Archetypal images, Carl Jung believed, when elaborated in tales and ceremonies, shape cultures imagination and behavior. Unfortunately, such cultural images can become stale and lose their power over the mind. But an artist or mystic can refresh and revive a cultures imagination by exploring his personal dream-images and connecting them to the past. Dante Alighieri presents his Divine Comedy as a dream-vision, investing considerable energy in establishing and alluding to its dates (starting Good Friday, 1300). Modern readers will therefore welcome a Jungian psychoanalytical approach, which can trace both instinctual and spiritual impulses in the human psyche. Some of Dante's innovations (admission of virtuous pagans to Limbo) and individualized scenes (meeting personal friends in the afterlife) more likely spring from unconscious inspiration than conscious didactic intent. For modern readers, a focus on Dantes personal dream-journey may offer the best way into his poem.
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Dante, Dreams, Jung, and His Composition Process
2. Young Dante and His Contemporaries Interpret Dreams
3. The Anima and Divine Eros: Beatrice, Lady Philosophy, and Gemma Donati
4. Three Beasts or Four in the Dark Wood: Dante and the Shadow of His
Civilization
5. Neutrals, Acheron, Limbo, Infants, and Virtuous Pagans
6. Limbo and Change
7. Shadows in Upper Hell: Francesca and Paolo, Ciacco, and Filippo Argenti
8. Deeper Shadows: Brunetto Latini and Ugolino of Pisa
9. From Satan to Cato to Christ: Virgil and the Reconciliation of Reason
10. Beatrice, the Heavenly Spheres, and the Rose of Paradise
Bibliography
Index
Gwenyth E. Hood, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, USA.
