Dante’s Performance : Music, Dance, and Drama in the “Commedia”

Abstract

Dante’s Commedia abounds with scenes of liturgical drama, sacred songs, and dance performance. The sacred poem represents the afterlife with great poetic force thanks to the richness of its performed theology. Dante’s Performance opens a new perspective from which to consider the Florentine poet’s masterpiece by offering the modern reader a philological and historical reconstruction of its performative context in medieval Italy.