Re: More Fun With Canto V -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 12:04:31 01/24/08 Thu
Author: Jonathan Dunn
Subject: Re: More Fun With Canto V
In reply to: Erin Risch 's message, "More Fun With Canto V" on 20:21:27 01/23/08 Wed

We should probably keep in mind that Dante himself is imitating and working within a tradition. He is working within certain conventions. In this passage, I would argue, he is imitating love poetry. If this is true, it is important to understand the conventions of love poetry before trying to interpret what Dante does in response to those conventions.

Further, we should keep in mind that Dante most likely did not think of himself as a member of the time period of which we think him a member. That statement sounds confusing (because, I suppose, it is) so I will quote Marshall McLuhan:

�The Elizabethans appear to our gaze as very medieval. Medieval man thought of himself as classical, just as we consider ourselves to be modern men.� (The Gutenberg Galaxy, 3).

In other words, Dante probably thought of himself as writing in the same tradition as past love poets; he probably thought of himself as a contemporary and imitator of Ovid. It is to Latin poets, then, that he compares himself and it is thus to Latin poets that we must compare him.

In this particular passage, the word he uses to abstract or personify love is �Amor.� Right before this, Dante refers to Dido, whose story is most commonly known through Virgil. It is interesting that, in telling Dido�s story, Virgil also uses �Amor� to indicate the cause of her affliction:

Paret Amor dictis carae genetricis et alas
Exuit et gressu gaudens incedit Iuli.

[�Love obeys his dear mother�s words, lays by his wings, and walks joyously with the step of Iulus.�]

�Amor� is used interchangeably with �Cupido.� It is this character/god/thing which causes Dido�s love and downfall. Given that Dante groups Francesca with Dido, it seems important to compare his use of language with Virgil�s. When we do this, however, it seems to me that the use of �Amor� does not necessarily mean an abstraction of love, at least not without reference to the tradition.

Of course, the most interesting part of this passage is that Dante is imitating, with his very choice of words, the story of ruined lovers while at the same time he presents the story of a similarly ruined lover. This is no accident. Further, I wonder what role mimetic desire played in the creation of this text, and whether Dante himself was unknowingly driven by a borrowed desire.

[I should say as a side-note that I think Erin is right about Francesca wanting to be viewed as a victim. A common reading of Virgil is that Dido is the victim of Amor (and of Aeneas, really).]

I mentioned Ovid earlier because, let�s be honest, Ovid is the master of love poetry. His Artis Amatoriae opens with a passage that has more mimetic subtleties than I imagined possible:

Me Venus artificem tenero praefecit Amori;
Tiphys et Automedon dicar Amoris ego.

[�Me hath Venus set over tender Love as master in the art; I shall be called the Tiphys and Automedon of Love.�]

This is relevant to Canto 5, first and foremost, because the use of Amor in this way is probably the tradition within which Dante is working.

Second, Ovid is saying that although love is an overwhelming desire (often contracted by imitation) it can be conquered by imitating a lack of desire. So, if one is hopelessly in love, one need only pretend otherwise in order to be cured. Reverse mimetic desire. Make yourself your own mediator.

Third, the entire genre of love poetry is imitated desire. Juvenal mocks Catullus as being a man who falls completely and hopelessly in love with a girl, without having ever seen her (and this makes Don Quixote seem reasonable. He at least has seen his object.) Catullus, according to Juvenal at least, doesn�t even need to pretend that he desires the object for its own merits.

Fourth, Ovid bring Achilles into this mess; as I mentioned in my other post, Achilles certainly has his mimetic features.

My point, anyway, is that we should probably keep an eye on the traditions in which the authors we have read are working. They can write about external mediation only because, in my opinion anyway, they have themselves experienced it. And it is Ovid (and Virgil).

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