WEBVTT

00:01.030 --> 00:06.380
Prof: Last time we
looked at the cantos of the sun,

00:06.380 --> 00:10.730
which is the canto of
arithmetic and so--

00:10.730 --> 00:17.570
;and we discussed actually the
variety of philosophical

00:17.572 --> 00:22.152
strengths,
theological and philosophical

00:22.146 --> 00:27.086
ideas that compose Dante's
circle of knowledge,

00:27.090 --> 00:31.660
this encyclopedic compass or
what's worth knowing.

00:31.660 --> 00:38.350
Today, we move into the Heaven
of Mars, which is as you know,

00:38.351 --> 00:42.591
the god of war,
the name of the planet,

00:42.589 --> 00:46.269
and it's the heaven of music.

00:46.270 --> 00:51.280
Dante links Mars and music
because harmony,

00:51.280 --> 00:57.370
out of the belief that harmony
is the meeting point or the

00:57.366 --> 01:03.956
result of discordant elements,
a kind of concordia,

01:03.963 --> 01:08.133
a concord,
an attuning of hearts reached

01:08.129 --> 01:10.929
through discordant elements.

01:10.930 --> 01:14.650
The discordant elements can be
different sounds;

01:14.650 --> 01:19.410
it can be the passions within
us that need tempering and so

01:19.409 --> 01:19.819
on.

01:19.819 --> 01:24.889
This canto is--can be read
prophetably and you can do some

01:24.890 --> 01:28.360
of this on your own in
conjunction --

01:28.360 --> 01:30.710
I will allude to it in passing
-- in conjunction with canto,

01:30.709 --> 01:32.849
for instance,
XV of Hell;

01:32.846 --> 01:36.016
within XV, XVI,
and XVII of Paradise.

01:36.019 --> 01:40.669
You could read it;
XV was the encounter with

01:40.672 --> 01:44.962
Dante's own ancestor
Cacciaguida,

01:44.959 --> 01:50.419
and so inevitably the reference
to Brunetto Lantini literally

01:50.424 --> 01:53.604
imposes itself on us,
it compels us,

01:53.601 --> 01:57.361
we are compelled to draw
parallels and see differences

01:57.355 --> 02:00.185
between the two ancestors who
claim,

02:00.188 --> 02:05.398
make different claims on this
descendant --

02:05.400 --> 02:09.920
intellectual and dynastic
descendant -- who is Dante

02:09.923 --> 02:10.813
himself.

02:10.810 --> 02:14.660
You could also look at it from
other, many other points of

02:14.657 --> 02:15.127
view.

02:15.128 --> 02:17.408
The point of view,
for instance,

02:17.413 --> 02:21.693
of the other references to war
and the kind of the clashing

02:21.688 --> 02:25.888
sounds throughout Inferno
that Dante produces.

02:25.889 --> 02:30.069
If I were to give a title to my
remarks today,

02:30.068 --> 02:35.338
which I really don't because I
think it's the variety of

02:35.337 --> 02:41.277
suggestions coming from a canto
takes over the desire to be too

02:41.276 --> 02:45.266
schematic and thematic,
but if I were to give a title

02:45.270 --> 02:47.350
today I think it's really very
encompassing,

02:47.348 --> 02:50.498
I would call it "Self and
History."

02:50.500 --> 02:57.120
These seem to the most--the
strongest questions that Dante

02:57.115 --> 02:58.155
raises.

02:58.160 --> 03:02.730
They're not--the terms,
the question self and history--

03:02.729 --> 03:07.149
the relationship between the
two may be new to us here,

03:07.150 --> 03:09.740
but we certainly have been
talking about history before.

03:09.740 --> 03:13.400
The last time we did was in the
discussion of Canto VI of

03:13.397 --> 03:16.487
Paradise,
where Dante gives -- in the

03:16.485 --> 03:21.075
Heaven of Mercury --
Dante gives this overall

03:21.080 --> 03:25.730
history of Rome,
its humble beginnings and then

03:25.729 --> 03:30.519
the deconstruction of the empire
and the crisis of the empire.

03:30.520 --> 03:34.570
So that's really one thing that
you know.

03:34.568 --> 03:37.368
The issue of self in itself is
something we have been

03:37.367 --> 03:40.487
discussing ever since we started
the Vita nuova,

03:40.490 --> 03:44.010
with the idea of a lyrical
self, of a self who removes

03:44.008 --> 03:46.288
himself,
as you recall.

03:46.288 --> 03:47.978
That's what we mean by a
lyrical self,

03:47.979 --> 03:50.739
removes oneself from the world
of history,

03:50.740 --> 03:57.120
the contingencies of time,
the viscous realities of the

03:57.115 --> 04:00.485
city,
and takes shelter in the

04:00.486 --> 04:06.046
chamber of his imagination in
the world of his ideas,

04:06.050 --> 04:09.560
his dreams, and memories,
and there he constructs his own

04:09.561 --> 04:10.001
self.

04:10.000 --> 04:11.940
That was the point of the
Vita nuova.

04:11.938 --> 04:15.038
When we began reading the
Divine Comedy I insisted

04:15.038 --> 04:18.078
on the autobiographical focus
with which at least the

04:18.084 --> 04:19.694
Divine Comedy begins.

04:19.689 --> 04:25.429
This is his story,
this is his unique experience,

04:25.430 --> 04:29.500
the pilgrim's own--Dante's own
unique experience and that seems

04:29.500 --> 04:32.980
to have come to an end with
Purgatorio XXX when

04:32.980 --> 04:35.870
finally the novel of the self is
sealed.

04:35.870 --> 04:37.770
As you remember,
with the mentioning of the name

04:37.766 --> 04:41.016
Dante,
then a new phase begins in

04:41.016 --> 04:45.536
Dante's construction,
which is more educational,

04:45.540 --> 04:48.120
more speculative,
which is really the world of

04:48.117 --> 04:48.807
Paradise.

04:48.810 --> 04:52.630
But so, we talk about self and
history in a way that maybe

04:52.630 --> 04:56.050
Dante's never quite coupled the
two terms before;

04:56.050 --> 04:59.890
he does so in Canto XV,
XVI, and XVII of

04:59.894 --> 05:01.674
Paradise.

05:01.670 --> 05:06.600
This is really the double focus
around which everything moves.

05:06.600 --> 05:11.140
Let me give you--I will give
you a reading of the various

05:11.137 --> 05:13.707
details,
but let me give you an idea of

05:13.711 --> 05:17.131
what I have in mind first of all
and the way of thinking about

05:17.134 --> 05:17.924
this issue.

05:17.920 --> 05:21.950
I want to draw your attention
to the presence of some mythic,

05:21.949 --> 05:26.299
mythological figures that
Dante--whom Dante is evoking and

05:26.300 --> 05:29.660
they are very different among
themselves,

05:29.660 --> 05:34.950
but they're all--it's a way of
reflecting on Dante's own idea

05:34.947 --> 05:38.237
of selfhood,
Dante's own relationship to an

05:38.238 --> 05:40.978
ancestor,
his own private history,

05:40.975 --> 05:45.585
who in turn has had a very
complex and for Dante nobling

05:45.593 --> 05:47.863
relationship to history.

05:47.860 --> 05:51.410
He is a crusader;
he fought in the Second Crusade

05:51.408 --> 05:54.058
of 1149 under the Emperor
Conrad;

05:54.060 --> 05:58.050
he is proud of this belonging
to the crusader,

05:58.045 --> 06:00.255
to fight as a crusader.

06:00.259 --> 06:04.199
A version of the relationship
one has or thinks one has with

06:04.204 --> 06:08.354
history, both Cacciaguida's and
Dante's own relationship to his

06:08.350 --> 06:09.420
grandfather.

06:09.420 --> 06:12.570
Let me tell you first of all
these mythic figures and then

06:12.572 --> 06:13.902
we'll talk about them.

06:13.899 --> 06:18.129
Dante is--beginning with Canto
XV I will just remark in

06:18.125 --> 06:22.035
passing, I will not--I will
leave it to you do more

06:22.038 --> 06:25.168
diligently than we could do it
here.

06:25.170 --> 06:27.150
The presence of musical
metaphors, which is not

06:27.148 --> 06:29.648
surprising,
in the Heaven of the Music,

06:29.651 --> 06:32.091
"Gracious will,
into which--"

06:32.089 --> 06:33.869
this is the beginning of Canto
XV,

06:33.870 --> 06:36.670
"Rightly-breathing love,
always resolves itself,

06:36.668 --> 06:38.778
as does cupidity into an
ill-will,

06:38.779 --> 06:41.489
imposed silence on that sweet
lyre."

06:41.490 --> 06:46.740
This is the--The soul becomes a
kind of musical instrument,

06:46.740 --> 06:50.230
the sweet lyre and stilled the
sacred strings which the right

06:50.228 --> 06:53.368
hand of heaven tightens and
relaxes and so on."

06:53.370 --> 06:58.590
Then this, "And the
gem," at one point,

06:58.589 --> 07:01.179
this is line 20,
"And the gem did not leave

07:01.177 --> 07:03.607
its ribbon,
but ran across by the radial

07:03.605 --> 07:05.965
strip and seemed fire behind
alabaster.

07:05.970 --> 07:11.490
With such affection did
Anchises' shade reached out,

07:11.490 --> 07:16.260
if we may trust our greatest
muse, when in Elysium he knew

07:16.257 --> 07:19.267
his son,"
and then in Latin,

07:19.269 --> 07:21.829
a quotation,
"O sanguis meus,

07:21.829 --> 07:26.369
o superinfusa gratia Dei,
sicut tibi cui bis unquam coeli

07:26.367 --> 07:28.147
janua reclusa?"

07:28.149 --> 07:32.339
To whom has this privilege ever
been given of having the gates

07:32.336 --> 07:35.696
of heaven open to him twice,
"the light spoke

07:35.699 --> 07:36.729
thus."

07:36.730 --> 07:39.240
So this is the first mythical
reference.

07:39.240 --> 07:43.600
We are really--we could just
say, well Dante of course at the

07:43.596 --> 07:48.026
very beginning of Inferno
makes a reference to Paul and

07:48.028 --> 07:51.948
Aeneas disavowing any strict
connection with them.

07:51.949 --> 07:55.709
You remember when he resists
the call to this huge risky

07:55.708 --> 08:00.148
enterprise of going through hell
that comes to him from Virgil.

08:00.149 --> 08:02.849
He says, I'm not Aeneas,
I'm not Paul,

08:02.850 --> 08:07.890
why should I do what you are
calling me to perform and Aeneas

08:07.892 --> 08:13.612
is the one who had visited Hades
to meet the shade of his father,

08:13.610 --> 08:17.420
Anchises, now recalled here,
and of course Paul is the who

08:17.422 --> 08:20.502
had been taken wrapped to the
third heaven,

08:20.500 --> 08:24.450
meaning a third mode of vision
that allowed him to--

08:24.449 --> 08:28.949
and kept quiet about it,
to see God face to face.

08:28.949 --> 08:34.229
Anchises, the encounter between
Anchises and Aeneas here,

08:34.229 --> 08:38.659
stands for a sort of
relationship of Aeneas that

08:38.659 --> 08:41.299
Aeneas has with history.

08:41.298 --> 08:45.718
Aeneas goes to Hades in order
to find out what the purposes

08:45.719 --> 08:50.369
are for his journeying from Troy
toward an unknown land and he

08:50.366 --> 08:53.636
discovers--
it's a way of Anchises

08:53.640 --> 08:57.590
discovers that he--
from his own father the

08:57.594 --> 09:02.854
presage, the prophetic if you
wish announcement of what it is

09:02.849 --> 09:05.739
for him to be part of history.

09:05.740 --> 09:08.860
Somehow a definition of self,
that's what you find with

09:08.855 --> 09:12.315
Anchises and the Aeneid,
can be understood as that.

09:12.320 --> 09:16.000
The sense that one--how does
one belong in history?

09:16.000 --> 09:21.640
One belongs in history as part
of a providential pattern as the

09:21.642 --> 09:26.012
idea that this was a destined
empire that he,

09:26.009 --> 09:29.809
Anchises, has to found,
and a new history would start,

09:29.808 --> 09:34.148
so that he confirms his
attachment to the dead father

09:34.152 --> 09:38.832
and yet he starts now as the
point of beginning for a new

09:38.827 --> 09:39.827
history.

09:39.830 --> 09:42.890
This is one way of
understanding an epic,

09:42.894 --> 09:46.044
the epic account,
a myth of one's own self

09:46.038 --> 09:48.568
belonging in the world of
history.

09:48.567 --> 09:50.327
This is mythical.

09:50.330 --> 09:56.570
We move on, and it's really a
big--sort of a reversal of this.

09:56.570 --> 10:01.690
I will come back into Canto XVI;
Dante gives a chronicle of the

10:01.687 --> 10:03.227
City of Florence.

10:03.230 --> 10:05.090
That is to say,
first of all,

10:05.089 --> 10:08.939
he's making problematical to us
the idea of where are we to

10:08.940 --> 10:10.800
understand this as self?

10:10.798 --> 10:14.818
This is--it's not clear what we
are to understand as a self.

10:14.820 --> 10:20.730
In the Vita nuova the
self is this nexus of memories,

10:20.730 --> 10:24.740
fantasies, and a will to write
poetry.

10:24.740 --> 10:27.690
In that sense the text
constitutes oneself,

10:27.686 --> 10:28.526
into a self.

10:28.527 --> 10:31.377
I am myself;
I'm the author of this text.

10:31.379 --> 10:34.709
This becomes a point of
reference and this is what I am.

10:34.710 --> 10:38.230
The image and poetry that I
give of myself gives you an idea

10:38.232 --> 10:39.072
of who I am.

10:39.070 --> 10:41.050
It doubles me,
it perpetuates me,

10:41.052 --> 10:44.772
it's a poetic version of self,
but we don't know yet what are

10:44.769 --> 10:46.319
we to take as a self.

10:46.320 --> 10:49.700
Anchises has a different
understanding of himself.

10:49.700 --> 10:53.940
I am who I am only because I
belong to a larger pattern of

10:53.936 --> 10:54.676
history.

10:54.678 --> 10:58.788
This larger pattern of history
is going to be me as a founder,

10:58.788 --> 11:03.978
a founder of a new way of
looking at the world,

11:03.980 --> 11:08.290
the founder of Rome and he gets
the message from his own father.

11:08.288 --> 11:11.078
In Canto XVI,
and I will not go into this as

11:11.075 --> 11:14.375
I'm pursuing the theme of the
mythic references,

11:14.379 --> 11:18.999
Dante goes on really thinking
about writing a chronicle as I

11:18.999 --> 11:21.739
will say in the City of
Florence.

11:21.740 --> 11:24.860
One, Florence is famous for its
chroniclers,

11:24.860 --> 11:28.400
the beginning of the Middle
Ages, and so is history then the

11:28.403 --> 11:32.373
other problematical notion to be
understood as the loco,

11:32.370 --> 11:36.130
events, or is to be understood
the way Anchises understands it,

11:36.129 --> 11:42.239
as a myth that somehow has a
sort of paradigmatic value and

11:42.244 --> 11:46.254
which can regulate and also
arrange.

11:46.250 --> 11:50.200
We can go on arranging our
lives according to the demands

11:50.201 --> 11:51.261
of that myth.

11:51.259 --> 11:54.949
Dante will not answer this
question directly here,

11:54.945 --> 11:59.375
but he does talk about all the
Florentine families and talks

11:59.381 --> 12:02.091
about them in an elegiac manner.

12:02.090 --> 12:04.950
That is to say they're all
decayed,

12:04.950 --> 12:09.330
they're all finished and
extinct, so whatever value this

12:09.331 --> 12:14.191
history may have it's an elegiac
commemoration of the past.

12:14.190 --> 12:16.780
Cacciaguida,
by the way, is very elated at

12:16.780 --> 12:18.990
the idea that the son,
the grandson,

12:18.993 --> 12:22.283
the descendant wants to find
out about the past.

12:22.278 --> 12:26.388
We move then into Canto XVII,
where I think we find something

12:26.388 --> 12:29.948
about this whole issue about
history and the self.

12:29.950 --> 12:35.420
It begins in a peculiar manner,
look at the beginning of Canto

12:35.422 --> 12:39.272
XVII,
the reference is really--it's a

12:39.269 --> 12:45.589
long periphrastic construction,
a long turn of phrase to--for

12:45.590 --> 12:51.160
the pilgrim to describe himself
in terms of Phaeton,

12:51.158 --> 12:56.598
the famous figure as you know,
from the classical myth who

12:56.600 --> 12:58.510
challenges Apollo.

12:58.509 --> 13:02.979
We saw him in the corresponding
Canto XVII of Inferno.

13:02.980 --> 13:06.920
There was an illusion there to
Phaeton so a little touch of the

13:06.923 --> 13:10.933
symmetry of cantos but that's
really secondary at this point.

13:10.928 --> 13:15.248
Look at what the scripture is,
"Like him who came to

13:15.245 --> 13:19.555
Clemente, to be reassured about
that which he had against

13:19.562 --> 13:20.952
himself."

13:20.950 --> 13:22.660
The Disowning,
first of all,

13:22.663 --> 13:26.473
is the story of the uncertainty
of Phaeton's descendents,

13:26.470 --> 13:30.540
that his father was Apollo,
so he reassured himself,

13:30.538 --> 13:33.688
"Him who still makes
fathers weary with their

13:33.692 --> 13:34.532
sons."

13:34.529 --> 13:37.429
This is in the Canto of
Cacciaguida.

13:37.429 --> 13:38.789
What is the real relationship?

13:38.789 --> 13:40.009
That's what that is asking.

13:40.009 --> 13:43.739
That I have to this noble
heroic figure of whom I'm proud,

13:43.735 --> 13:47.065
but what is the actual
relationship that joins me to

13:47.071 --> 13:47.661
them?

13:47.658 --> 13:51.828
"Such was I and such I was
perceived to be both by Beatrice

13:51.827 --> 13:55.337
and by the holy lamb that had
changed its place for me

13:55.335 --> 13:56.455
before."

13:56.460 --> 14:02.080
He's happy that--he seems to
reaffirm this genealogical line

14:02.076 --> 14:07.596
so history now becomes no longer
a chronicle, becomes now a

14:07.596 --> 14:08.926
genealogy.

14:08.928 --> 14:13.898
Can we establish some
certainties that we belong into

14:13.898 --> 14:15.998
a genealogical line?

14:16.000 --> 14:20.280
Can that really account for us
and for who we are?

14:20.278 --> 14:22.498
This is the issue that Dante's
raising.

14:22.500 --> 14:26.290
The figure of Phaeton is a
tragic figure because it

14:26.294 --> 14:30.194
introduces the possibility of,
and Dante says this,

14:30.190 --> 14:34.360
that's what makes fathers weary
of their sons all the time.

14:34.360 --> 14:37.980
The idea that the son wants to
outdo the father,

14:37.980 --> 14:41.950
wants to go beyond the father,
and the idea of tragic

14:41.950 --> 14:46.610
transgression that it can exist
and therefore breach that line

14:46.607 --> 14:49.567
of continuity between--
inter generations,

14:49.565 --> 14:50.755
across the generations.

14:50.759 --> 14:52.609
That's one of the myths.

14:52.610 --> 14:56.030
The other one is much more
tragic than before.

14:56.029 --> 15:01.299
Canto XVII, as you know,
goes on discussing among other

15:01.299 --> 15:05.009
things the--let me read the
passage.

15:05.009 --> 15:07.919
I think Dante says it much more
sparingly,

15:07.918 --> 15:11.278
that is to say without--to my
despair--

15:11.278 --> 15:14.128
he says it much better than
anybody else can,

15:14.129 --> 15:17.479
"Contingency,"
this is line 36,

15:17.480 --> 15:20.740
"Contingency,
which does not extend beyond

15:20.736 --> 15:24.916
the volume of your material
world is all depicted in Eternal

15:24.916 --> 15:26.116
Vision."

15:26.120 --> 15:28.090
This is another way,
still another way of

15:28.087 --> 15:29.267
understanding history.

15:29.269 --> 15:33.299
That there is a contingency
that the world of contingency

15:33.303 --> 15:37.413
can be subsumed within a larger
transcendent paradigm,

15:37.408 --> 15:40.978
that seems to be the order of
necessity.

15:40.980 --> 15:45.470
The contingent world is linked
to the volume where all things

15:45.472 --> 15:48.172
are present in the eternal
vision.

15:48.168 --> 15:51.168
Yet, that's not man's derive
necessity anymore than does a

15:51.173 --> 15:54.033
ship that dropped--
is there some autonomy to

15:54.033 --> 15:58.033
contingency or things determined
by the order of necessity

15:58.032 --> 16:01.332
downstream from the icing which
is mirrored.

16:01.330 --> 16:03.730
"From thence as sweet
harmony,"

16:03.730 --> 16:06.430
last time I mentioned it
musical language,

16:06.428 --> 16:09.998
musical lexicon abounds here,
"comes from an organ to

16:10.000 --> 16:13.440
the ear,
comes to my sight the time that

16:13.437 --> 16:15.917
is in store for thee."

16:15.918 --> 16:21.228
I enjoy very much the implicit
connection between time and

16:21.234 --> 16:21.984
music.

16:21.980 --> 16:32.370
Music becoming the metaphor
that makes audible time itself.

16:32.370 --> 16:37.810
Time is constitutive of music
of course but it really makes

16:37.807 --> 16:41.607
it--
it's an acoustic translation of

16:41.613 --> 16:47.163
the silent arrow of time and now
this is the other,

16:47.158 --> 16:50.458
the third mythological
reference, Anchises,

16:50.460 --> 16:54.760
the tragic of Anchises who
recognizes himself in the

16:54.764 --> 16:58.594
history and in the break,
in the continuity with his

16:58.586 --> 17:01.496
father and in the break with
Troy from his father,

17:01.500 --> 17:03.680
from Troy and the beginning of
a new,

17:03.679 --> 17:05.749
let's say, history.

17:05.750 --> 17:10.210
Phaeton, who turns against his
father and burns the heavens in

17:10.211 --> 17:14.451
doing so, that is the famous
metamorphosis of the origin of

17:14.452 --> 17:15.772
the Milky Way.

17:15.769 --> 17:18.859
As you know,
the Milky Way was understood as

17:18.863 --> 17:22.913
the scorched heavens,
a cosmological disaster that

17:22.907 --> 17:28.287
was happening on account of the
rivalry between father and son,

17:28.288 --> 17:31.678
and now the third is
Hippolytus, Hippolytus,

17:31.680 --> 17:34.480
the Ephedra,
the story of Ephedra and I have

17:34.478 --> 17:35.388
to tell you.

17:35.390 --> 17:40.590
"As Hippolytus was driven
from Athens on account of his

17:40.593 --> 17:47.333
cruel and perfidious stepmother,
so must thou be driven from

17:47.334 --> 17:49.504
Florence."

17:49.500 --> 17:54.450
This is Cacciaguida who
announces the exile as the

17:54.449 --> 18:00.409
fatality that is hovering over
Dante and for which he has to

18:00.407 --> 18:05.887
prepare himself and exile--
you see what it implies also a

18:05.885 --> 18:09.715
sort of necessary detachment
from one's family,

18:09.720 --> 18:13.890
one's country,
one's whole--all the possible

18:13.894 --> 18:18.364
lines that tend to join us and
limit us too.

18:18.358 --> 18:22.538
Dante is not quite Anchises,
he's not out to establish an

18:22.542 --> 18:25.702
empire,
he's not like the Phaeton,

18:25.704 --> 18:30.904
he does not want to overdo,
at least literally the father,

18:30.904 --> 18:34.084
and now let's see who is
Hippolytus,

18:34.078 --> 18:37.448
"As Hippolytus was driven
from Athens on account of his

18:37.452 --> 18:39.572
cruel and perfidious
stepmother,"

18:39.566 --> 18:42.466
Phaedra,
"so must thou be driven

18:42.471 --> 18:43.631
from Florence.

18:43.630 --> 18:47.490
This is determined,
nay is already contrived,"

18:47.490 --> 18:51.970
look at the difference between
determine and contrived,

18:51.970 --> 18:56.780
and the conjunction between the
order of eternal,

18:56.779 --> 19:01.239
the eternal destinies and the
contrivance,

19:01.240 --> 19:03.440
the order of contingency,
the maneuvers,

19:03.440 --> 19:07.570
infernal maneuvers against the
pilgrim,

19:07.568 --> 19:11.198
"and will soon be
accomplished by him who

19:11.201 --> 19:16.041
meditates it in the place where
Christ is bought and sold all

19:16.044 --> 19:16.694
day.

19:16.690 --> 19:20.320
The blame, in the common cry,
shall follow the injured side,

19:20.321 --> 19:23.951
as always, but the vengeance
shall be testimony to the truth

19:23.954 --> 19:25.314
that dispenses it.

19:25.308 --> 19:28.798
Thou," that's the
announcement of the exile,

19:28.798 --> 19:31.568
"Thou shalt leave
everything loved most dearly,

19:31.568 --> 19:35.778
and this is the shaft which the
bow of exile shoots first.

19:35.779 --> 19:41.219
Thou shalt prove how salt is
the taste of another man's bread

19:41.223 --> 19:46.673
and how hard is the way up and
down another man's salary--

19:46.670 --> 19:50.170
another man's stairs."

19:50.170 --> 19:50.860
Excuse me.

19:50.855 --> 19:54.345
Here there is a terrible
mistake that Sinclair makes

19:54.349 --> 19:59.139
because Dante is very careful,
line 60 he writes,

19:59.144 --> 20:06.134
lo scendere e 'l salir per
l'altrui scale,

20:06.130 --> 20:11.490
which means going down and up
and your translator--

20:11.490 --> 20:15.440
my translator here has it the
other way around because he's

20:15.443 --> 20:19.853
following a logic which is--
we'll call it naturalistic

20:19.853 --> 20:20.493
logic.

20:20.490 --> 20:26.660
You go to the palace of the
duke, you go up,

20:26.660 --> 20:29.940
you climb the stairs,
and then you come down after

20:29.938 --> 20:34.018
you have been begging for some
charity and then you have taken

20:34.019 --> 20:36.689
your morsel of bread,
then you can go down.

20:36.690 --> 20:38.410
But that's not what Dante says.

20:38.410 --> 20:41.710
He says you first go down and
then you go up,

20:41.710 --> 20:47.300
and I hesitate to gloss it for
you because I think it's a

20:47.298 --> 20:53.088
little bit clear the kind of
thing he means that for him to

20:53.086 --> 20:58.066
go up is really a descent,
was lowering himself.

20:58.068 --> 21:01.078
It's a little bit of--it would
seem to be a descent into

21:01.076 --> 21:03.346
pride--
into humility but at the same

21:03.346 --> 21:06.286
time because he's reversing the
natural order,

21:06.288 --> 21:08.938
the ordinary order of the
action;

21:08.940 --> 21:11.490
it's really an ascent into
pride.

21:11.490 --> 21:17.900
For me to go up here is--it's
like going down and I'm really

21:17.903 --> 21:19.973
degrading myself.

21:19.970 --> 21:24.510
It's a very interesting line,
acknowledgement of a sense of

21:24.510 --> 21:28.150
gratitude,
a sense of the spiritual ascent

21:28.154 --> 21:32.564
being inevitably at first a
descent into the self,

21:32.559 --> 21:34.569
and then becoming an ascent.

21:34.568 --> 21:37.528
It's really--turns the whole
thing around,

21:37.529 --> 21:40.009
was up and down,
another man's stairs and

21:40.010 --> 21:43.670
"that which shall weigh
heaviest on thy shoulder is the

21:43.671 --> 21:47.331
wicked and senseless company
with which thou shall fall into

21:47.330 --> 21:49.790
that valley,
which shall become wholly

21:49.786 --> 21:52.026
ungrateful,
quite mad and furious against

21:52.034 --> 21:52.694
thee."

21:52.690 --> 22:00.380
The story of Hippolytus is the
story of the stepmother,

22:00.380 --> 22:05.200
to go back to this idea of
self, is the story of a

22:05.199 --> 22:09.919
stepmother who is trying to
seduce Hippolytus;

22:09.920 --> 22:13.940
she's married to Theseus,
and he runs away.

22:13.940 --> 22:19.250
The family becoming the
destructive--the form of the

22:19.253 --> 22:25.513
destructive desires within that
family forces him to go away,

22:25.507 --> 22:27.797
run away and dies.

22:27.798 --> 22:34.128
You wonder why Dante is taking
on and thinking of this tragic

22:34.131 --> 22:38.881
figure to compare himself too as
an exile,

22:38.880 --> 22:42.010
he had this potentially
destructive and tragic

22:42.006 --> 22:45.406
consequences that are happening
to Hippolytus,

22:45.410 --> 22:48.680
and at any rate,
we have three great images by

22:48.675 --> 22:53.025
which Dante is thinking about
what is the self and how is the

22:53.031 --> 22:54.921
self to be determined.

22:54.920 --> 22:58.240
How does the self enter the
world of history?

22:58.240 --> 23:01.080
What examples did he give?

23:01.078 --> 23:03.718
Can we talk about any of the
examples in the past?

23:03.720 --> 23:05.840
I think that this is really the
extraordinary--

23:05.838 --> 23:09.718
the burden actually of a text
that I have been talking about

23:09.722 --> 23:12.952
in the past and it's the
Confessions of St.

23:12.948 --> 23:13.868
Augustine.

23:13.868 --> 23:18.578
That text is about the question
of how the self is related to

23:18.584 --> 23:22.124
history and Dante disagrees with
Augustine.

23:22.118 --> 23:25.868
For Augustine,
the self is one that takes

23:25.868 --> 23:30.648
refuge in the interiority of
oneself and goes on.

23:30.650 --> 23:35.520
At the time of the conversion
he can now rejoin history and

23:35.515 --> 23:39.785
that is thought--to Dante
clearly, a way of entering

23:39.792 --> 23:40.802
history.

23:40.798 --> 23:44.358
The other motif that you can
have is the motif of the--

23:44.358 --> 23:49.868
the other model you have is the
model of Cacciaguida who goes

23:49.865 --> 23:55.275
onto a self-sacrifice of himself
for the benefit of a larger

23:55.281 --> 23:56.201
cause.

23:56.200 --> 24:01.250
The cause of the Christian
crusade in Jerusalem;

24:01.250 --> 24:06.360
then there is the Aeneid
that represents the idea of how

24:06.361 --> 24:09.661
the self enters the world of
history,

24:09.660 --> 24:15.120
its political activity and
Dante really sort of rejects all

24:15.117 --> 24:16.057
of them.

24:16.058 --> 24:22.278
This prophesy of exile with
which Canto XVII ends gives an

24:22.282 --> 24:29.382
entirely different twist to the
self's relationship to history.

24:29.380 --> 24:32.910
I--inevitably I will belong in
history.

24:32.910 --> 24:36.490
There is no other way,
Dante says, for the self to

24:36.491 --> 24:40.661
exist if not by measuring
oneself with the historical,

24:40.660 --> 24:42.850
the pressures of historical
realities,

24:42.848 --> 24:46.548
but my own relationship to it
is not that--

24:46.548 --> 24:51.338
or that of belonging as Aeneas
does into the world of history

24:51.336 --> 24:56.716
with feeling that I am--
the political world is going to

24:56.724 --> 24:59.724
be my way out of this maze.

24:59.720 --> 25:03.180
It's not going to be the one
like Phaeton and it's not going

25:03.178 --> 25:05.638
to be the one represented by
Hippolytus.

25:05.640 --> 25:11.070
It's the exilic self;
an idea of a self is an art of

25:11.067 --> 25:14.507
dislocation from the world of
history.

25:14.509 --> 25:17.639
But then how are we to
understand this dislocation?

25:17.640 --> 25:21.850
Is dislocation a way of
actually removing oneself

25:21.848 --> 25:22.988
altogether?

25:22.990 --> 25:24.590
Or just saying that I'm out of
place,

25:24.588 --> 25:28.358
just saying that I'm out of
time and somehow I have a

25:28.355 --> 25:32.115
relationship to history which is
maybe polemical,

25:32.118 --> 25:39.458
maybe arguably constructive and
if so what is the way?

25:39.460 --> 25:43.020
I think that we have to reread
now the three cantos in some

25:43.022 --> 25:45.422
detail and we come up with an
answer.

25:45.420 --> 25:48.490
You see then what this--what
the issues here are.

25:48.490 --> 25:54.000
Let me start with Canto XV and
see what Dante is specifically

25:53.996 --> 25:58.766
doing above and beyond this
overall pattern that he's

25:58.769 --> 26:03.449
putting forth in canto-- in the
various cantos.

26:03.450 --> 26:07.990
You will see how in Canto XV
the--let's go back to Canto XV

26:07.989 --> 26:12.289
and you will see that the
relationship to Cacciaguida is

26:12.292 --> 26:14.722
also played etymologically.

26:14.720 --> 26:19.240
How often Dante's punning with
the metaphor of wings;

26:19.240 --> 26:22.270
in Italian it's ali,
Alighieri,

26:22.269 --> 26:26.359
Aligher, that was the name,
the bearers of wings so the--

26:26.358 --> 26:29.078
for instance line 52,
"I speak of thee,

26:29.078 --> 26:32.978
thanks to her who clad thee
with wings for the lofty

26:32.980 --> 26:36.500
flight,"
or a little later on line 70,

26:36.500 --> 26:39.320
"I turned to Beatrice,
and she heard before I spoke

26:39.317 --> 26:42.817
and smiled to me,
a sign that made the wings grow

26:42.816 --> 26:46.056
on my will,"
and later line 80 many,

26:46.063 --> 26:47.203
many times.

26:47.200 --> 26:48.900
He stops after the third time.

26:48.900 --> 26:51.350
"For the reason that is
plain to you,

26:51.351 --> 26:54.101
are not equally feathered in
their wings,"

26:54.101 --> 26:54.581
etc.

26:54.578 --> 26:57.588
The first thing that they do
though with the exchange--

26:57.588 --> 27:04.408
in the encounter with
Cacciaguida is focus on the City

27:04.409 --> 27:09.409
of Florence of old,
an invocation of the golden

27:09.411 --> 27:14.561
age, a certain golden age where
a kind of utopian construction.

27:14.558 --> 27:17.198
These are the lines,
"Florence,"

27:17.203 --> 27:21.083
page--
line--Canto XV lines 94-97 and

27:21.077 --> 27:23.447
following,
"Florence,

27:23.452 --> 27:27.742
within her ancient circle,
from which she still takes

27:27.742 --> 27:32.562
tierce and nones,"
these are the times of the day

27:32.560 --> 27:36.470
rung by the bells of the nearby
church,

27:36.470 --> 27:41.600
"abode in peace,
sober and chased.

27:41.598 --> 27:45.478
She had no bracelet,
no tiara, no embroidered gowns,

27:45.482 --> 27:49.522
no girdle that should be seen
more than the wearer.

27:49.519 --> 27:53.449
Nor yet did the daughter at her
birth put the father in fear,

27:53.449 --> 27:57.439
for age and dowry did not part
from the due measure on the one

27:57.442 --> 27:58.952
side and the other.

27:58.950 --> 28:03.330
She had no houses empty of
family, nor had Sardanapalus yet

28:03.330 --> 28:07.940
come there to show what could be
done in the chamber."

28:07.940 --> 28:12.840
This is a kind of
inferno--evocations,

28:12.838 --> 28:16.868
so these are--you are really
thinking of Cleopatra in Canto

28:16.872 --> 28:19.622
V,
you are thinking of Semiramis,

28:19.618 --> 28:24.338
all these figures of the chaos
of the appetites and they are

28:24.338 --> 28:28.818
being recalled now in this
context "Not yet did your

28:28.818 --> 28:31.538
Uccellatoio"
and so on,

28:31.538 --> 28:36.628
and goes on talking about
Cacciaguida's own birth.

28:36.630 --> 28:43.020
Let me focus a little bit on
this--the metaphors of the--of

28:43.018 --> 28:44.228
Florence.

28:44.230 --> 28:48.020
First of all,
Florence is evoked within a

28:48.015 --> 28:52.925
closed circle of self
sufficiency called "within

28:52.934 --> 28:55.684
her ancient circle."

28:55.680 --> 29:00.450
The circularity of the city
also implies a kind of

29:00.446 --> 29:03.946
plentitude and a sort of
boundary.

29:03.950 --> 29:09.020
Dante does not have an idea of
an expanding city,

29:09.019 --> 29:15.889
just he enjoys the--projects
this idea of a city held within

29:15.893 --> 29:20.273
its own perimeter,
"from which she still

29:20.271 --> 29:24.581
takes tierce and nones,"
the language of space and the

29:24.584 --> 29:28.324
language of time follows,
as if everything could be

29:28.316 --> 29:31.276
measured and everything could be
interrelated.

29:31.278 --> 29:32.908
One is interrelated with the
other.

29:32.910 --> 29:34.850


29:34.848 --> 29:41.408
Then this language of--Florence
is a woman,

29:41.410 --> 29:46.160
sober, chaste,
abode in peace,

29:46.155 --> 29:52.215
sober and chaste,
implying that here at least he

29:52.215 --> 29:57.595
believes and it's lingering in
him the memory of the famous

29:57.603 --> 30:02.993
idea of the so called body
politic that you have heard.

30:02.990 --> 30:07.530
The idea of the organic
structure of the city as made of

30:07.532 --> 30:12.082
interdependent parts just as
space and time indicate the

30:12.076 --> 30:16.536
interdependent coordinates
within which the life of the

30:16.538 --> 30:18.768
city can be recalled.

30:18.769 --> 30:23.509
Now--this is followed in turn
by a sequence of Anaphorus,

30:23.509 --> 30:26.379
all in the negatives,
"she had no bracelet,

30:26.380 --> 30:29.030
no tiara,"
this is the city,

30:29.029 --> 30:30.579
dressed like a woman."

30:30.578 --> 30:36.138
Dante--you know that one way of
thinking about cosmetics is also

30:36.141 --> 30:39.801
to think of it--
they used to think of cosmetics

30:39.798 --> 30:44.018
as bad rhetoric,
perverse forms of seduction by

30:44.021 --> 30:49.661
means of which one could
disfigure the natural continents

30:49.664 --> 30:52.894
and beauty of the human form.

30:52.890 --> 30:56.350
So Dante goes on in a sense by
repeating these negatives,

30:56.348 --> 31:00.008
literally dispossessing,
literally stripping the woman

31:00.007 --> 31:04.537
of all the superfluities,
all these complications and

31:04.544 --> 31:08.794
bring the city back to its own
simplicity,

31:08.788 --> 31:11.968
its original chastity and
simplicity--

31:11.970 --> 31:15.550
let me just see this passage,
"She had no tiara,

31:15.548 --> 31:18.348
no embroidered gowns,
no girdle, not yet did the

31:18.349 --> 31:21.209
daughter at her birth put the
father in fear,

31:21.210 --> 31:24.470
as she had no houses
empty," etc.

31:24.470 --> 31:28.180
This is the golden age.

31:28.180 --> 31:31.990
Does Dante really believe
though in this myth of the

31:31.989 --> 31:32.959
golden age?

31:32.960 --> 31:38.480
This is what we call--there is
a rhetorical phrase for this

31:38.480 --> 31:39.910
sort of move.

31:39.910 --> 31:45.080
Praising the bygone times,
it's the so-called

31:45.077 --> 31:51.327
laudatio,
that means praise of the past,

31:51.327 --> 31:58.427
which is more of a rhetorical
strategy to denounce the

31:58.426 --> 32:01.906
imperfections of today.

32:01.910 --> 32:06.180
In effect, Dante has a
radically polemical view of the

32:06.180 --> 32:07.550
utopian spirit.

32:07.548 --> 32:11.218
This idea of a perfection
that--or the claim of a

32:11.217 --> 32:15.567
perfection that we push back
into the past because it's no

32:15.570 --> 32:19.410
longer with us,
but we want to fantasize about

32:19.413 --> 32:23.733
and nonetheless he is still--
he preserves it because utopia

32:23.732 --> 32:27.672
can become a kind of normative
idea by means of which we can

32:27.672 --> 32:30.882
alter the configuration of our
own contingencies,

32:30.876 --> 32:32.276
our own history.

32:32.278 --> 32:35.398
It may--utopias don't exist,
they may even be dangerous some

32:35.395 --> 32:36.395
people can claim.

32:36.400 --> 32:40.980
A lot of interesting figures in
the history of ideas claim that

32:40.977 --> 32:44.447
utopias are dangerous
constructions because they

32:44.445 --> 32:47.395
ferment illusions about who we
are,

32:47.400 --> 32:49.750
and yet they become for Dante
necessary because we--

32:49.750 --> 32:55.740
in the light of those ideas we
can go on altering what we

32:55.742 --> 33:00.882
perceive as the degradations of
our own times.

33:00.880 --> 33:05.690
Of course this myth of the
golden age of Florence of the

33:05.691 --> 33:10.771
past literally disintegrates
when seen in contrast with the

33:10.766 --> 33:15.836
reality of Dante's life as an
exile which is going to await

33:15.839 --> 33:17.939
him in the future.

33:17.940 --> 33:21.790
That is going to be--so it's
exile as the realistic

33:21.791 --> 33:24.721
perspective of his being in
history.

33:24.720 --> 33:27.320
He makes a virtue of it.

33:27.318 --> 33:29.778
It's not a suffering as we are
going to see,

33:29.778 --> 33:32.578
I'm just--let me just continue
with my thought.

33:32.578 --> 33:36.148
He doesn't see that as a
punishment, it induces

33:36.152 --> 33:40.582
suffering, but it becomes a
virtue and we shall see why it

33:40.578 --> 33:42.208
becomes a virtue.

33:42.210 --> 33:45.570
In effect, it will become a
paradigm in which we can all

33:45.567 --> 33:46.907
recognize ourselves.

33:46.910 --> 33:51.380
In Canto XVI this myth
of--there's also this golden age

33:51.377 --> 33:54.487
of Florence,
there's this illusion that it

33:54.491 --> 33:56.971
abode in peace,
they lived in peace,

33:56.967 --> 34:00.407
whenever I hear the language of
peace I do hear,

34:00.410 --> 34:02.900
I do overhear the echo of
Jerusalem,

34:02.900 --> 34:06.660
the city of peace,
and that's what makes it

34:06.664 --> 34:10.774
interesting,
so it's a typology of another

34:10.773 --> 34:14.243
city,
a golden--the great time,

34:14.244 --> 34:18.964
the golden age of the past is a
kind of--

34:18.960 --> 34:24.950
what the prophets would always
recall as the peace time of

34:24.945 --> 34:30.295
Jerusalem that they had--
that the Jews themselves had

34:30.295 --> 34:34.515
lost and kept on commemorating
in the history.

34:34.518 --> 34:39.508
What makes this conjunction
very strong is that--to me is

34:39.507 --> 34:43.517
that in Canto XVI Dante goes on,
first of all,

34:43.516 --> 34:47.166
talking about this at the
chronicles.

34:47.170 --> 34:48.430
What is a chronicle?

34:48.429 --> 34:51.519
How does the chronicle change
history?

34:51.518 --> 34:57.008
The chronicle reduces--it's a
mode of historiography,

34:57.005 --> 35:00.905
a different mode of
historiography.

35:00.909 --> 35:07.099
The place where you can find
these modalities of history is

35:07.101 --> 35:11.881
really Boethius,
who writes the Consolation

35:11.882 --> 35:16.382
of Philosophy,
at the center of which he

35:16.380 --> 35:19.500
figures the Wheel of Fortune.

35:19.500 --> 35:21.770
You remember the Wheel of
Fortune;

35:21.768 --> 35:26.678
there's this blindfolded woman
who revolves,

35:26.679 --> 35:30.589
who rotates this wheel,
and which means that we who are

35:30.590 --> 35:35.300
always on the shifting curve of
the wheel will be up and down,

35:35.300 --> 35:39.060
so that a kind of
historiography that derives from

35:39.056 --> 35:43.726
this Boethian insight is that of
writing the lives of families

35:43.733 --> 35:45.883
that ascend and descend.

35:45.880 --> 35:49.140
Note, the other mode of
historiography,

35:49.143 --> 35:53.523
should be the historiography of
the fall of empires,

35:53.523 --> 35:55.933
for instance,
Augustine.

35:55.929 --> 35:57.879
So there are two
historiographic models.

35:57.880 --> 35:59.990
The one that you--available in
the City of God,

35:59.989 --> 36:02.999
we are really told about the
fall of the Persian Empire,

36:03.000 --> 36:05.800
the fall of the Roman Empire in
a few pages,

36:05.800 --> 36:10.220
kind of given sort of in a much
more detailed way,

36:10.219 --> 36:11.849
but this is really the idea.

36:11.849 --> 36:13.919
On the other hand,
Dante goes to another

36:13.920 --> 36:16.630
historiographic model which is
that of chronicle.

36:16.630 --> 36:21.020
The idea that history is
reducible to the events,

36:21.018 --> 36:26.048
the local events and
circumstances of one's own life.

36:26.050 --> 36:29.640
He recalls all the families to
the joy of the grandfather who

36:29.643 --> 36:32.523
is--you can understand the
pleasure of memory.

36:32.518 --> 36:35.928
He shuttles back and forth
between,

36:35.929 --> 36:39.729
in memory, between one item and
the other,

36:39.730 --> 36:44.020
recalling everything and Dante
soon discovers that he does not

36:44.023 --> 36:47.313
quite belong,
that that kind of history does

36:47.307 --> 36:51.617
not really account for who he is
and who he wants to be above

36:51.623 --> 36:54.273
all,
and that somehow his definition

36:54.273 --> 36:58.363
of self will depend on a certain
idea of the future and not of

36:58.356 --> 36:59.156
the past.

36:59.159 --> 37:04.169
I am trying to go back to this
idea of who the self is and what

37:04.173 --> 37:08.303
is history, and how are we to
understand history.

37:08.300 --> 37:11.260
Here, to continue with the
notion of Jerusalem,

37:11.260 --> 37:14.800
which I have not--which I
bracketed a little bit and gave

37:14.804 --> 37:17.214
you a little digression on
history,

37:17.210 --> 37:20.250
Dante goes on talking about a
language,

37:20.250 --> 37:24.870
turn to Canto XVI line 50
please where he again talks

37:24.869 --> 37:27.609
about--
it's all about Florence.

37:27.610 --> 37:32.100
"All who were there at the
time between Mars and the

37:32.101 --> 37:35.631
Baptist,"
the mythology of Florence,

37:35.630 --> 37:41.010
cities, not only you recount
stories of families,

37:41.010 --> 37:43.630
you have to recount stories of
the predominant,

37:43.630 --> 37:47.700
the sovereignty of mythologies
that control our own self

37:47.695 --> 37:48.875
understanding.

37:48.880 --> 37:53.230
We tend to understand ourselves
in the light of presiding myths,

37:53.230 --> 37:57.320
of imaginative myths above us,
so there's Mars who's the god

37:57.315 --> 38:01.725
of Florence before the Baptist,
John the Baptist replaced him.

38:01.730 --> 38:05.770
This is the account about the
shifting mythology of the city,

38:05.768 --> 38:08.528
"Mars the Baptist able to
bear arms was a fifth of the

38:08.532 --> 38:11.252
number now living,"
this is really an accounting,

38:11.250 --> 38:18.080
a chronicler's precision and
accounting of Florentine local

38:18.081 --> 38:19.261
history.

38:19.260 --> 38:23.420
"But the citizenship,
which is now mixed with Campi

38:23.420 --> 38:26.750
and Certaldo and Figline,"
and so on.

38:26.750 --> 38:30.830
That language of mixture which
later becomes confusion and

38:30.833 --> 38:35.203
Dante will call it a confusion
when he has to give a diagnosis

38:35.204 --> 38:37.574
at the top of page-- line 67.

38:37.570 --> 38:41.190
Dante has to give a--goes into
a diagnosis of the crisis of the

38:41.192 --> 38:43.542
city,
"The mixture of peoples

38:43.541 --> 38:46.501
was ever the beginning of the
city's ills,

38:46.500 --> 38:49.700
as food in excess is of the
body's."

38:49.699 --> 38:53.269
Once again the connection
between--he's talking about the

38:53.273 --> 38:56.663
malaise of the city by the
connection between body and

38:56.657 --> 38:57.357
cities.

38:57.360 --> 39:02.950
Cities grow and decay and get
sick because of what he calls

39:02.947 --> 39:04.487
the confusion.

39:04.489 --> 39:07.009
First of all he called the
mixture, en confusio,

39:07.014 --> 39:08.514
is the other name for Babylon.

39:08.510 --> 39:13.740
When you have to etymologize
Babylon into the romance

39:13.735 --> 39:17.825
languages and in English,
it's confusion,

39:17.826 --> 39:22.756
so that the two myths of the
city that Dante has in mind is

39:22.760 --> 39:28.290
Jerusalem for Florence and then
Babylon for Florence of today.

39:28.289 --> 39:34.059
The two myths of the cities are
not antithetical;

39:34.059 --> 39:38.659
they are both possible within
the same body politic.

39:38.659 --> 39:43.139
Florence can look like
Jerusalem or it can look like

39:43.141 --> 39:48.681
Babylon according to the way the
moral life of the city is lived

39:48.677 --> 39:49.377
out.

39:49.380 --> 39:51.390
This is something that Dante
will preserve,

39:51.389 --> 39:55.059
but it really implies that the
city,

39:55.059 --> 40:00.739
the political world is one
which one has to shape all the

40:00.737 --> 40:03.927
time,
that you cannot--there is no

40:03.934 --> 40:08.794
definite metaphor or emblem to
define a particular city.

40:08.789 --> 40:12.019
A city can change its very
identity, it can become like--it

40:12.019 --> 40:15.419
can be like a Jerusalem as it
was in the old or it can be like

40:15.418 --> 40:16.308
Babylon now.

40:16.309 --> 40:20.639
The city involves us,
we are involved in the city's

40:20.635 --> 40:25.045
history in the way of making it
according to our own

40:25.047 --> 40:30.187
aspirations, our own ideas;
we share in the shaping and

40:30.190 --> 40:32.560
construction of the city.

40:32.559 --> 40:35.559
This is no longer the
perspective of the chronicler,

40:35.559 --> 40:38.149
it's the perspective of Dante
as the poet;

40:38.150 --> 40:42.900
so it's a critique of the
inadequacy of the chronicle's

40:42.902 --> 40:45.722
view of what history could be.

40:45.719 --> 40:51.869
Now we go back to Canto XVII
where once again and I'm going

40:51.873 --> 40:54.333
to--
I will not go up to our--you

40:54.333 --> 40:58.243
remember it comes to Phaeton and
a rivalry with the father.

40:58.239 --> 41:02.999
Dante's saying if I don't
belong to the city and I--

41:03.000 --> 41:06.380
and city and families go on
decaying and disappearing what

41:06.378 --> 41:10.108
is the true relationship that I
have to this man who is actually

41:10.112 --> 41:13.552
directing me,
and unveiling for me that which

41:13.547 --> 41:16.787
the future--
that which I have to expect

41:16.791 --> 41:18.211
from the future.

41:18.210 --> 41:22.900
These are the kind of questions
that he's very carefully

41:22.900 --> 41:28.450
raising,
so we go back to the famous

41:28.445 --> 41:37.655
description of Dante's exile
where we describe here,

41:37.659 --> 41:40.919
"Thou shalt leave
everything loved most

41:40.918 --> 41:42.888
dearly,"
lines 55,

41:42.889 --> 41:46.209
"loved most dearly,
and this is the shaft which the

41:46.206 --> 41:48.316
bow,
the bow of exile shoots

41:48.322 --> 41:49.282
first."

41:49.280 --> 41:55.240
The condition,
the harshness of exile could

41:55.235 --> 42:00.905
not be crystallized in sharpest
terms.

42:00.909 --> 42:04.349
The severance,
the separation of self from

42:04.347 --> 42:08.787
family as apparently as a
punishment at this point.

42:08.789 --> 42:13.349
"Thou shalt prove how salt
is the taste of another man's

42:13.346 --> 42:14.406
bread."

42:14.409 --> 42:19.369
Those who think that here Dante
is finding a little bit mildly

42:19.371 --> 42:24.171
comical relief in remembering
the fact that in Florence they

42:24.170 --> 42:29.600
do not use salt in their bread,
but anywhere else around we

42:29.599 --> 42:35.249
have a frequent flyer to Italy
who knows very well this little

42:35.248 --> 42:37.758
history,
but I don't think that it's all

42:37.757 --> 42:38.387
that comical.

42:38.389 --> 42:43.529
I think it's the bread,
it's the most sacramental of

42:43.532 --> 42:49.282
foods that he's talking about
and then we shall see how he

42:49.282 --> 42:53.622
picks up the idea of bread in a
moment.

42:53.619 --> 42:57.709
It's just not a metaphor there,
"Thou shall--and how hard

42:57.706 --> 43:00.786
is the way up and down another
man's stairs.

43:00.789 --> 43:04.689
And that which shall weigh
heaviest on thy shoulder is the

43:04.688 --> 43:07.218
wicked and senseless
company."

43:07.219 --> 43:11.889
The word picks up the metaphor
of the bread because company

43:11.893 --> 43:15.063
means,
and that which--it simply means

43:15.061 --> 43:17.821
the sharing of bread with
others,

43:17.820 --> 43:22.590
so bread is truly sacramental
in the sense that it adjoins and

43:22.585 --> 43:27.035
brings about the unity of the
body of the body politic.

43:27.039 --> 43:31.449
What Dante's saying is that
it's a reflection on his own

43:31.445 --> 43:35.045
life, a literal reflection of
his own life.

43:35.050 --> 43:38.530
He went into exile as you know
in the year 1302,

43:38.530 --> 43:42.730
and for a number of years he
went on at least two or three

43:42.726 --> 43:45.976
years,
plotting along the side of his

43:45.983 --> 43:51.263
other fellow exiles the return
to Florence and the destruction

43:51.260 --> 43:54.720
of the enemies who had banished
them.

43:54.719 --> 43:59.799
Really a plot of revenge in
order to restore what they saw

43:59.800 --> 44:00.960
as justice.

44:00.960 --> 44:05.110
Dante very quickly understood
that this was the way to

44:05.106 --> 44:09.016
absolute destruction,
so he just from then on moves

44:09.016 --> 44:11.126
like a shabby derelict.

44:11.130 --> 44:14.460
He represents himself limping
at the beginning of

44:14.460 --> 44:18.070
Inferno and that is
really the way we can--

44:18.070 --> 44:21.280
we are asked by him to imagine
him as he goes when he's talking

44:21.284 --> 44:22.014
about exile.

44:22.010 --> 44:26.320
We are not talking about living
in some kind of isolated

44:26.322 --> 44:28.992
splendor in some court or other.

44:28.989 --> 44:32.699
It literally means going from
place to place begging,

44:32.699 --> 44:35.429
so this is punishment for him,
and yet,

44:35.429 --> 44:38.639
let's see what happens,
"With which thou shalt

44:38.643 --> 44:42.633
fall into that valley which
shall become wholly ungrateful,

44:42.630 --> 44:44.960
quite mad and furious against
thee."

44:44.960 --> 44:47.860
He is an exile to the exiles.

44:47.860 --> 44:52.510
Both the Guelfs and Ghibellines
distrust him and take their

44:52.514 --> 44:55.394
distance from him,
"but before long they,

44:55.389 --> 44:58.559
not thou shall have the brows
red for this.

44:58.559 --> 45:02.689
Of their brutish folly their
doings shall give proof,

45:02.690 --> 45:07.300
so that it shall be to thine
honour to have made a party by

45:07.298 --> 45:08.728
thyself."

45:08.730 --> 45:12.030
What an extraordinary line to
be absolutely on your own,

45:12.030 --> 45:14.010
"a party to thyself."

45:14.010 --> 45:19.230
This should make you--should
give you some perplexity,

45:19.230 --> 45:22.800
to say the least,
because you may remember that

45:22.795 --> 45:27.515
the Divine Comedy begins
with the representation of the

45:27.523 --> 45:32.163
so called neutral angels,
and those neutral angels were

45:32.163 --> 45:36.873
angels who wanted to be neither
with God nor against God,

45:36.869 --> 45:39.189
but they want to be by
themselves.

45:39.190 --> 45:42.710
You remember how I pointed that
out to you, that for Dante this

45:42.708 --> 45:45.488
was the most despicable of
conditions and choices,

45:45.489 --> 45:47.589
though it seems to be
non-choice.

45:47.590 --> 45:51.610
One is really choosing anyway,
even when we are not choosing

45:51.610 --> 45:55.340
we are choosing and he is;
he was separating that to him

45:55.338 --> 45:58.718
it's despicable not to take
sides, to sit on the fence,

45:58.724 --> 46:02.744
and now he seems to attribute
that very condition to himself.

46:02.739 --> 46:07.749
But to you it will be to your
honor to be a party to thyself,

46:07.750 --> 46:11.390
and not only--we did not read
it, but those of you who were so

46:11.387 --> 46:14.037
taken with the poem,
you can go and read Canto VIII

46:14.041 --> 46:16.611
of Paradise,
where Dante will ask one

46:16.612 --> 46:20.832
question he--
to the soul that he meets he

46:20.833 --> 46:27.443
says, is it right for a man in
the city to be a citizen?

46:27.440 --> 46:30.870
Yes, he says,
and I don't even want to ask

46:30.867 --> 46:33.597
why;
it's so clear that has--it

46:33.601 --> 46:36.721
needs no justification,
no explanation,

46:36.724 --> 46:40.494
you have to be part of the--
belong to the world where you

46:40.492 --> 46:43.222
are, and yet now he takes the
other side.

46:43.219 --> 46:45.199
He has to be by himself.

46:45.199 --> 46:47.699
What does it mean to be by
himself?

46:47.699 --> 46:50.159
Is that a kind of neutrality
he's imagining?

46:50.159 --> 46:53.289
Is that--it's really the
condition of exile I think that

46:53.289 --> 46:55.679
he's really describing the
destitution,

46:55.679 --> 46:59.979
the loneliness,
the severance of the self from

46:59.983 --> 47:02.733
others,
but even that can become a

47:02.730 --> 47:06.310
condition that triggers a new
form of relationship.

47:06.309 --> 47:11.469
The exile is still part of the
community and let's see how he

47:11.467 --> 47:13.357
is thinking of this.

47:13.360 --> 47:21.630
I don't want to--this is
his--this is now the specific

47:21.628 --> 47:28.648
prophecy of what's in store for
the exiled.

47:28.650 --> 47:33.130
I think it retrieves,
in this sense I mean that

47:33.128 --> 47:38.288
Dante's bringing about a
transformation of the idea of

47:38.288 --> 47:44.128
exile from what seemed to be a
punishment into a virtue.

47:44.130 --> 47:47.360
There is such a thing as a
virtue of exile.

47:47.360 --> 47:51.510
The language with which Dante
presents the world to come for

47:51.507 --> 47:54.207
him,
the future, this is his future,

47:54.211 --> 47:58.751
it's not the past,
history then is understood as

47:58.746 --> 48:00.886
above all futurity.

48:00.889 --> 48:04.199
We are here oriented to the
future,

48:04.199 --> 48:07.979
the only real time that we
have, we don't have it yet,

48:07.980 --> 48:11.300
but we can--it's the time of
one's projects,

48:11.300 --> 48:15.610
it's the time in which one can
really define oneself.

48:15.610 --> 48:17.720
I'm not really my past so there
is--

48:17.719 --> 48:20.369
I have some contact with the
past, my memories and my

48:20.373 --> 48:23.333
memories can tell you--
me where I'm going but then a

48:23.329 --> 48:24.489
catastrophe occurs.

48:24.489 --> 48:28.989
The need to sever yourself from
anything that you know,

48:28.989 --> 48:31.539
and you love most dearly --
family,

48:31.539 --> 48:33.839
city, loyalties,
your habits,

48:33.844 --> 48:37.324
your bread --
all of these details here are

48:37.324 --> 48:39.884
given and this is what he finds.

48:39.880 --> 48:43.570
"Thy first refuge,
and inn,"

48:43.565 --> 48:48.735
the inn as those of you who
read, it's an interesting

48:48.744 --> 48:52.734
metaphor in the medieval
literature.

48:52.730 --> 48:55.300
Those of you who read Chaucer,
is there anybody here who reads

48:55.297 --> 48:55.717
Chaucer?

48:55.719 --> 48:59.659
The Canterbury Tales,
of course,

48:59.659 --> 49:05.059
it's the story of pilgrims and
the inn becomes the station--

49:05.059 --> 49:09.239
the temporary dwelling of
people who are on the road and

49:09.242 --> 49:10.462
always moving.

49:10.460 --> 49:14.240
It's really one of the most
welcome images in the medieval

49:14.242 --> 49:17.492
imagination, the inn,
the provisional comforts for

49:17.492 --> 49:19.752
the night that the inn offers.

49:19.750 --> 49:23.780
Anyway, "'Thy first refuge
and inn thou shalt find in the

49:23.780 --> 49:26.090
courtesy of the great
Lombard,"

49:26.094 --> 49:28.544
this is the gentleman of
Verona,

49:28.539 --> 49:32.839
the one gentleman of Verona who
houses him and hosted him for a

49:32.835 --> 49:35.115
while,
"who bears on the ladder

49:35.119 --> 49:37.829
the sacred bird,
and he will hold thee in so

49:37.833 --> 49:41.303
gracious regard that,
of doing and asking between you

49:41.297 --> 49:44.357
two,
that shall be first which with

49:44.358 --> 49:46.048
others come after.

49:46.050 --> 49:50.580
With him thou shalt see one who
at his birth so took the impress

49:50.583 --> 49:54.473
of this mighty star that his
deeds will be renowned.

49:54.469 --> 49:57.359
The people have not yet taken
note of him, because of his

49:57.356 --> 50:00.186
youth, for these wheels have
circled about him only nine

50:00.193 --> 50:02.863
years;
but before the Gascon deceives

50:02.858 --> 50:06.868
the noble Henry sparks of his
heroism shall appear in his

50:06.867 --> 50:09.587
disregard both of wealth and
toil,

50:09.590 --> 50:13.180
and his munificence shall yet
be known so that his enemies

50:13.177 --> 50:15.127
cannot keep silence about it.

50:15.130 --> 50:18.390
Look to him and to his benefits.

50:18.389 --> 50:21.499
Through him there shall be
altered fortune for many,

50:21.503 --> 50:23.643
rich changing state with
beggars.

50:23.639 --> 50:26.569
And thou shalt bear this
written in thy mind about him

50:26.574 --> 50:29.444
and shalt not tell it,'--
and he told things which shall

50:29.436 --> 50:31.346
be incredible to those that
witness them.

50:31.349 --> 50:34.639
Then he added:
'Son, these are the glosses on

50:34.643 --> 50:39.063
what was told thee,"
in Inferno XV of course.

50:39.059 --> 50:43.949
Remember when Brunetto says,
"This is the prophecy of

50:43.945 --> 50:48.995
your future exile but it will be
glossed for you by somebody

50:49.003 --> 50:50.293
else."

50:50.289 --> 50:52.629
He doesn't even mention who,
Dante goes on thinking that

50:52.628 --> 50:56.138
it's going to be Beatrice;
it turns out to be his father,

50:56.143 --> 50:57.233
his ancestor.

50:57.230 --> 51:00.540
"These are the snares that
are hid behind a few revolving

51:00.536 --> 51:02.396
years;
yet I would not have thee

51:02.398 --> 51:05.878
envious of thy fellow-citizens,
for thy life shall far outlast

51:05.882 --> 51:08.342
the punishment of the
perfidies.'"

51:08.340 --> 51:12.350
The exile can turn into a
virtue and the language here

51:12.349 --> 51:17.189
that accompanies this prediction
is the language of the ethics of

51:17.193 --> 51:17.953
exile.

51:17.949 --> 51:24.029
That the exile brings about and
needs in order to be bearable

51:24.032 --> 51:27.382
and tolerable,
the hospitality.

51:27.380 --> 51:29.540
These are the great,
the courtesy,

51:29.536 --> 51:32.656
the hospitality,
the language of gratitude,

51:32.659 --> 51:35.679
the giving,
so it's a new ethics is going

51:35.681 --> 51:39.971
to be described in--
from the perspective of this

51:39.965 --> 51:42.735
exilic experience of Dante.

51:42.739 --> 51:48.029
Then Dante concludes,
which I think it seals what I

51:48.032 --> 51:51.512
have been saying,
"'I see well my

51:51.514 --> 51:54.724
father,"
this is line 113 and following,

51:54.719 --> 51:57.209
110 and following,
"'I see well,

51:57.208 --> 52:00.868
my father, how time spurs
towards me to deal me such a

52:00.871 --> 52:05.021
blow as falls most heavily on
him that is most heedless;

52:05.018 --> 52:07.768
it is well, therefore,
that I arm me with

52:07.771 --> 52:11.281
foresight,'"
that's another virtue of exile.

52:11.280 --> 52:15.600
The word translates,
of course, prudence.

52:15.599 --> 52:20.849
Prudence is the human
counterpart of providence.

52:20.849 --> 52:24.429
It's the same etymology,
a seeing in advance,

52:24.429 --> 52:28.629
trying to not predict but
forestall the arrows and flings

52:28.632 --> 52:31.922
that come our way,
"so that if the dearest

52:31.920 --> 52:35.630
place is taken from me,
I may not lose the others by my

52:35.628 --> 52:36.118
songs.

52:36.119 --> 52:39.519
Down through the world of
endless bitterness,

52:39.518 --> 52:42.738
and on the mountain from whose
fair summit the eyes of my Lady

52:42.742 --> 52:44.922
lifted me,
and after, through the heavens

52:44.918 --> 52:47.138
from light to light,
I have learned that which,

52:47.137 --> 52:50.367
if I tell again,
will taste for many of bitter

52:50.367 --> 52:53.607
herbs;
and if I am a timid friend to

52:53.605 --> 52:58.985
truth I fear to lose my life
among those who will call these

52:58.987 --> 53:00.537
times ancient.

53:00.539 --> 53:03.609
' The light within which was
smiling the treasure,"

53:03.606 --> 53:06.396
and then of the reference to
Brunetto who wrote the

53:06.396 --> 53:08.066
Treasure of course.

53:08.070 --> 53:11.450
"I had found there first
became ablaze like a golden

53:11.451 --> 53:13.531
mirror in the sun,
then replied:

53:13.525 --> 53:17.185
'Conscience dark with its own
or another's shame will indeed

53:17.188 --> 53:20.938
feel thy words to be harsh;
but none the less put away

53:20.942 --> 53:25.162
every falsehood and make plain
all thy vision--and then let

53:25.164 --> 53:27.644
them scratch where is the itch.

53:27.639 --> 53:32.089
For if thy voice is grievous at
first taste, it will afterwards

53:32.088 --> 53:35.388
leave vital nourishment when it
is digested.

53:35.389 --> 53:38.359
This cry of thine shall do as
does the wind,

53:38.364 --> 53:41.414
which strikes most on the
highest summits;

53:41.409 --> 53:44.469
and that is no small ground of
honour.

53:44.469 --> 53:47.699
For that reason have been shown
to thee, in these wheels,

53:47.697 --> 53:50.057
on the mountain,
and in the woeful valley,

53:50.059 --> 53:52.249
only souls that are known to
fame;

53:52.250 --> 53:55.600
because the mind of one who
hears will not pause or fix its

53:55.597 --> 53:58.997
faith for an example that has
its roots unknown or hidden or

53:59.001 --> 54:01.831
for other proof that it not
manifest.'"

54:01.829 --> 54:05.689
What he hears,
and the decision that Dante

54:05.690 --> 54:11.250
will take as a palliative at
least, or a remedy to his exile

54:11.246 --> 54:12.656
is writing.

54:12.659 --> 54:17.769
The writing of the poem becomes
the act by which he is an

54:17.766 --> 54:21.406
exilic--
as an exile can go on in his

54:21.413 --> 54:25.003
dislocation,
his utter dislocation from the

54:25.001 --> 54:26.341
city,
from family,

54:26.340 --> 54:29.280
from his habits,
can go on actually relating

54:29.284 --> 54:31.274
himself to a more writing.

54:31.268 --> 54:35.898
The work is the way in which
the self enters history and can

54:35.902 --> 54:37.162
shape history.

54:37.159 --> 54:39.609
It's not Aeneas,
it's not Phaeton,

54:39.606 --> 54:42.496
it's not going to be the
Hippolytus,

54:42.500 --> 54:46.080
it's not even Cacciaguida's own
account of his own grandiloquent

54:46.077 --> 54:48.347
connection with the world of
history,

54:48.349 --> 54:53.439
a way in which Dante's self
enters history is through this

54:53.442 --> 54:57.322
idea of poetry--
of a writing that is now also

54:57.315 --> 55:01.615
described in terms of food,
as you can see here first of

55:01.621 --> 55:05.781
all, with the bitter herbs and
now the voices gives us the

55:05.780 --> 55:10.380
first taste that will afterwards
leave vital nourishment when it

55:10.375 --> 55:11.975
is digested, etc.

55:11.980 --> 55:18.790
Words--first of all,
let me just clear the air here.

55:18.789 --> 55:23.809
No one of you has these
misconceptions about poetic

55:23.813 --> 55:29.843
language that somehow it's some
sort of faint symbol divorced

55:29.840 --> 55:31.550
from reality.

55:31.550 --> 55:36.230
Dante goes beyond this idea of
the relationship of language to

55:36.226 --> 55:37.526
representation.

55:37.530 --> 55:40.730
That was the problem of the
chronicles and they gave fairly

55:40.731 --> 55:44.101
faithful accounts and he can
give fairly faithful accounts.

55:44.099 --> 55:47.009
That's the mode of a certain
historiography.

55:47.010 --> 55:52.150
What Dante's saying is that
words are things in themselves,

55:52.150 --> 55:56.280
that words are food that
change, and being things they

55:56.275 --> 56:01.175
have a kind of solidity and have
a sort of truth value in and of

56:01.181 --> 56:02.351
themselves.

56:02.349 --> 56:07.249
This is really the biblical
language that resurfaces,

56:07.250 --> 56:12.340
son of man, eat the book,
you remember these lines from

56:12.338 --> 56:13.468
Ezekiel?

56:13.469 --> 56:16.969
This is exactly the kind of
language that is returning here,

56:16.969 --> 56:20.739
and which Dante bends,
the sort of language to define

56:20.742 --> 56:25.172
himself in a relationship to his
future project of writing the

56:25.170 --> 56:29.090
poem and that project of writing
the poem is his way of

56:29.088 --> 56:32.208
establishing his place literally
in--

56:32.210 --> 56:34.520
which is a utopian place in
history.

56:34.518 --> 56:36.998
I say utopian because it
doesn't have to be understood in

56:37.001 --> 56:37.801
any local sense.

56:37.800 --> 56:41.750
I do not belong to the city
only because I occupy a

56:41.750 --> 56:44.200
particular place in the city.

56:44.199 --> 56:48.419
It is the act of writing
poetry, that's really what

56:48.416 --> 56:49.256
matters.

56:49.260 --> 56:53.810
What I'm referring to is also,
and here I am,

56:53.809 --> 56:58.449
a sort of correction,
very mild correction of the

56:58.445 --> 57:02.595
classical idea which is also a
medieval--

57:02.599 --> 57:08.509
survives in medieval times the
idea that the self is decided,

57:08.510 --> 57:12.060
the value of the self is
decided by the place one

57:12.061 --> 57:15.171
occupies within the economy of
the city.

57:15.170 --> 57:18.810
Dante says that's not the way
it works.

57:18.809 --> 57:22.619
I am the project of writing my
poetry and through poetry,

57:22.619 --> 57:26.499
which is written in exile,
and therefore it's a poetry of

57:26.500 --> 57:29.550
exile I can re-enter the world
of history.

57:29.550 --> 57:34.740
The world of history accusing
history and talking as a man who

57:34.742 --> 57:40.022
has been touched by the vision
of what justice ought to be,

57:40.018 --> 57:43.708
so this is really the remarks
that I think I can make about

57:43.711 --> 57:46.451
these Cantos XV,
XVI, and XVII and I welcome

57:46.449 --> 57:48.359
questions if you have any.

57:48.360 --> 57:49.580
I'm sure you do.

57:49.579 --> 57:56.619


57:56.619 --> 57:58.619
Yes.

57:58.619 --> 58:01.489
Student:  Would I be
right in seeing some biblical

58:01.487 --> 58:04.047
references within the lines
between 70 and 100,

58:04.050 --> 58:07.870
the mention of the star,
the birth, the inn.

58:07.869 --> 58:10.429
Is that some sort of a Savior?

58:10.429 --> 58:15.099
Prof: This is line 17,
the question is would she be

58:15.103 --> 58:19.123
right in seeing biblical
antecedents,

58:19.119 --> 58:24.739
context for the lines
with--that go from line 70 you

58:24.737 --> 58:27.847
say,
the first refuge and inn.

58:27.849 --> 58:31.399
No, and I "shalt find in
the courtesy of the great

58:31.398 --> 58:32.448
Lombard."

58:32.449 --> 58:38.119
That may be a crystalogical or
a crystal mimetic language

58:38.123 --> 58:41.573
behind these sort of references.

58:41.570 --> 58:48.670
That would be even more--it
would be truer even--

58:48.670 --> 58:54.610
would be made more compelling
in light of Cacciaguida's own

58:54.614 --> 58:59.334
self representation in
crystalogical terms,

58:59.329 --> 59:03.529
both in Canto XV and--in Canto
XVI actually he talks to himself

59:03.527 --> 59:06.167
as if he were a Boethian
philosopher.

59:06.170 --> 59:09.660
Dante uses the same phrase
about the death of Cacciaguida

59:09.661 --> 59:13.091
that he had used for Boethius in
Paradiso XV,

59:13.090 --> 59:16.440
venni dal martiro a questa
pace,

59:16.440 --> 59:18.110
that he had used for Boethius.

59:18.110 --> 59:19.620
But the language is a
crystalogical language.

59:19.619 --> 59:24.099
The only difference is that if
there is any crystalogical

59:24.103 --> 59:28.753
resonance here it very quickly
fades because Dante's really

59:28.746 --> 59:32.426
discussing himself as an exile
with this--

59:32.429 --> 59:39.009
and he understands exile as the
real condition of himself but

59:39.014 --> 59:41.544
also of human beings.

59:41.539 --> 59:45.859
I will go on so far as to say,
in order to connect your

59:45.856 --> 59:50.646
theological perspective and what
I have been saying about the

59:50.654 --> 59:55.774
self in history is that exile is
also the root of one's religious

59:55.771 --> 59:57.371
consciousness.

59:57.369 --> 1:00:03.159
We have--those of us who have a
religious conscious,

1:00:03.159 --> 1:00:06.199
and I think we all do,
just as we have an aesthetic

1:00:06.202 --> 1:00:10.142
sense we all do,
that religious conscious comes

1:00:10.139 --> 1:00:15.049
always out of the sense or the
feeling even better,

1:00:15.050 --> 1:00:18.390
better than the sense,
the feeling that we are not

1:00:18.389 --> 1:00:19.819
where we should be.

1:00:19.820 --> 1:00:24.650
That we are somehow not where
we should both in terms of time

1:00:24.652 --> 1:00:28.522
and in terms of space,
that we are dislocated.

1:00:28.518 --> 1:00:32.708
And this exile,
this exilic imagination then

1:00:32.710 --> 1:00:38.270
shapes also the theological
language of Dante and accounts

1:00:38.266 --> 1:00:44.306
for his persuasion that exile
defines the human condition.

1:00:44.309 --> 1:00:49.189
It's not just an empirical--it
is his empirical experience.

1:00:49.190 --> 1:00:51.900
That is to say,
it relates to him but he

1:00:51.898 --> 1:00:55.298
understands that it's
really--we're all engaged in

1:00:55.302 --> 1:00:58.432
this kind of--I'll talk about
this later.

1:00:58.429 --> 1:01:02.979
By the way, I'm forcing my hand
because the text does not really

1:01:02.978 --> 1:01:06.818
allow me to do that,
but when he discusses hope,

1:01:06.824 --> 1:01:10.064
the most extraordinary of all
virtues,

1:01:10.059 --> 1:01:13.189
the most deceptive maybe of all
virtues,

1:01:13.190 --> 1:01:18.010
there healing's hope and exile
in a very clear way and I'll

1:01:18.007 --> 1:01:22.657
reserve that as a surprise for
whatever next week or--

1:01:22.659 --> 1:01:23.689
yeah next week.

1:01:23.690 --> 1:01:25.560


1:01:25.559 --> 1:01:28.449
Please.

1:01:28.449 --> 1:01:33.349
Student:  You mentioned
Augustine's confessions earlier,

1:01:33.349 --> 1:01:37.199
and talking about the different
conceptions of how the self

1:01:37.202 --> 1:01:40.412
relates to the city,
and you said Dante didn't agree

1:01:40.411 --> 1:01:41.281
with Augustine.

1:01:41.280 --> 1:01:44.500
I didn't catch everything you
were saying about Augustine's

1:01:44.503 --> 1:01:45.563
view of the self.

1:01:45.559 --> 1:01:47.669
Can you just review?

1:01:47.670 --> 1:01:49.190
Prof: The question is
about--

1:01:49.190 --> 1:01:53.560
I was discussing modalities of
this relationship between the

1:01:53.563 --> 1:01:57.273
self and history at the
beginning of my remarks.

1:01:57.268 --> 1:02:01.948
One of them obviously was--I
mentioned-- let me just give a

1:02:01.952 --> 1:02:03.892
little resume of this.

1:02:03.889 --> 1:02:08.159
I mentioned Cacciaguida himself
who has a kind of special

1:02:08.164 --> 1:02:11.604
understanding of history and
that defines him,

1:02:11.601 --> 1:02:14.351
his taking part in the
crusades.

1:02:14.349 --> 1:02:18.579
The other one is with which
Dante begins is Aeneas who is a

1:02:18.583 --> 1:02:21.143
model for Augustine,
as you know.

1:02:21.139 --> 1:02:24.559
I'm answering your question now.

1:02:24.559 --> 1:02:28.949
The Confessions of
Augustine are constructed as

1:02:28.949 --> 1:02:33.589
nothing less than what we
call--what I call the Aeneid of

1:02:33.590 --> 1:02:34.750
the heart.

1:02:34.750 --> 1:02:37.980
That is to say,
he goes from Carthage,

1:02:37.980 --> 1:02:41.140
he has his Didos;
you remember when he leaves

1:02:41.139 --> 1:02:44.389
Carthage to go to Rome,
and the Dido doesn't--he

1:02:44.391 --> 1:02:49.361
doesn't just abandon them but he
describes as they hold on to his

1:02:49.358 --> 1:02:50.598
garment, etc.

1:02:50.599 --> 1:02:54.719
Then he goes to Rome,
so it's really a pattern on an

1:02:54.719 --> 1:02:58.839
epic, on the Virgilian epic of
the Aeneid.

1:02:58.840 --> 1:03:01.660
But Augustine is very different
from Aeneas.

1:03:01.659 --> 1:03:04.629
He doesn't go to Rome to found
an empire.

1:03:04.630 --> 1:03:07.830
He's a professor of rhetoric,
he teaches, he's a teacher,

1:03:07.827 --> 1:03:11.307
a professor of rhetoric and he
comes to understand himself.

1:03:11.309 --> 1:03:14.609
Actually the great moment,
the great revelation for him,

1:03:14.612 --> 1:03:17.502
there are two moments of great
revelation to him,

1:03:17.496 --> 1:03:19.836
which we really never talked
about.

1:03:19.840 --> 1:03:24.000
One, which he's in Ostia,
a little town on the--

1:03:24.000 --> 1:03:27.880
by the sea outside of Rome and
he said,

1:03:27.880 --> 1:03:31.730
he saw this mother at the
window and they share in a kind

1:03:31.733 --> 1:03:33.183
of mystical vision.

1:03:33.179 --> 1:03:36.199
He describes this ecstasy that
they have while they look

1:03:36.204 --> 1:03:38.354
outside, and then she's about to
die.

1:03:38.349 --> 1:03:42.729
That is a decisive moment
in--clearly in his life and his

1:03:42.728 --> 1:03:44.838
understanding of himself.

1:03:44.840 --> 1:03:48.960
The other one comes in the
Garden in Milan when he hears

1:03:48.961 --> 1:03:53.611
voices that tell him to--that he
understands in his own way.

1:03:53.610 --> 1:03:58.630
It's an idea of a self which
is--which understands the self

1:03:58.628 --> 1:04:03.388
as a death of the old man and
the birth of a new man.

1:04:03.389 --> 1:04:06.259
This is the old Adam and the
new Adam.

1:04:06.260 --> 1:04:09.420
The Christian idea of
conversion, St.

1:04:09.422 --> 1:04:13.462
Paul's command,
you have to let the old man die

1:04:13.463 --> 1:04:17.333
so that the new man can come
into being.

1:04:17.329 --> 1:04:19.219
That's the understanding of the
self.

1:04:19.219 --> 1:04:22.449
Now Dante of course,
when I say he doesn't agree

1:04:22.449 --> 1:04:26.159
with it, of course he's not
Aeneas, he did say that.

1:04:26.159 --> 1:04:28.429
He's not Paul;
he did say that;

1:04:28.429 --> 1:04:29.819
there are those who say well
he's ironic.

1:04:29.820 --> 1:04:31.550
I don't see where the irony is.

1:04:31.550 --> 1:04:33.520
He's not Aeneas and he's not
Paul;

1:04:33.518 --> 1:04:37.338
he uses them to relate,
to coordinate himself to them

1:04:37.342 --> 1:04:41.462
and now he's using a number of
other mythical figures.

1:04:41.460 --> 1:04:45.050
What is one's own relationship
to genealogy?

1:04:45.050 --> 1:04:49.580
What is one's own relationship
to the chronicles?

1:04:49.579 --> 1:04:51.889
What is one's own relationship
to mythical empires?

1:04:51.889 --> 1:04:53.269
You understand what I'm saying?

1:04:53.268 --> 1:04:56.158
The idea of self that he is
going to have is not really

1:04:56.159 --> 1:05:00.039
Augustine's;
it's that of the man first of

1:05:00.039 --> 1:05:06.079
all who can belong to the
history of the world by writing

1:05:06.083 --> 1:05:07.383
the poem.

1:05:07.380 --> 1:05:12.430
He lives and he understands the
fundamental quality of the

1:05:12.429 --> 1:05:17.299
exilic experience of human
beings, that's not Augustine,

1:05:17.302 --> 1:05:20.052
that's really what I meant.

1:05:20.050 --> 1:05:24.470
No disrespect for Augustine
only different--a different

1:05:24.465 --> 1:05:25.525
experience.

1:05:25.530 --> 1:05:30.150


1:05:30.150 --> 1:05:31.740
Yes.

1:05:31.739 --> 1:05:34.999
Student:  I'm still
thinking about the brief

1:05:34.998 --> 1:05:38.968
reference to the crusades that
Cacciaguida makes at the end of

1:05:38.974 --> 1:05:42.694
the Canto XV and the presence of
sectarian violence,

1:05:42.690 --> 1:05:47.060
and I wonder if that--if Dante
has some idea about that that

1:05:47.057 --> 1:05:50.907
connects to his idea of the
empire as staving off the

1:05:50.909 --> 1:05:55.569
political violence of civil war
or what would Dante suggest as a

1:05:55.574 --> 1:05:57.874
>

1:05:57.869 --> 1:05:59.069
because we saw St.

1:05:59.070 --> 1:06:02.810
Francis last week who spoke
peacefully with the Sultan of

1:06:02.809 --> 1:06:03.409
faith.

1:06:03.409 --> 1:06:06.349
Prof: This is an
extraordinary question.

1:06:06.349 --> 1:06:11.279
The question is by the way
the--how do I explain

1:06:11.277 --> 1:06:15.677
Cacciaguida's reference to the
crusade,

1:06:15.679 --> 1:06:17.409
very brief reference to the
crusade,

1:06:17.409 --> 1:06:22.039
and how does that connect with
what we have been talking about

1:06:22.036 --> 1:06:26.816
sectarian violence in the Canto
of Dominic for instance in Canto

1:06:26.815 --> 1:06:31.515
XII and whether Dante is using
this as a ploy to explain,

1:06:31.518 --> 1:06:35.088
just the way he does with the
violence within the city to

1:06:35.092 --> 1:06:37.582
justify the necessity of the
Empire,

1:06:37.579 --> 1:06:43.139
which he does or is this--or
does he really have an idea of

1:06:43.135 --> 1:06:46.485
the peaceful language of
Francis?

1:06:46.489 --> 1:06:51.189
Accurate--you asked a lot of
questions and really,

1:06:51.186 --> 1:06:53.866
really, really impressive.

1:06:53.869 --> 1:06:56.439
After all she's an Italian
major, what do you expect?

1:06:56.440 --> 1:07:01.980
She has--she better impress
me--you did, you did.

1:07:01.980 --> 1:07:09.310
We'll talk more about Dante's
preparing Canto XVIII,

1:07:09.309 --> 1:07:14.519
XIX, and XX is really about--it
starts with what is a heroic

1:07:14.523 --> 1:07:19.123
life and how are we to
understand the heroic life.

1:07:19.119 --> 1:07:22.659
There's a reference there also
to crusades,

1:07:22.659 --> 1:07:27.979
and the question of the
crusades, the relationship of

1:07:27.981 --> 1:07:34.021
justice and Christian ideas of
justice to Muslims and Hindus

1:07:34.021 --> 1:07:37.811
will come to the forefront
there.

1:07:37.809 --> 1:07:42.079
So I really ask you to wait for
that for next time because--

1:07:42.079 --> 1:07:44.889
However, I can answer one
question immediately,

1:07:44.885 --> 1:07:48.605
which is really implied by what
you are saying more than asked

1:07:48.606 --> 1:07:49.396
directly.

1:07:49.400 --> 1:07:52.000
Yes, Dante is a peace poet.

1:07:52.000 --> 1:07:55.140
I would say that with full
confidence,

1:07:55.139 --> 1:07:57.379
though we know Dante was so
polemical,

1:07:57.380 --> 1:08:00.140
kicks shades,
is angry, fights,

1:08:00.137 --> 1:08:05.097
and there's always competing
visions in relation to the

1:08:05.099 --> 1:08:08.509
tradition and others,
but he's--Fundamentally,

1:08:08.510 --> 1:08:11.250
you have to establish,
you would say, differences;

1:08:11.250 --> 1:08:14.000
not really renounce your
differences,

1:08:14.000 --> 1:08:16.930
but actually make those
differences the orchestration,

1:08:16.930 --> 1:08:20.480
the musical orchestration that
is going on in Cantos XV,

1:08:20.476 --> 1:08:21.506
XVI, and XVII.

1:08:21.510 --> 1:08:22.710
This is the heaven of music.

1:08:22.710 --> 1:08:26.420
This discordance,
discourses, are part of a

1:08:26.420 --> 1:08:29.600
sovereign and transcendent
order,

1:08:29.600 --> 1:08:33.630
but he is a peace poet which is
truly scandalous because most

1:08:33.634 --> 1:08:35.424
poets,
except for Isaia,

1:08:35.420 --> 1:08:37.850
for instance who is a peace
poet--

1:08:37.850 --> 1:08:43.580
prophet, a prophet of peace,
with a vision of peace;

1:08:43.578 --> 1:08:47.838
Dante really has an irenic
vision.

1:08:47.840 --> 1:08:51.950
Most poets write about
victories, about wars,

1:08:51.953 --> 1:08:55.043
about armistices,
truces, epic;

1:08:55.038 --> 1:08:59.468
the epics in England or in
Italy, it's all about the

1:08:59.467 --> 1:09:01.637
clashes of armies,
etc.

1:09:01.640 --> 1:09:05.700
Not Dante, so that's really the
direct answer I can give to your

1:09:05.699 --> 1:09:06.409
question.

1:09:06.408 --> 1:09:09.488
Then you raise another issue
which I find a little bit--I

1:09:09.492 --> 1:09:13.182
would not want to go there but I
owe it to you to give an answer.

1:09:13.180 --> 1:09:16.580
Well, what about the peaceful
language of Francis?

1:09:16.578 --> 1:09:22.498
That seems to be such a great
idea because heresy and schisms

1:09:22.497 --> 1:09:25.697
and the question--
the relationship between

1:09:25.701 --> 1:09:28.421
Christians and Muslims has
always been one of wars,

1:09:28.420 --> 1:09:31.930
so heresy and war,
schism and war,

1:09:31.927 --> 1:09:38.307
so we can say that Dante seems
to be so radical in renouncing

1:09:38.305 --> 1:09:42.585
war and says,
look it's possible to harmonize

1:09:42.590 --> 1:09:46.640
relationship or at least
confront our differences with

1:09:46.641 --> 1:09:48.631
using a peace language.

1:09:48.630 --> 1:09:53.460
However, things are not as
simple as that and that's why I

1:09:53.461 --> 1:09:57.361
only mention it but I will not
go into that.

1:09:57.359 --> 1:09:58.509
We haven't got time for that.

1:09:58.510 --> 1:10:01.220
It's really a thought I am a
little developing,

1:10:01.216 --> 1:10:02.096
I must admit.

1:10:02.100 --> 1:10:05.400
The heresy is a question of
language.

1:10:05.399 --> 1:10:07.749
It's not just a question of
wars.

1:10:07.750 --> 1:10:13.770
So, there are wars that go on
in language and therefore they

1:10:13.769 --> 1:10:19.479
re-propose the very differences
and stubborn divisions of

1:10:19.481 --> 1:10:25.501
understanding that qualify and
describe both the schisms and

1:10:25.501 --> 1:10:27.441
the heresies.

1:10:27.439 --> 1:10:31.189
So, to say "peaceful
language,"

1:10:31.188 --> 1:10:34.748
it sounds also like another way
of--

1:10:34.750 --> 1:10:39.390
another route into potential
descent and tragedy,

1:10:39.391 --> 1:10:40.361
you see.

1:10:40.359 --> 1:10:45.429
But I am not going to go
anymore than give you as a kind

1:10:45.434 --> 1:10:50.794
of suspicion that I have about
my own claim that Dante is a

1:10:50.786 --> 1:10:52.166
peace poet.

1:10:52.170 --> 1:10:54.010
We'll talk though about the
crusades next time.

1:10:54.010 --> 1:10:58.090
And may be I have time for
another question may be and a

1:10:58.087 --> 1:10:59.567
very short answer.

1:10:59.569 --> 1:11:00.409
Anybody?

1:11:00.409 --> 1:11:06.559


1:11:06.560 --> 1:11:08.100
See you next time.

1:11:08.100 --> 1:11:14.000