Dr Matthew Treherne (Italian, University of Leeds, UK)
Performed Pain and Sacramental Solace: Dante's Purgatorio XX-XXVI
In Purgatorio XXIII, a canto describing the Terrace of Gluttony, Dante offers the most direct statement of the workings of suffering in Purgatory, through the figure of Forese Donati. Yet even to speak of suffering misses the point: Forese corrects himself - "I say pain, but I should say solace" (70) [io dico pena, ma dovria dir sollazzo]. This formulation, delicately balancing suffering and solace, takes place within the context of an intensified reflection in cantos XX-XXVI of Purgatorio on the relationship between human beings, the created world, and God. At the same time, these cantos are marked by repeated reference to, and description of, liturgical practice and the sacraments. This paper explores the ways in which these cantos present performed pain as a "sacramental" act, turning pain into solace, presenting the world in its condition as created, and transforming language itself into the performance of praise.
Matthew Treherne is Senior Lecturer in Italian at the University of Leeds and Co-Director of the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies. His publications include Forms of Faith in Sixteenth-Century Italy (Ashgate, 2009; co-edited with Abigail Brundin) and Dante's "Commedia": Theology as Poetry (University of Notre Dame, 2010; co-edited with Vittorio Montemaggi). He has recently completed a book entitled Dante's "Commedia" and the Liturgical Imagination.
