UNFOLDING DANTE’S MAP: SPATIAL MEANING, MORAL CARTOGRAPHY, AND EPISTEMOLOGY IN THE COMMEDIA.
This essay argues that in Dante’s Commedia, space is not merely a backdrop but a constitutive medium of meaning. Drawing on geocriticism and medieval spatial theory, particularly Paul Zumthor’s notion of spatium, the study shows how meaning in the poem is entangled with spatial experience, and how D...
| Published in: | Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies Vol. 56; pp. 95 - 121 |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=189020869&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 189020869 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00696412 TIY jtl: Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies issn: 00696412 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2025 vid: 56 pid: 20754 pub: University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies artinfo: ui: 189020869 10.1353/cjm.2025.a972543 ppf: 95 ppct: 26 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 4.6MB tig: atl: UNFOLDING DANTE’S MAP: SPATIAL MEANING, MORAL CARTOGRAPHY, AND EPISTEMOLOGY IN THE COMMEDIA. aug: au: Fortin, Hugo su: Theory of knowledge Geocriticism Medieval cartography Divine Comedy, The (Poem : Dante) Medieval cosmology sug: subj: Theory of knowledge Geocriticism Medieval cartography Divine Comedy, The (Poem : Dante) Medieval cosmology keyword: Dante geocriticism medieval cartography medieval cosmology medieval epistemology poetics of space spatial theory ab: This essay argues that in Dante’s Commedia, space is not merely a backdrop but a constitutive medium of meaning. Drawing on geocriticism and medieval spatial theory, particularly Paul Zumthor’s notion of spatium, the study shows how meaning in the poem is entangled with spatial experience, and how Dante constructs a moral and epistemological geography. Through these spatial dynamics, the Commedia reveals itself as a poetics of traversal, where navigating space becomes a mode of inquiry. The essay shows how Dante acts as both navigator and cartographer, engaging medieval cartographic traditions to unfold his world, collapsing physical and temporal distances into moral scales, and ultimately refolding reality to reflect divine order. The study contributes to the broader spatial turn in literary studies, inviting further exploration of space functioning as a medium of meaning. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies is the property of University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval & Renaissance Studies holder: University of California at Los Angeles, Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|