Book Section
Teodolinda Barolini
Possible Worlds and Reading Dante’s Commedia
Suspension of Disbelief (Coleridge, Horace, Tolkien, Cecco d’Ascoli) and the Solvents of Narrative and History
Moving from Coleridge’s classic formulation, I discuss the method of reading the Commedia that I call detheologizing and my use, in The Undivine Comedy, of narratology as a solvent that promotes suspending the suspension of disbelief and becoming critical readers of Dante’s poem. When we detheologize, standing outside of the fiction, we detach our interpretation from reliance on the overdetermined binary grid of the Commedia’s structure and unlock the riches of the possible world that Dante made.
Keywords: suspension of disbelief; possible worlds; detheologizing; realism; narrative in Dante’s Commedia; history in Dante’s Commedia; Coleridge, Samuel; Horace; Tolkien, J. R. R.; Cecco d’Ascoli
| Title |
Possible Worlds and Reading Dante’s Commedia
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| Subtitle |
Suspension of Disbelief (Coleridge, Horace, Tolkien, Cecco d’Ascoli) and the Solvents of Narrative and History
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| Author(s) |
Teodolinda Barolini
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| Identifier | |
| Description |
Moving from Coleridge’s classic formulation, I discuss the method of reading the Commedia that I call detheologizing and my use, in The Undivine Comedy, of narratology as a solvent that promotes suspending the suspension of disbelief and becoming critical readers of Dante’s poem. When we detheologize, standing outside of the fiction, we detach our interpretation from reliance on the overdetermined binary grid of the Commedia’s structure and unlock the riches of the possible world that Dante made.
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| Is Part Of | |
| Place |
Berlin
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| Publisher |
ICI Berlin Press
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| Date |
November 4, 2025
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| Subject |
suspension of disbelief
possible worlds
detheologizing
realism
narrative in Dante’s Commedia
history in Dante’s Commedia
Coleridge, Samuel
Horace
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Cecco d’Ascoli
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| Rights |
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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| Language |
en-GB
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| page start |
15
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| page end |
47
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| Source |
A World of Possibilities: The Legacy of The Undivine Comedy, ed. by Kristina M. Olson, Cultural Inquiry, 37 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 15–47
|
References
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Cite as:
Teodolinda Barolini, ‘Possible Worlds and Reading Dante’s Commedia: Suspension of Disbelief (Coleridge, Horace, Tolkien, Cecco d’Ascoli) and the Solvents of Narrative and History’, in A World of Possibilities: The Legacy of The Undivine Comedy, ed. by Kristina M. Olson, Cultural Inquiry, 37 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 15-47 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-37_02>