Dante in Purgatory: States of Affect

Description

This volume provides an advanced survey of Dante studies and offers a new, detailed, and accessible reading of his Purgatorio, making this very rich text freshly available to an English-speaking readership. Through analysis of a variety of emotional states across Dante’s three major works - the Purgatorio, Inferno, and Paradiso, and in his minor works, such as the Rime and the Convivio - Dante in Purgatory: States of Affect contends that emotions are historically constructed at different moments. The book also demonstrates that while Dante presents some emotions as defined and distinct, he depicts others as blends of several states of feeling, as emotions which are in process or metamorphosis. In particular, the author examines the seven cardinal vices (‘seven deadly sins’) amid a wider discussion of states of affect. He argues that the emotional states associated with these vices are different from contemporary conceptions of affective states. He compels us to acknowledge that there is a history of both the emotional states themselves and the methods with which we describe them. Above all, his study shows that there is a history of emotions which is part of the history of a European acquisition of a subjective sense of the self. To historicize emotion thus requires that the ‘human’ becomes increasingly defined, as the subject is ascribed further interior qualities which must be named. Dante in Purgatory is thus relevant not only to readers of Dante, but also to any reader interested in thinking about emotion and affectual states and how these can be described, and how they can be conceptualized. Front Matter ("Contents", "Preface"), p. i Citation | PDF (449 KB) Free Access 1: On Affect, p. 1 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00127 Citation | PDF (470 KB) 2: Seven Capital Vices, p. 13 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00128 Citation | PDF (539 KB) 3: Virtues and Vices: Convivio to Purgatorio, p. 37 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00129 Citation | PDF (527 KB) 4: Purgatorio I and II, p. 61 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00130 Citation | PDF (513 KB) 5: The Art of Pride, p. 81 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00131 Citation | PDF (516 KB) 6: Envy, p. 103 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00132 Citation | PDF (523 KB) 7: Overcoming Anger, p. 127 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00133 Citation | PDF (504 KB) 8: Sloth, p. 145 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00134 Citation | PDF (558 KB) 9: On Avarice, p. 175 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00135 Citation | PDF (518 KB) 10: Greed and Gluttony, p. 197 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00136 Citation | PDF (511 KB) 11: ‘Nostro peccato fu ermafrodito’, p. 219 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00137 Citation | PDF (519 KB) 12: Matelda: Love, Narcissism, Fragmentation, p. 241 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.4.00138 Citation | PDF (528 KB) Back Matter ("Bibliography", "Index of Dante’s Works", "Index of the Bible and Apocrypha", "General Index"), p. 265 Citation | PDF (567 KB)