Whirlwind, Woods, and Rivers: Dantean Landscapes Between Memory and Oblivion

A talk by Prof. Eleonora Buonocore, University of Calgary.

The aim of this presentation is to draw the students’ attention to the importance of memory in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Memory is a fundamental human ability, a crucial part of who we are. Given the scarcity of writing in the Ancient and Medieval worlds the ability to memorize texts was even more important. 

Hence, memory played a key role in medieval education, from rhetoric to philosophy and even theology. Since Dante’s Divine Comedy is a masterpiece of medieval culture, it is surprising that so far there has been no comprehensive study of memory in the poem. Eleonora Buonocore’s research demonstrates that memory was one of the underlying structuring principles of the Comedy: from a rhetorical fixed memory in Inferno, to a dialogical, ethical memory in Purgatory, and a fluid, altruistic concept of oblivious memory in Paradise.  Dante’s path can be seen as a journey through memory to salvation. 

Buonocore will give examples to clarify how in Inferno, Dante shows rhetorical memory to be a trap because the sinner is eternally stuck in the moment of sin, as it is the case with Francesca da Rimini in the whirlwind of passion and with Pier delle Vigne transformed into a tree in the woods of the suicides. Then, in the ascent up Mount Purgatory, memory becomes a force for good through Aristotelian ethics and through the power of intercession of prayer. This is the reason why all the souls in Purgatory ask at the same time for memory and prayers, as it is the case with Pia dei Tolomei. Finally, in the earthly paradise, with the passing through the waters of Lethe and Eunoè, the rivers of memory and forgetfulness, the paradigm shifts from fixation to fluidity. Dante the pilgrim, and each blessed soul, abandons the last traces of sin and embraces the memory of their good actions to be an example for the others.