A South African Convivio with Dante Born Frees' Interpretations of the Commedia

• Other Authors: Fanucchi, Sonia (Editor), Virga, Anita (Editor)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Florence Firenze University Press 2021
• Series: Studi e saggi 228
• Subjects: Literature & literary studies; Dante Alighieri; Dante in South Africa; Dante's reception; Postcolonial Dante; transformation
• Online Access: OAPEN Library: download the publication; OAPEN Library: description of the publication

This book offers a collection of South African university students' written responses to the Commedia and scholars' commentary on them. The students' collection includes writings of all genres and subjects: prose, poetry, personal reflection, dialogue, non-fiction based on the first two cantiche of the Commedia. Some are autobiographical and others are fictional stories, but they all have in common a very personal (and South African) approach to Dante's text. The scholarly essays of the second part are concerned with the unusual way in which Dante is appreciated by our youth: not as a remote figure only encountered in the hallways of the literature department, but as an intimate presence, a guide, a friend whose language is familiar and invites a response.