The Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto is pleased to partner with the Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies for another fascinating lecture in the CIMS lecture series.
DANTE AND THEOLOGY IN VICO’S PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
Dr. Domenico Pietropaolo
University of Toronto
Thursday, September 14 | 7:00PM EDT
Online via Zoom | Free Event
CLICK HERE ON SEPTEMBER 14 TO JOIN THE LECTURE
In Vico’s theory of the Ideal Eternal History of civilization, Dante appears as the Homer of the late Middle Ages, which Vico regarded as a typological return of the heroic age of the ancient Mediterranean in Christian Europe. A central principle of Vico’s philosophy of history is that, in the creative imagination of every age, poetry and metaphysics, including theology, are inversely related. Vico knew that this principle was at odds with Dante’s Commedia, in which one could not easily separate poetry from theology or metaphysics without dissolving away the text itself. He struggled with the problem for a long time, periodically revisiting details of it as he elaborated both his philosophy of history and his theory of the creative imagination.
In this lecture, we shall examine salient aspects of his ongoing reflection on the Commedia and his chief arguments for a general hermeneutic grounded in the idea of a Christian ricorso of the poetic age of the ancient Mediterranean.
DR. DOMENICO PIETROPAOLO
Domenico Pietropaolo is a professor of Italian literature and theatrical studies at the University of Toronto, where he was also director of the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama and the Department of Italian Studies as well as Dean of St. Michael’s College. His main interests are the dramaturgy of stagging and the study of theatrical processes, medieval Italian literature, modern theatre and Futurism. His main publications include the volumes Semiotics of the Christian Imagination, Semiotics and Pragmatics of Stage Improvisation, Dante Studies in the Age of Vico, The Baroque Libretto (with M.A. Parker) and numerous essays on literary and theatrical history.