Dante's two beloveds
Subtitle: ethics and erotics in the Divine comedy
By: Olivia Holmes.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 274
ISBN-13: 9780300125429
Subjects: Dante Alighieri, -- 1265-1321; Ethics in literature; Love in literature
Description: "Reexamining key passages in Dante's oeuvre in the light of the crucial issue of moral choice, this book provides a new thematic framework for interpreting the Divine Comedy. Olivia Holmes shows how Dante articulated the relationship between the human and the divine as an erotic choice between two attractive women - Beatrice and the "other woman."" "Investigating the traditions and archetypes that contributed to the formation of Dante's two beloveds, Holmes shows how Dante brilliantly overlaid and combined these paradigms in his poem. In doing so he reimagined the two women as not merely oppositional condensations of apparently conflicting cultural traditions but also complementary versions of the same." "This insight sheds new light on Dante's corpus and on the essential paradox at the poem's heart: the unabashed eroticism of Dante's turn away from the earthly in favor of the divine."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Ways and two ladies; title: Wisdom and folly: lady philosophy and the sirens; title: Romance narratives of two women; title: Ulysses at the crossroads; title: Jerusalem and Babylon: brides, widows, and whores; title: The "little while": departure and return.