Introduction

Dante Alighieri's Commedia is central to the emergence of comparative studies, from the early Romantic formulation of a 'universal education', 'universal poetry' or Weltliteratur to the birth of Comparative Literature as a discipline. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book investigates Peter Amour's exploration of Dante's debt to the revival of scripted and performed theatre in medieval Italy. Music and ballet are an important dimension of the theatrical treatment of Dante. The book analyses more recent visual and multimedia uses of Dante. It focuses on the move from theatrical to film adaptations of Dante in the first decade of the twentieth century. The book explores artistic responses to Dante's polysemous text, more work remains to be done on how different media cultures affect the ways in which Dante is read.