STRUCTURAL RETROSPECTION IN DANTE'SCOMEDY: THE CASE OFPURGATORIOXXVII

Abstract

Abstract Lecturae of PURGATORIO XXVII have been almost unanimous in pointing out the importance of this canto. They have underlined its thematic complexity and variety, its stylistic diversity, its symbolic polymorphism, and its key position in the organization of the poem as the bridge between Purgatory and the Earthly Paradise. Conversely, and almost certainly as a result of the canto's heterogeneity, scholars have found it more difficult to reach the same kind of agreement as to its main ideological preoccupations. Thus, for example. Ulrich Leo suggests that it focuses on ‘illusion’ (‘Il velo di Maya si stende su gran parte del nostro Canto’ (p. 552)) and, more specifically, on Virgil (‘il nostro Canto ha avuto ancora una volta quale punto centrale Virgilio’ (p. 559)); Francis Fergusson finds its core in the theme of ‘love's sacrifice’; Bruno Porcelli argues that ‘il canto si svolge attraverso un alternarsi di divino e di umano’ (‘Il canto XXVII’); Bernard Stambler sees it as part of a broader ‘functio...