This essay aims to apply Performance Studies to investigate some theatrical aspects of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Through this lens, the Sacred Poem emerges as a great work of transcodification that absorbs and recasts many elements of medieval theatre. This appears with evidence in Dante and Virgil’s struggle against the devils at the gates of Dis (Inferno VIII–IX), a “sacred drama” in which the two pilgrims areno longer involved as spectators but as actors on stage within a representation that ties ritual and theatre. The analysis of this episode through the lens of performance can highlight the transcoding of theatre in literature and help reconstructing an aspect–the performative one–that appears far from secondary in Dante’s poem.
Liturgy and Theatre at the Gates of Dis. The Divine Comedy as a Transcodification of Medieval Performance
Paolo Pizzimento
2025-01-01
Abstract
This essay aims to apply Performance Studies to investigate some theatrical aspects of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Through this lens, the Sacred Poem emerges as a great work of transcodification that absorbs and recasts many elements of medieval theatre. This appears with evidence in Dante and Virgil’s struggle against the devils at the gates of Dis (Inferno VIII–IX), a “sacred drama” in which the two pilgrims areno longer involved as spectators but as actors on stage within a representation that ties ritual and theatre. The analysis of this episode through the lens of performance can highlight the transcoding of theatre in literature and help reconstructing an aspect–the performative one–that appears far from secondary in Dante’s poem.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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