Dante and the Other: A Phenomenology of Love

247 Pages·2020·9.244 MB·English

by  Aaron B. Daniels (editor)

“Uniquely polyphonic and dialogical in its structure, Dante and the Other is
not yet another volume of essays on Dante but rather a one-of-a-kind course
that employs diverse and promising disciplines, such as phenomenology
and psychoanalysis, in retrieving anew all the wonder of encountering the
Florentine’s universe (as if) for the first time. Here are included some exemplary
interpretations that will awake interest, provide context, and clarify difficulties
for a new generation of Dante’s readers to come.”
J.P. Manoussakis, Associate Professor of Philosophy,
College of the Holy Cross; Editor-in-Chief of the
Journal for the Continental Philosophy of Religion;
author of The Ethics of Time

Dante and the Other
Dante and the Other brings together noted and emerging Dante scholars with
theologians, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and psychotherapists, bridging the
Florentine’s premodern world to today’s postmodern context. Exploring how
alterity has become a potent symbol in religion, philosophy, politics, and culture,
this book will be of interest to many related fields.
The book offers a thorough foundation in approaching Dante as proto-
phenomenologist. It includes an informative review of literature, historical insight
into Dante’s poetics-toward-ineffability as alternative to modern scientism, a
foray into science fiction, existential elaborations, phenomenological analyses of
Inferno’s Canto I, and applications to psychotherapy and qualitative research. It
also contains a poem from an imagined Virgil retiring in Limbo, and a meditation
on Dante’s complicated relationship to homosexuality.
Dante and the Other presents the mystical passion of apophatic spirituality,
the millennia-spanning Augustinianism of radical orthodoxy, Levinas, Heidegger,
and many others—all driven by Dante’s Labors of Love. It is essential reading for
Dante scholars, as well as readers interested in his works.
Aaron B. Daniels is a Research Fellow at Psychology & the Other at Boston
College, and a Senior Lecturer of Psychology at Curry College. His publications
include Jungian Crime Scene Analysis: An Imaginal Investigation (2014), and
Imaginal Reality, Volumes 1 & 2 (2011). Before entering academia, he practiced
clinical psychology for ten years in community and private practice, where he
achieved LGBT specialist status.
THE PSYCHOLOGY AND THE OTHER BOOK SERIES
The Psychology and the Other book series highlights creative work at the intersec-
tions between psychology and the vast array of disciplines relevant to the human
psyche. The interdisciplinary focus of this series brings psychology into conver-
sation with continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, religious studies, anthropol-
ogy, sociology, and social/critical theory. The cross-fertilization of theory and
practice, encompassing such a range of perspectives, encourages the explora-
tion of alternative paradigms and newly articulated vocabularies that speak to
human identity, freedom, and suffering. Thus, we are encouraged to reimagine
our encounters with difference, our notions of the ‘other,’ and what constitutes
therapeutic modalities.
The study and practices of mental health practitioners, psychoanalysts, and
scholars in the humanities will be sharpened, enhanced, and illuminated by these
vibrant conversations, representing pluralistic methods of inquiry, including those
typically identified as psychoanalytic, humanistic, qualitative, phenomenological,
or existential.
For a full list of titles in the series, please visit the Routledge website at: https: //
ww w.rou tledg e.com/ Psyc holog y-and -the- Other/ book -serie s/PSY OTH
Dante and the Other
A Phenomenology of Love
Edited by
Aaron B. Daniels
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 selection and editorial matter, Aaron B. Daniels; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Aaron B. Daniels to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
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without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Daniels, Aaron B., editor. | Boston College sponsoring body. |
Psychology and the Other Conference (5th: 2019: Boston College)
Title: Dante and the other: a phenomenology of love/edited by
Aaron B. Daniels.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. |
Series: Psychology and the other | Chapters are based on papers presented
at a Dante Salon during the 5th Psychology and the Other Conference, held
in 2019 at Boston College. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020037234 (print) | LCCN 2020037235 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367675868 (hbk) | ISBN 9780367675851 (pbk) |
ISBN 9781003131892 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321–Criticism and interpretation–
Congresses. | Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321–Psychology–Congresses. | Other
(Philosophy) in literature–Congresses. | Love in literature–Congresses. |
Phenomenology and literature–Congresses.
Classification: LCC PQ4413 .D34 2021 (print) | LCC PQ4413 (ebook) |
DDC 851/.1–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037234
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037235
ISBN: 978-0-367-67586-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-67585-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-13189-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Contents
List of Contributors ix
Preface: The Labors of Love xiv
Acknowledgments: A Note of Gratitude for Support of this Work xix
PART I
Dante and Phenomenology 1
1 Introduction: Dante and Phenomenology:
A Review of Literature 3
AARON B. DANIELS
2 Representing the Other: Dante, Duns Scotus, and the Crisis
of Representation in the Modern Age 51
WILLIAM FRANKE
3 1321: A Space Odyssey: A Response to Franke 72
AARON B. DANIELS
4 Dante, Selfhood and Significant Journeying 80
JOHN TOOK
5 A Response to Took’s “Dante, Selfhood, and Significant
Journeying” 92
DOROTHY CHANG
6 From Poetics to Phenomenology: Consciousness in Dante’s
Divine Comedy 97
CHRISTIAN Y. DUPONT
viii C ontents
7 Gateways to the Ineffable: Dante’s Poetry as
Proto-Phenomenology 113
AARON B. DANIELS
PART II
Dante: Yesterday, Today, and Forever 143
8 When Bici Said Come 145
HATTIE MYERS
9 Dante and the Medieval ‘Other’ 147
PETER S. HAWKINS
10 Surprised by Grace: Hermeneutic Reflections on Dante’s
Judgments: A Response to Hawkins 155
JAMES M. KEE
11 Purgatorio: A Liturgy of Forgiveness and Restoration 164
DOMINIC AQUILA
12 Storytelling: Dante, Freud, and their Models of Eros 183
HATTIE MYERS
13 Purgatory as a Metaphor for Therapy and Associated Ethical
Implications 189
K. L. MCFARLAND AND TOMMY GIVENS
14 Dante’s Economy of Words after Marx 201
MATTHEW ELMORE
Index 223
Contributors
Dominic Aquila is a tenured professor of history and director of assessment
and institutional effectiveness at the University of St. Thomas in Houston,
Texas. He served as dean of Arts and Sciences and then provost of St. Thomas
from 2007 to 2017. Before his appointments at the University of St. Thomas,
Professor Aquila held faculty and administrative appointments at Ave Maria
University, Schoolcraft College, Franciscan University of Steubenville, and
the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Professor Aquila took his bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and
an MBA from the Stern School of Business at NYU. He began his doctoral
work under Christopher Lasch at the University of Rochester, completing it at
the University of South Africa. His research interests include interdisciplinar-
ity, liberal education, Dante, Marshall McLuhan, Father Walter Ong, and musi-
cal semiotics. In Fall 2020, Ave Maria Press is bringing out Professor Aquila’s
The Church and the Age of Enlightenment, 1648–1848: In Defense of Reality.
He has manuscripts in progress on Edward Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and the
influence of Dante’s Commedia on Puccini’s Il Trittico.
Professor Aquila is the recipient of the Spes Nostrae award in support of
Catholic education, and distinguished service awards from the Michigan Lib-
eral Arts Network for Development and the Council of Independent Colleges.
Dorothy Chang is a PhD student and teaching fellow in the theology department
at Fordham University in the historical theology track. She earned her MA
in religion from Columbia University and her BA in religion from Rutgers
University. Dorothy is interested in theological anthropology, Byzantine theol-
ogy, Reformation, religious poetry, early modern theology, and critical theory.
Her dissertation will examine Jonathan Edwards’s understanding of light and
seeks to explore the extent to which Edwards’s theology of light was influ-
enced by or a break from earlier medieval theologies of light since they were
informed by different scientific frameworks than Edwards.
Aaron B. Daniels is a research fellow at Psychology & the Other at Boston College
and a senior lecturer in psychology at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Baldwin-Wallace College, a