation a vocation for universalism (Ferroni), is analysed in the volume at three crucial moments. Firstly, the establishment of an emancipatory relationship between author and reader (Ascoli), in which authorship is authority and not power. Secondly, the conception of vision as a learning process (Mendonça) and horizon of eschatological overcoming of every dualism (Cacciari). Finally, the relationship with the past, which is never purely monumental, but ethically and intertextually dynamic, in an original rewriting of the original scriptural, medieval and classical culture (Bolzoni, Nasti, Bartolomei). A second group a contributions is dedicated to the reconstruction of Dante's presence in Lusitanian literature (Almeida, Espírito Santo, Figueiredo, Vaz de Carvalho): they attest to the innovative movements produced by Dante's poetry even in literary traditions more distant from it Acknowledgments Contents Foreword Prologue We Are All Called upon to Build Visions Section I: Dante. A Poet of Our Time “Supra te et non subter”: The Biblical Humanism of the Comedy Biblical Signa and Dante’s Words: For a Taxonomy of Biblical Intertextuality in the Comedy Dante and the Faith of the Reader Dante: Talking to the Dead – Giving a Voice to Silence Dante: Memory Matters in the Comedy Dante, Poet of a Europe to Come Section II: Dante in Portugal Dante in the Century of Camões Dante and Camões: Epic and the Portrayal of Humanity Dante and the Fifth Empire Dante in Portugal: An Ethereal Gaze Dante: Poetry and Translation Epilogue Dante the Geographer Editions and Translations Notes on Contributors General Index