| As a classic in the history of world literature,Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy has long been one of the prevailing topics of research for academia all over the world,which has witnessed fruitful achievements in more than 700 years.In China,however,researches on The Divine Comedy started late and lag behind their international peers,which are in an urgent need of more extensive studies.This paper casts a new light upon The Divine Comedy by adopting critical interdisciplinary modern theories,such as cultural semiotics and Foucault's theories of governance and power.This paper argues that the poem is an integrated and innovative system concerning the governance of soul for human beings,which is established within a symbolic space that is characterized as being integrated,creative and structured.This paper penetrates through the textual structure of the poem to explore the relationship of signifying in its symbolic space as well as the operational patterns of its governance of soul,aiming to renew the recognition of this classic poem's literature value,ideological value and contemporary value.This analysis may also test the applicability and flexibility of the applied modern critical methodologies.In addition to the introduction and epilogue,this paper consists of five chapters:Chapter one is an overview of the symbolic space and governance of soul in the text of The Divine Comedy.Growing from the highly semiotic cultural context in medieval era,The Divine Comedy has established its symbolized text through the mechanism of metaphor and symbolization,which is a signifying system defined by a perceptual space.The abundant use of the “shepherd” metaphor reflects a guidance against what Foucault has mentioned as the system and discourse of medieval Christian pastoral leadership.Meanwhile it expresses the sense of replacing the church organization by the poetic pastoral leadership to govern the soul of human beings and save them from being lost.In order to legitimate this pastoral leadership,Dante has developed the rhetoric of “God's word” for governance of soul which has both a sense of holiness and a core of functionality.A dynamic and self-consistent system of governance of soul has been established within the symmetrically constructed symbolic space of Inferno(Hell),Purgatorio(Purgatory)and Paradiso(Heaven),under the guidance of a prominently functional “categorized punishment and reward device”.Chapter two examines the first part of the poem,Inferno(Hell),by analyzing its basic characteristics and governance mode as a symbolic space.Inferno is designed as a large inverted funnel-shaped abyss,of which the dark and depressing environment has symbolically projected the meaning of complete repression and eternal punishment.The division of the space of Inferno is highly ordered,which is coordinated with the hierarchy of sins.It is a result of Dante's deep thinking on the unification of human being in terms of the origin,development and consequence of the evil.To some extent,it fills the blank of the unclarified problem of the evil in ancient civilization and Christian culture.In the symbolic space of Inferno,called “city of woes” by Dante,who turns into a poetic “legislator” by illustrating a legal system including the confession by the souls,conviction,sentencing and different punishments.The function and significance of this mode lies in the realization of exhortation and discipline to the world through the performance of the ultimate severe punishment for the perpetrators of hell.Chapter three examines the second part of the poem,Purgatorio(Purgatory),by analyzing its basic characteristics and governance mode as a symbolic space.The detailed description of Purgatorio is the unique creation by The Divine Comedy which transcends traditions.The spiral progression of the pilgrim Dante and the birth of the temporal structure indicates that it is a symbolic space of a temporary "place of purification".The organizational order of symbols in Purgatorio is the process of soul purification,in which Dante establishes a model of soul governance of salvation,that is,people can go to Paradiso(Heaven)by means of confession,intercession,punishment and payment of fines.The governance mode of salvation reflects Dante's optimistic assumption of the solidarity and cooperation between people and the intimate trust between people and the God,which is also the internal requirement for the divine comedy to be a "comedy".The functional significance of this mode lies in the realization of the discipline for both the characters in the poem and the readers of the poem by showing the examples of the redeemable and saved minor offenders and some corresponding virtues.Chapter four examines the third part of the poem,Paradiso(Heaven),by analyzing its basic characteristics and governance mode as a symbolic space.Different from the way of space construction in Inferno and Purgatorio,Paradiso,adopting a mysterious interpretive structure,has deliberately eliminated the sense of a substantial space in Ptolemy's celestial body operation system,the perfect figure of a concentric sphere formed by a rotating Ten Sefirot in medieval culture.It signifies Paradiso as a "land of happiness".Paradiso is a combination of an imagined Christian heaven and a Neoplatonic cosmic vision within a mode of governance by truth.In this mode of governance,Dante designs a structured narration of truth concerning significant ethical and theological issues such as “freewill”,“secular state” and “justice” in the celestial bodies.He also describes life stories and the degree of happiness of souls and angels in Paradiso,which constitutes a positive way of discipline by preaching to the mundane people,whereas the assumption in the name of God that people would gain happiness in the future life provides inspiration to address modern faith crisis.Chapter five analyzes the basic characteristics and governance mode of the symbolic space of the "triple kingdom" composed of "Inferno-Purgatorio-Paradiso".The pilgrim Dante's journey after being lost has threaded Inferno,Purgatorio and Paradiso into an integrated symbolic space.The poet has employed the art of architectural modelling to construct this symbolic space,which highlights the visual and structural sense of poetry.His journey in the triple universe has formed a trajectory of "descending in Inferno--ascending in Purgatorio--rotating in Paradiso",which is a symbolic representation of the continuous sublimation of human soul in the triple realm of "depravity--purification--conversion".Dante,as a powerful poet,ambitiously conceives himself as the godlike existence in the poem.Only if he obtains absolute freedom in the poetic sense can he fully show his autonomy and individuality,and realize the governance of the human soul in such a huge and complicated symbolic world. |
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