Dante and the Sense of Transgression: 'The Trespass of the Sign' / Edition 1

by William Franke

Overview

In Dante and the Sense of Transgression, William Franke combines literary-critical analysis with philosophical and theological reflection to cast new light on Dante's poetic vision. Conversely, Dante's medieval masterpiece becomes our guide to rethinking some of the most pressing issues of contemporary theory.

Beyond suggestive archetypes like Adam and Ulysses that hint at an obsession with transgression beneath Dante's overt suppression of it, there is another and a prior sense in which transgression emerges as Dante's essential and ultimate gesture. His work as a poet culminates in the Paradiso in a transcendence of language towards a purely ineffable, mystical experience beyond verbal expression. Yet Dante conveys this experience, nevertheless, in and through language and specifically through the transgression of language, violating its normally representational and referential functions. Paradiso's dramatic sky-scapes and unparalleled textual performances stage a deconstruction of the sign that is analyzed philosophically in the light of Blanchot, Levinas, Derrida, Barthes, and Bataille, as transgressing and transfiguring the very sense of sense.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441160423
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/20/2012
Series:	New Directions in Religion and Literature , #20
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Preface \ Introduction: Dante's Implication in theTransgressiveness He Condemns \ Part I: Language and Beyond \ 2. TheLinguistic Turban of Transgression in the Paradiso \ 3. At the Limits ofLanguage, or Reading Dante through Blanchot \ 4. The Step/Not Beyond \ 5. TheNeuter-Nothing except nuance \ 6. Forgetting and the Limits of Experience-Letargoand the Argo \ 7. Speech-The Visionthat is Non-Vision \ 8. Writing-The "EssentialExperience" \ 9. The Gaze of Orpheus \ 10.Beatrice and Eurydice \ 11. Blanchot's Dark Gaze and the Experience ofLiterature as Transgression \ 12. Negative Theology and the Space of Literature-Order beyond Order \ Part II: Authority andPowerlessness (Kenosis) \ 13. Necessary Transgression-Human versus TranscendentAuthority \ 14. Dante and the Popes \ 15. Against the Emperor? \ 16. Inevitable Transgression along a HorizontalAxis \ 17. Heterodox Dante andChristianity \ 18. Christianity an Inherently Transgressive Religion? \ PartIII: Transgression and Transcendence \ 19.Transgression and the Sacred in Batailleand Foucault \ 20. Transgressionas the Path to God-The Authority of Inner Experience \ 21. Transcendenceand the Sense of Transgression \ Appendix: Levinasian Transcendence and the EthicalVision of the Paradiso \ 1.Prolegomenon on the Sense of Ethics \ 2. Paradisoas the Trace of the Other \ 3. Witnessing to the Transcendent \ 4.Ethical Un-Selfing of Metaphysical Self-Building \ Notes \ Index

Editorial Reviews

Franke's reflections on the relationship between Dante and modern French theory are thought provoking and lead to many interpretative insights. His particular emphasis on the poetics of apophaticism, meanwhile, makes a distinctive contribution to the wider reappraisal of Dante's theology within contemporary scholarship.” —George Corbett, University of Cambridge, Speculum

From the Publisher

Franke's reflections on the relationship between Dante and modern French theory are thought provoking and lead to many interpretative insights. His particular emphasis on the poetics of apophaticism, meanwhile, makes a distinctive contribution to the wider reappraisal of Dante's theology within contemporary scholarship.

George Corbett