Caroling Like Clockwork: Technologies of the Medieval Dancing Body in Dante’s Paradiso

Abstract

Dance studies scholars have explored the interrelatedness of dance, text, and technology in productive ways. Reorienting such an approach toward a medieval perspective, this article focuses on how Dante poeticizes dance in Paradiso, the third section of his Commedia. I begin by exploring Paradiso’s representations of technology and kinesthesia. Dante, I argue, converges clockwork and dance imagery and, in doing so, simulates the experience of sacred phenomena. Next, I examine the vernacular technologies of Dante’s dance language, which demonstrate linguistic mastery, envision a just society, and articulate an ethical approach to love. Ultimately, I posit that Dante’s rendering of dance in poetry overcomes the limits of verbal communication and formulates a moralizing discourse.