Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T08:28:07.931Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - Writing as Theophany: The Medium as Metaphor for Immediacy

from Part I - The Literary Vision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2021

William Franke
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
Get access

Summary

Dante’s divine vision is, in principle, impossible. The transcendent divinity, strictly speaking, is not to be seen. Only the mediation of Scripture enables humans to have some inkling of the divine. Yet Dante’s presentation of Scripture in the Heaven of Jupiter insists on the immediacy of its appearing before him as a vivid, animated spectacle of sound and light, son et lumière, a sort of fireworks in the firmament. The immediacy of writing as a visible medium is highlighted to such an extent and with such intensity that writing no longer serves simply as a medium but shows up, instead, as a concrete realization of divine presence. The immediacy of writing as a medium becomes a metaphor for divine immediacy. This exaltation of the letter invites comparison with the visions of the Jewish Kabbalah. It is further analyzed in light of Christian theologies of revelation by the incarnate Word and in Scripture, with attention to the materiality of the written medium of the letter. This vision is further focused theoretically through the lenses of media studies and of multi-media spectacles in popular and visual culture.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Divine Vision of Dante's Paradiso
The Metaphysics of Representation
, pp. 3 - 54
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×