ABSTRACT
John Freccero’s approach to Dante Alighieri is subtle and fascinating, and aware of the terms of modern critical theory. Dante’s own history occupies the central cantos of the Paradiso in the form of his meeting with his ancestor, Cacciaguida. The poetry of the Paradiso represents a radical departure from that of the Purgatorio, as the latter represented a departure from the poetry of the Inferno. The extraordinary implication of Beatrice’s remark is that the whole of the Paradiso, at least until the crossing of the river of light toward the poem’s ending, has no existence, even fictional, beyond the metaphoric. The analogy is operative in Dante’s poem, which is why the Paradiso is inseparable from the earlier cantiche. Dante’s personal fulfilment of his own most intimate desires is perfectly harmonized with the love that is the motive force of the entire universe, of the sun and the other stars.
