the dante studies of giovanni gentile

8/14/2019 The Dante Studies of Giovanni Gentile

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h e a n t e S t u d i e s oiovanni e n t i l e

GIOVANNI GULLACE

Gentile's studies on Dante representan important contri-bution to the interpretation of the poet. Yet they do not seem tooccupy the place they deserve in the history of Dan te criticism.

While Croce's controversial book, La poesia di Dante (1921), arousedvehement debates and polemics, Gentile's studies did not attract muchnotice; they are still almost completely unknown outside Italy. The mainreason for this neglect lies probably in the fact that their publication wasspread over a considerable period of time (from 1904 to 1939)1 and thusdid not allow them to produce a real impact; another reason may be thatduring this time Gentile's critical attitude underwent certain changes,which concealed the essential unity of his approach. Croce's Lapoesia diDante is a work of theoretical maturity, expressing in clear and articulateterms new and revolutionary views, which were bound to stir up thestagnant waters of Dante criticism. Gentile's studies, on the contrary,represent stages of his intellectual growth; they reflect the developmentof his philosophical and esthetic tendencies. However, they cannot bealtogether disregarded, for they offer an interpretation of Dante signif-icantly broad in scope and extremely rich in historical and ideologicalperspectives. Furthermore, they may well serve as a valid antidote toCroce's views, which have not always been convincing or acceptable.Dante criticism has a long history; all critical methods and orientations- the philological, historical, biographical, esthetic, stylistic, structuralis-tic, etc.- have been applied to the interpretation and evaluation of thepoet. His philosophy, theology, science, the allegorical and anagogicalsense of his work have been extensively studied. All centuries and literary

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fashions had their particular approach to the poet and each interpretedand judged him according to the aspirations and tastes of the times.But in this medley of ideasand judgments which have accumulated in sixcenturies of Dante Studies, it is still possible to discern the major stagesof Dante criticism. After the studies produced through the seventeenthcentury, the main purpose of which had been to extricate the hiddensense of Dante's work, to elucidate the philosophical, theological, politi-cal, and moral meaning, to solve historical, biographical, and philologicalproblems, the man who seems to have revolutionized Dante criticismwas Giambattista Vico.2 His esthetic ideas mark a new orientation,moving the critical problem from erudite research and philosophicaland theological exegesis to a purely esthetic interpretation. The influenceof Vico's esthetics, however, did not obliterate the previous approaches;these continued on a lower scale, while the attention of the major criticswas turned to the esthetic aspect of Dante's work. Vico conceived ofpoetry not only as different from but even antithetical to philosophyand science. And he emphatically expressed his preference for poetry,the product of the imagination of the poet rather than the display oftheological or philosophical learning. Poetry is the expression of feelingin its primitive form, the powerful expression of "barbarity," of thevivid imagination which is characteristic of the infancy of humanity.Just as Homer is the expression of ancient barbarity, so is Dante theexpression of a more modern barbarity that of the Middle Ages.According to Vico, if Dante had known less Latin and scholastic philoso-phy he would have been a greater poet, for poetry springs from imagi-nation and passion and not from reflection on doctrinal matters.The dualism between doctrine and poetry dominated Dante criticismin the nineteenth century. De Sanctis retained the distinction betweenpoetry and philosophy which he inherited from both Vico and Hegel.He remained, however, closer to Vico's idea of the antithetical nature ofpoetry and philosophy, rejecting the Hegelian conception according towhich poetry, being an inferior stage of knowledge, is overcome byphilosophy, which is the summit of human learning. De Sanctis,with his conception of poetry as form, did not succeed in resolvingthe dualism into a poetic unity encompassing the whole spirit.Croce's criticism proceeds from Vico and De Sanctis and developsaround the idea of distinction between poetry and philosophy, echoedby Karl Vossler at the beginning of the twentieth century. Croce'sposition in relation to Dante can be thus summarized: there is in Dantethe philosopher, theologian, and moralist; and there is the poet. Doctrineand poetry are not only unrelated, but one excludes the other. In the

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Divine Comedy he doctrine constitutesthe structureof the poem, the"theological-politicalnovel," on which poetry flourishesepisodically.We are interestedonly in poetry, doctrinebeing the dead part of thepoem the non-poetry. Crocesees n Dante the poet andnot the teacherof theologicaltruths. For him the primaryaim of the poet is to depictworldly passions,suffering,andjoy. It seemsto him that Dante'smaininterest s to immersehimselfin this world rather hanto transport im-self seriouslyto the Other World. He deliberatelyoverlooks Dante'sChristian ervor,thepoet'sfaith,from which hispoetry springs. Croce'scriticsobserved,however, thatwithout Dante's Christian aith,withouthisdeeplyreligiouspreoccupation,without the sinceredesire orredemp-tion, the poetry of the Divine Comedywould have been impossible.Thus, Dante's doctrine is not an accumulationof theological learning,of mysticalscience,but a concreteexperience life which is the sub-stanceof hispoetry. To speakof doctrine s for Dante to speakof living,not dead, things; it is to touch on mattersuppermost n his mind, thatis, the salvationof his own soul. Not to recognizeDante's faith meanssimply to miss the nexus between doctrine and poetry. Croce seems toview Dante as a worldly man who describes he other world withoutbelieving in it. In this case, Dante would speak of theology with noemotion, with no personal nterest,being moved only by the sight ofhumanpassions.Gentile, on the contrary,insists on the unity of Dante's personality.The philosopher, he theologian,the moralist,thepoliticianare one withDantethepoet; they form the totalityof Dante's mindandexperiencesthe whole Dante. Although in his first essaysGentilewas not able tofree himself completely of the distinction between philosophy andpoetry which from Vico on had dominatedthe critics'minds,his tend-encytowardunityisalreadyadumbratedandit emergesmore and moreclearlyashe progressesn his thought.Gentile's nterest n Dante was primarilymotivatedby a strongdesireto understandhis greatnessand his importancein Italianculture. Hisfirstessayon Dante, in fact,was entitled"Dante nellastoriadel pensieroitaliano."8 The essay attests to the dominantcriticaltendenciesof thetime: on the one hand, the historical approach inherited from thenineteenthcentury;on the other, the emergingestheticapproachadvo-cated by Croce. Gentile had studied under the eminent scholarAlessandroD'Ancona at the Universityof Pisa and had not completelyforgotten the latter'steachings concerning the value of historicalandbiographicalresearch n the interpretationof writers and their works.4But he could not disregardthe creative spirit which transformsand

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shapes, through its inner processes, the world of the poet into a work ofart. The historical method of D'Ancona is here combined with estheticideas coming from Hegel and Croce. Gentile is indebted to Hegel forthe latter's conception of art as an activity which does not reach thesystematic form of thought but remains as a sensible symbol of thatthought; he is indebted to Croce for the distinction between philosophyand poetry and for the lyrical character of poetry. Gentile, however,from his very first essay voices the exigency of giving to art a morecomprehensive meaning, encompassing the whole life of the spirit.5The result is a sort of intellectual biography with occasional insights intothe creative processes of the artist. Facts are ascertained, historical cir-cumstances evaluated, cultural elements and particularmodes of thinkinganalyzed, in order to understand the origin and the formation of Dante'swork and to grasp his poetic spirit. Dante is, in Gentile's views, theexpression of the cultural tradition which converges in him and givesbirth to the "divine poem": "The double movement Aristotelian-Thomistic and the Franciscan leads to Dante" (Studi su Dante, p. 3).The poetry of the Divine Comedycannot be felt and appreciated withouta clear understanding of the cultural forces (historical, philosophical,political, etc.) which formed the mind of the poet. Thus, Gentile's intentis to determine and elucidate the historical and ideological or doctrinalelements which contribute to the formation of Dante's personality andthe creation of his works. Exegetical work on the cultural sources ofDante becomes for Gentile something of primary importance. Withoutthis work, a purely esthetic interpretation would be impossible. Gentileexplains Dante as a "moment" of western philosophical thought. WithDante the first period of western thought comes to a close: "DopoDante s'inizia una direzione nuova del pensiero che metter capoall'assoluta negazione d'ogni trascendenza: s'inizia la filosofia moderna"(p. 43). Dante, in Gentile's interpretation, is a "razionalista alla manieradi S. Tommaso," but he ends in the "misticismo di S. Bonaventura"(p. 42). Thomistic rationalism and Franciscan mysticism are the forceswhich operate in the construction of the Divine Comedy. WithoutSt. Thomas, the immediate predecessor of Dante, the poem would havebeen impossible. But the ratiocinative spirit of Thomistic theology,though illuminated by faith, cannot bring Dante to God. He needs themystical ascension which does not come from reason but from love. Thedisappearanceof Beatrice and the appearance of St. Bernard link Dante,indirectly, to Franciscan mysticism.But, in his political conception, Dante goes beyond St. Thomas andscholasticism: "Dal rispetto ideale, la Monarchicirappresenta un passo

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notevolissimo oltre la Commedia.In politica Dante si affranca da ognisovrannaturalismo; e dentro alla forma medievale del suo trattato lecito scorgere uno spirito nuovo, che lo spirito dell'umanismo,dell'uomo studiato e spiegato nella natura umana e con la natura umana.La Monarchici il primo atto di ribellione alla trascendenza scolastica"(p. 50). The earthly paradise of the Monarchia is a product of reason,of a Virgil who does not need Beatrice: "L'indipendenza dell'impe-ratore, o in altri termini l'assolutezza dello Stato, la stessaindipendenzadella ragione verso la rivelazione, l'assolutezza della ragione. Di certo,Dante in questo punto si lascia indietro d'un gran tratto la filosofiascolastica" (p. 51).On the whole, Gentile's essay is exegetical in nature. The authorexplains the theological meaning of the poem, the nexus between reasonand faith, philosophy and theology. The anagogie structure of the poemis traced and its symbols interpreted. Gentile's accurate research allowshim to evaluate the sources and to point out discrepancies.The study of the poem's antecedents and Dante's spiritual journey isoften permeated by nationalistic feelings. Dante was the poet of the Italystill to be; he was the expression of the moral forces which were to serveas examples to the Italian people. Gentile's interpretation is in partanchored to the tradition of the men of the Risorgimento who saw inDante, among other things, the first prophet of Italian unity. Dantewas a great poet because he was a great man, poetry and moral life beinginseparable in a true genius. While St. Thomas had written in Latin,addressing himself to the learned men of Europe, Dante wrote primarilyin Italian, addressing himself to the inhabitants of the peninsula. Hislove for the vernacular in which he chose to express himself is the markof his Italian spirit. By writing in Italian he gave to learning an Italiansoul. "Con Dante," says Gentile, "comincia ad affermarsi idealmentel'Italia; col suo Poema, la filosofia italiana" (p. 19). But the languageis not the only factor making the poem an Italian work; there are in itthe profound signs of the Italian character which led every epoch topoint to Dante as the spiritual father of the Italian nation: "Danterimarr,per secoli, il maestro della libert all'Italia,schiava politicamentee moralmente per colpa di quei papi, che Dante ha saettati coi fulminidello sdegno, che solo la sua coscienza poteva provare" (p. 20). All ofDante's philosophy, seen from a purely historical point of view, "haun nesso con la particolare istoria d'Italia, e un significato nazionale"(p- 21).But if Gentile's method is mainly historical, aimed at interpretingthe meaning of Dante in relation to medieval culture and, in general,

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to the history of ideas, and at showing his greatness and his significancefor the Italian nation, an attempt is also made to study the poet and therelation between his philosophy and his poetry. Here Gentile is clearlyindebted to Vico, Hegel, and Croce, for whom philosophy and poetryare two dissimilar activities of the mind.Gentile views Dante as a teacher of truth and not as a pure poet. Dante's

goal is to teach. With his profound knowledge of ancient and medievallearning, he aims at a role higher than that of the poet of human passions:his work must be one of high learning. Poetry is for him the dress,the ornament of truth: its substance must be philosophy. Poetry is aninstrument for absolute knowledge. But why did Dante not write aSumma Theologica nstead of a poem? Because Dante had a poetic souland he could not divest himself of the powerful urge to write accordingto the inspiration of his heart. He was a poet as well as a philosopherwho had long meditated on the problem of the universe, and his poemis a work of doctrine as well as poetry:La Divina Commedia opera filosofica oltre che poetica, allo stesso titolo ditutti i poemi filosoficiantichi della Greciae di Roma. Giacch n essa l concet-to generaledell'universonon un presuppostodellavisione poeticanell'animadel poeta, ma l'essenzastessa della trama generale dell'opera. In Dante lafilosofianon il particolare l'accessorio;ma il generale, 'insieme, l principale.La poesia piuttosto nei particolari. E questa la differenza ra lui e i puripoeti; ciascuno dei quali ha di solito una filosofia, ma come antecedentedell'operasua, latente, ispiratrice nconsapevole. Il critico potr scoprircela;ma il poeta l'ha obliata. Dante, invece, non dimentica mai il suo concetto,che adombras del velo dell'allegoria,ma senza nasconderlon a s n al suolettore; e a questo concetto ha fisso sempre lo sguardo; che, se a tratti lapassione o vince, e vive con le creaturevive della sua fantasia a vita irriflessadel mondo, su cui il filosofo medita,il fine generaledel poema subitolo scotee richiama a quel concetto, e lo incalza a proseguire la ideale costruzionesopramondana, he conduce l'uomo dalla oscura selvaterrena, n cui si ritrovanel mezzo del cammin dellavita, allagrandeluce del pensierodi Dio (p. 3).The Divine Comedy has the form of a vision, but it is a meditation inwhich the poet unfolds and clarifies the sense of life. One cannot saythat philosophy hinders poetry, for the first and the last word of the poemare the point of departure (man's conscience entangled in the world ofpassions) and the point of arrival (the light of God) of a process thephilosophical process of the spirit whose progression, though markedby reflective steps, cannot entirely suppress passions. In the world ofeternal justice and truth Dante is unable to free himself of the memoryof terrestrial things.Gentile seems here to be striving to overcome a sort of unconscious

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Hegelianism according to which poetryis an inferior and imperfect

phase of knowledge as compared to philosophy. Dante, Gentile main-tains, " poeta per non poter essere interamente quel che si era propostodi essere: maestro di verit" (p. 5). When necessary, he sacrifices evenhis art to truth: "La dottrina ascosa sotto il velame dei versi strani ,per lui, l'essenziale dell'opera sua; e quando bisogna rompere il velame,ei non esita un istante a metter nei versi la sua scienza prosaica" (p. 5).Dante is a greater poet than philosopher in the Divine Comedy, but hemeant to be a greater philosopher than poet. Philosophy and science,in fact, became his great ambition after the death of Beatrice, for whomhe had written his love poems. This is shown in the Convivio: frompure poetry Dante turns to science and philosophy. Love poetry appearsto him to be unbecoming to his age, knowledge, and fame. "Dantenon sdegner certo la poesia: ma la sua sar la poesia grave di ammae-stramento e di verit, la poesia di Virgilio. Insomma- secondo la mentedi Dante- egli potr ancora servirsi della poesia, ma per insegnare il vero;la poesia potr essere la veste; ma la sostanza dovr essere la filosofia"(p. 10). The Divine Comedywas meant to be, primarily, a philosophicalsystem, but Dante could not divest himself completely of the humanand the temporal. He could not always reach the world of pure truthtoward which he strove. Often his effort to overcome the world ofhuman passions proved to be vain and he dwelt in the domain of poetry.Gentile tries to present Dante as a complete personality in which attimes the poet prevails, at other times, the philosopher. The philosopherpredominates when the subjectivity of the writer overcomes itself andacquires rational life, self-consciousness; the poet, when subjectivityremains below that high rationality which constitutes philosophy.Although Gentile retains Croce's distinction between poetry andphilosophy, he seems to undermine precisely what Croce considers tobe the greatest glory of Dante- his poetry. Dante, in Gentile's view,is a poet when he is unable to be a philosopher, a teacher of truth, asheintended to be.

Although at the time of the composition of this first essay on DanteGentile's philosophical and esthetic thought has not yet taken anyparticular shape, the general tendency of his mind begins to emerge andit can be seen more clearly a few years later when he returns to Dante onthe occasion of the publication of Karl Vossler's Die GottlicheKomodie(Vol. i, 1907; Vol. n, 1908-1910). The fundamental nature of Gentile'sthought reflects a need to unify all distinctions into the oneness of thespirit. In reviewing Vossler's work (Vol. I in 1908 and 1909; Vol. n in1912) he insists more emphatically on the inseparability of philosophy

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and poetry and on the necessity of viewing Dante not as a theologian,a philosopher, a moralist, and a poet separately, but as a completepersonality in which all these distinct aspects are fused in the unity ofthe whole man. For the real is only in the synthesis and not in theparts, which are abstract elements of it. The general direction in whichGentile's criticism develops is that of a unified vision of Dante's world.Therefore, through the various essays on the poet, one may followGentile's tendency toward a unified interpretation in which the particularacquires reality only in the synthesis. On the other hand, Gentile doesnot break away from the historical and biographical approach entirely;he utilizes all the fruitful suggestions derived from exegetical works,incorporating them into his own method. Nor does he reject altogetherideas coming from Croce's esthetics. However, after his first essays, hiscritical orientation moves gradually toward an interpretation in whichall distinctions disappear in the unity of the spirit (in accordance withhis philosophy).Gentile praises Vossler for his brilliant presentation of the religiousand philosophical genesis of the Divine Comedy and for his relentlesseffort to grasp Dante's spirit and personality through the religioussymbols and the philosophical knowledge of earliest antiquity. But hestrongly disapproves of the German critic's marked distinction betweenrationality and religiosity, philosophy and mysticism, which break thespeculative unity of Dante's spirit. Since in Vossler's interpretation theduality of the philosopher and the mystic is brought to unity by thepoet, Gentile considers this solution purely external and therefore unac-ceptable, for it is achieved through a tertium quid (poetry) instead ofbeing intrinsic in the dialectical process. In the concreteness of Dante'sspirit everything is unified; religion is philosophy and philosophy is art,an art which fuses in the fire of imagination the vision of the universe,nature, and man- man with all of his vital passions, from sensual loveto divine love, and with all forms of knowledge, from the descriptionof things sensible to the speculation of transcendental reality. Vossler,in tracing the prehistory of the Divine Comedy, the religious and philo-sophical antecedents from which the poem springs, treated religion andphilosophy as two historical entities in the spirit of Dante- entitiesunified by art. For Gentile, on the contrary, science and faith, philosophyand religion are only abstractions in their separation; they are not histo-rical realities. The only reality is the synthesis of these abstract elements,which is immanent in them. Dante's Divine Comedyis, indeed, the resultof the religious and philosophical movement preceding it, and in orderto trace its genesis and its growth one must start with the poem, where

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all the contraditions find harmony, and from there reconstruct Dante'sspirit a reconstruction a posteriori. No one could understand Dantewithout studying the cultural antecedents of his work. But Gentile,while stressing the importance of such studies for the comprehension ofthe poem as a whole, objects to Vossler's separate treatment of thereligious and the philosophical geneses.In reviewing Vossler's second volume of Die GottlicheKomodie,Gentileclarifies his position further. The first volume had dealt with the intellec-tual prehistory of the Divine Comedy; the second dealt specifically withthe esthetic spirit which shaped the vast matter of the poem. Vossler'sesthetic approach, Gentile maintains, while resuming the tradition estab-lished by De Sanctis, repeats the very same mistakes of the great Italiancritic, for it assigns a higher esthetic value to the parts of the poem whichdisplay a greater freedom of imagination and regards the doctrinalelements as disrupting the flow of Dante's creative spirit. The wholetechnical mechanism of the stage on which the poet places his creatures,all the scientific parts, thus become the lifeless elements of the DivineComedy. If this were to be the principle for the interpretation andevaluation of poetry, argues Gentile, a good part of the poem wouldbe obliterated. How can one draw a precise line between the realcreatures of Dante's imagination, living their own life, and the shadowsof theological and philosophical concepts?. . .Non possibile dire dove finisca la fede, la teologia, la scienza,il sensofigurato, l'opera dell'intelletto,e dove cominci la vita, la passione,l'impetovivo della personalit, l concreto della realt: per la semplicissimaragioneche tutto ci nellafantasiadi Dante fuso in una solavita; e anchequi la luce gioia e vita in quantorompe le tenebre,e la vita vita in quantotrionfa dellamorte: e i due terminihanno la loro realtnellaloro inscuidibileunit(p. 119).Gentile takes issue even with De Sanctis' view according to which theInfernohas a minimum of philosophy and consequently a maximum ofpoetry, and the Paradisohas a minimum of poetry and a maximum ofphilosophy. De Sanctis wrote:Gli come un andaredall'individuoallaspeciee dallaspecieal genere. Pi ciavanziamo, e pi l'individuo si scarna e si generalizza. Questa certo per-fezione cristiana, morale;ma non perfezioneartistica. . Innanziallaportadel Purgatorioscompare l diavolo e muore la carne,e con la carnegran partedi poesiase ne va (p. 115).In the Paradisoone witnesses the ultimate dissolution of form; imagina-tion becomes a feeble light which soon dies.De Sanctis, in Gentile's opinion, missed the high poetry that Danteinfused in the intellectual elements of the work. Life or the flesh does

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not go with the devil, because life is not only the tumult of passionsportrayed in the Inferno, but it is also contemplation - artistic, philo-sophical, religious- which the ideal of the Purgatorio represents; nor isthe asceticism or mysticism of the Paradisoan abstract doctrine; it is anessential aspect of human life. Dante's poem, Gentile reiterates, mustbe viewed in its intrinsic unity. There is no work of art, and there nevercan be, that is free of intellectual elements. However, these intellectualelements must not be valued as such for their objective truth, but ratherfor the lyrical inspiration of the artist. The question, then, is whetherDante permeates with his lyricism the theological and philosophicalconcepts which he advocates as a poet-philosopher in his Divine Comedy,whether these concepts are deeply felt by the poet. One cannot detachthe Infernofrom the other cantiche,nor can one separate the passionalcenter of Dante's being from the world of his scholastic culture, whichis the very essense of his personality. Every dissection of his work is amutilation^ it destroys the life of the spirit which is unity.Gentile defends Dante's allegory against Vossler, who considers themost successful parts of the Divine Comedy to be those where the poetfrees himself of the allegorical style of the Middle Ages. Dante's allegoryis for Gentile the very poetic language of Dante, the expression of hisspirit. Allegory is an esthetic error, a disruption of the poetic intuition,only when it is mechanically superimposed on the creative process, thusremaining outside its object. This is not the case in the Divine Comedy,where allegory is not an intruder but a precondition of art, a constituentelement of the mind of the artist, his very language.Gentile's main objections to Vossler's work were indicative of amarked tendency to fight distinctions in order to achieve the absoluteunity of the spirit, which was the major concern of his budding neo-idealism:. . . Non possiamo parlare di Omero poeta e di Piatone filosofo senza unconcetto del poeta e del filosofo, e cio della poesia e della filosofia: le quali,come funzioni dello spirito, trascendonola storia, che la concretezzastessadella realt spirituale. E soltanto alla poesia e alla filosofia come funzionitrascendentali dello spirito si possono assegnarecaratteri distinti, dei qualiquello che dellapoesiain quantotale non sardellafilosofia,e per converso.Nella storia tutte le funzioni concorrono in un'unitconcreta, n cui il poeta,essendoanche filosofo, partecipadel caratteredello spiritoche filosofia; e ilfilosofo, essendopure poeta, partecipadel caratteredello spiritoche la poesia,sempre. E la rigidae saldadistinzionedelle funzioni astrattecede il luogo allaplasticae mobile distinzionedellastoria,che fa essastessa a divisionedei grandispiritinelle due schiere dei poeti e dei filosofi, secondo che negli uni prevaleilmomento poetico e negli altri l momento filosofia).*

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This passage, written in 1911 in reference to Leopardi (who next toDante was Gentile's favorite author, being, like Dante, a philosopher-poet), clearly foreshadows Gentile's actualistic conception of art whichfuses poetry and philosophy in the unity and actuality of the spirit.Although Gentile still keeps a theoretic distinction between the poetictemperament and the philosophical mind, he strives toward a unity inwhich the components are abstract positions acquiring reality in theirsynthesis.The article "La Profezia di Dante" (written in 1918), while movinginto Dante's political world, follows the same tendency: Gentile neverloses sight of the unity of the poet's spirit, a totality of intellectual andpractical experiences. The poetry of the Divine Comedy could not beunderstood without knowing Dante's political ideas and aspirations, hisconcept of the world political organization, which is so closely relatedto his theological views. Dante the political exile, the advocate of anindependent world monarchy, that is, a power coordinated and notsubordinated to the papacy, is one with the poet. Dante's politicalpassion finds eloquent and highly poetic accents in his works. It wasquite natural that Gentile would not confine his interest to the pott per se,but would inquire into Dante's political world in order to grasp hiswhole personality, which was that of a poet-seer. Gentile's presentationof Dante's political ideal, of the poet's hopes in Henry VII to restorefreedom and justice in Italy, of his harsh criticism of Florence and thepapacy for their hostility to the emperor, leads us to Dante the poet andthe prophet: "Profeta del rinnovamento della civilt mediante la riformadella Chiesa," a reformation which edifies human life (Studi su Dante,170). This is the reason for the universality of Dante and his fame in theworld. This fame is not due to "the excellence" of his poetry alone:. . .Voglio dire di quello che per poesia si suole intendere, mettendo insiemein una stessaschieraDante e il Petrarca, 'Ariosto e lo Shakespeare il Goethe,o qual altro pi insigne creatore di vivi fantasmisianei fasti dell'umanagran-dezza. Ogni poeta universale,e parlaeterno al cuore di tutti. Ma l'univer-salit di Dante un'universalitsuperiorea quella propria d'ogni poeta; ese mi fosse lecito di definire il mio concetto con una formula filosofica, direiche laddove l'universalitdel poeta concernela forma dello spiritoche si attuanella poesia,quelladi Dante investeanche il contenuto (p. 167).His poetry was all that Dante thought and felt, all that he believed in andhoped for: "Dante poeta s, ma in quanto profeta," for he aspires tosomething higher than "pure" art, to something which, while it is stillart, is primarily thought and knowledge (p. 169).In discussing Dante's ideas concerning the relation between Church

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and State and the particularrole of each in working toward the commongoal of humanity, both temporal and eternal, Gentile links Dante to theaspirations of our own time. Dante's ideal was, in Gentile's opinion,our own ideal: "L'idea per cui lottiamo, per cui diamo anche la vita,torcendo lo sguardo dai difetti degli istituti e degli uomini in cui essas'incarna" (p. 172). This was Dante's prophecy: "Uno Stato intima-mente religioso perch libero dalla Chiesa, indipendente, potenza illimi-tata: e per una Chiesa povera, spirituale, alimentatrice di quella vitaetica, che nello Stato trova la sua attualit e la sua tutela" (p. 173).

Although Gentile cannot easily dismiss Croce's view that the poem isphilosophy in its general structure and poetry in some of its episodes,he strongly objects to Croce's distinctions. According to Croce, thetheological-political novel and poetry are two distinct things, and wherephilosophy prevails poetry vanishes. Gentile maintains, on the con-trary, that poetry is philosophy itself colored by a particular feeling, thatfeeling which constitutes the subjectivity of the writer. Philosophy isthe subject matter which the poet uses to build his own world. There isno Dante the poet or Dante the philosopher, but Dante the poet-philoso-pher, poetry and philosophy constituting the substance of Dante's mindin its actual unity. Dante's poetry is immanent in his philosophy; it isnot sheer imagination, but imagination fostered by thinking. It is in facta philosophical concept, a new vision of the world that gives fire to hispoetical creativeness and urges him on in hisjourney.Gentile's article, "La Filosofia di Dante" (1921), attests more clearlythan his earlier writings his "actualistic" interpretation of the poet.Previously he seems to emphasize Dante's thought, the vast doctrineand the universal truths which form the architecture of the poem; inthis essay, while discussing the meaning of Dante's philosophical thoughtagain, he stresses the subjective element animating the poet's thoughtand doctrine, insisting vigorously on the unity of poetry and philosophy.Thought and feeling cannot be separated. The thought of a poet, in fact,can only be reached through the subjective element which allows us topenetrate to the source of that immortal life which is poetry, the poetryin which thought assumed its form. Philosophy constitutes the person-ality and the center from which all passions irradiate to the vast worldof the poem.Gentile points out that there are two methods of interpreting a writer:the classical, dwelling on doctrinal content objectively conceived, and,by antitheses, the romantic, which in the interpretation of a work ofart concerns itself with "the subjective element expressive of the person-ality of the writer." The classical method, by disregarding the subjec-

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tivity of the writer, does not go beyond the exposition of an objectivecontent; the romantic method reaches the feeling animating the writer'sthought. Every philosopher has his poetry, and every poet his philoso-phy: there is no poetry without philosophy, nor is there philosophywithout poetry. The philosophy of a poet is his poetry. The thoughtof a poet can never be understood outside the subjective element whichtransforms it into poetry. The classical method was adopted when artwas conceived as content. Now we know that art is form, not abstractform, but the form of a content, an intrinsic unity.Dante, explained by the classical method, is a very humble scholastic.But the real Dante is the one who infuses all of his passion into hisscholasticism. Scholastic philosophy is the material used by the imagi-nation of the poet to build his own world, to throw into it his creatures,and into his creatureshis own soul. His philosophy cannot be understoodoutside the subjectivity permeating it. Dante, therefore, cannot beexplained by the classical method, which dwells on a world alreadyformed. For Dante the poet the concept of beingis only part of a moreprofound concept: "del concetto, che lo spirito umano non ha fuori di s,gi attuato, il suo mondo; ma deve produrlo egli stesso, faticando,durando nelle battaglie, con cui destinato a vincer tutto" (p. 210).This faith is the fire in which Dante fuses the immense matter he gatheredfrom life and history in order to shape his prophecy.Here again Gentile upholds the esthetic nature of Dante's allegory-this time against Croce's controversial book, La poesia di Dante (1921),which radically rejects the allegorical mode. In an article of 1920 Gentilehad written in reference to Dante: "L'arte non si pu giustificare se nonper l'allegoria: in quanto deve servire non all'espressione del sentimento,che l'individualit dell'artista, ma alla rappresentazione attraente diquella stessa verit che forma il valore della religione e della filosofia."7And he further added: "E appunto perch l'arte trae il suo valore dalsapere, la poesia allegorica; ed essa che per sua natura la pi liberaespressione, anzi celebrazione della libert dello spirito nella suaindividualit, si sommerge nell'universalit di un sapere, che all'uomos'impone, o si comunica, con la legge che egli osserva perch non egli lapromulga."8 For Croce, on the contrary, allegory is not a poetic expres-sion; the allegorical language is absolutely alien to poetry, for it has norelation to the esthetic intuition. Allegory is a sort of conventionwhereby the writer arbitrarily decides that a certain character, word,fact, or object, stands for something to which it is not intrinsically related.This "crytography" is completely unintelligible unless the writer himselfprovides the key. Croce points out the inanity of critical works aimed

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at solving riddles and the tendency of some critics to multiply theseriddlesby seeingin the Divine Comedy omethingother than the poem.Allegoryisapracticalact,a decisionof thewill, andthereforeahindranceto poetry. When a writer setsup in advancean allegoricalscheme,oneor two things can result: eitherhis intentionsdisappearn the flow ofhis imaginative, rocess,andthus there will be no allegorybut the poeticimage; or his allegorical intentions remain as a mechanicaladditioncompletely extrinsicto the intuitiveprocess, n which case there will beallegorybut no poetry. Allegory is eitheridentifiedwith poetry or it isalien to poetry. "Allegoriae poesia,"wrote Croce later, "sono comel'acquae Folio, due atti mentali radicalmentediversi e non unificabilitra loro."9ForGentile,on the contrary,Dante's allegory is the embodiment ofhis scholasticphilosophy; it is an imaginative transfigurationof philo-sophicalreasoning,aformof poeticlanguage nherent n the whole archi-tecture of the poem. Dante'sphilosophy, expressedby symbols, is thevery substanceof his poetry. Without those symbols, which are partof hislanguage,Dantewould not havebeen able to arriveathisconcepts.His entireworld is but hisphilosophy expressed n allegorical orm. Theartist thinks and actualizeshis world through the technical means athis disposal. Allegory is an expressiveword, a symbol, which representsthe object more effectively. It is impossible to understandDante'sthought andpoetry when separatedrom the allegoricalelements. ThusGentilejustifiesthe exegeticalwork aimed at clarifyingDante'ssymbols.Becauseof his mental habits, the poet could not have presentedthingsdifferently,sinceallegorywas for him a spontaneousway of conceivingandexpressing.Allegory, likeany other form or figure through whichimaginationpresents ts object, is esthetically egitimate, provided that(andhere Gentilerepeatsthe observationmade in reference o Vossler)it observesthe essentiallaw of form which is for allegory to be thevery living form of the subjectitself and never to remain outside itsobject.10Croce would certainly agree with this; he would, however,reiteratethat when allegory is "the very living form of the subjectitself" there is no longer allegorybut the poetic image. For allegory issomethingother thanpoetry: "Legge dell'allegoria," ommentsCroce," propriodi 'restare uori del suo obbietto,'ossiadi essereunsecondoeperci estraneosenso: 'allegoria,' nsomma,e non gi 'unaforma comeun'altradellafantasia,'perch,se cos fosse, non sarebbenataquestionealcunaparticolarentorno ad essa."11Croce'scriticismof Gentile'sconceptionof allegoryis directedat thewhole of Gentile'sphilosophy. Actual idealismposits logical thought

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as the only reality, dissolving imagination, will and morality, esthetics,economics and ethics into the form of logical thought. The consequencesof this is panlogism, which suppressesall logical distinctions. Panlogismis blind to what makes poetry poetry, and practical activity practicalactivity:Si osservino, per esempio, i lavori del Gentilesul Leopardio su Dante: nelleOperetteMoralidel Leopardi egli non s'interessaa ci che interessa o spiritopoetico, non vi percepisce l travagliodi unapoesiaora in abbozzooraraffred-datain forme improprie e raziocinative,ma s'industriaa scoprirviil disegnodell'esposizione didascalicadi un concetto filosofico; e, in Dante, vede ilfilosofo e il profetae non il poeta, e l'allegorismoche convenzione e intellet-tualismo. . .toglie in iscambiocon una forma poeticadi espressione.12Gentile, on the other hand, levels his major attacks at Croce's distinctionbetween thought and poetry in the Divine Comedy and his completedevaluation of Dante's doctrine, which constitutes the structure of thepoem. Unable to deny that there is a philosophy in the Divine Comedy,the critics of the "fragment" (Croce), Gentile argues, assert that it isnecessary to distinguish between poetry and philosophy, spontaneouscreation and philosophical concepts, and conclude that where the phi-losopher looms, the poet vanishes. The esthetics of form, he continues,does not consider an abstract form, separated from its content, but aform in which all the content of the work of art is fused. The worldthat the poet saw cannot be put aside as alien to the development ofthe process in which esthetic creation consists. The content embodiesthe personality of the poet, the vibrations of his soul from which thecontent receives life. The subject matter of art, abstractly conceived,comprises all the experiences accumulated in the human spirit throughoutthe centuries, including philosophical experiences; but this matterbecomes poetry insofar as it is transformed into concrete life in the mindof the poet. Nor can any part of the Divine Comedy be detached asnon-poetic in itself. Any matter in itself is outside poetry, being outsidethe spirit and therefore outside reality. Nor can poetry be anythingoutside Dante's philosophy, his political and religious thought. Hisphilosophy is a dream, a vision, passion, and it cannot be understoodoutside the self which dreams and feels. Dante gathered from the schoolsof his time the matter of his thought, but he impressed upon it the sealof his powerful individuality, thus transforming philosophy into livingthought - poetry.Dante's personality as interpreted by Gentile is that of the poet-seer.Gentile celebrates in him the prophet, the philosopher, the moralist, theman of action, rather than the poet per se. He seems to see the poet in


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the wholeness of all of his activities- intellective and practical. The poetis the passion and the soul which animate Dante's thought and actions.He is a poet insofar as he is a thinker, his poetry being his prophecy.Gentile's last essay on Dante, "II Canto di Sordello" (1939), representsa radical departure from Hegelian or Crocean formulas. He emphasizesthe arbitrariness of seeking the philosopher as distinct from the poet, orphilosophy as distinct from poetry, pointing out always the intrinsicunity of the work of art. In reconstructing the episode of Dante's andVirgil's meeting with Sordello, Gentile cannot refrain from levellinghis attacks againstquei critici, che a furia di analisi smontano l'organismo poetico, e finisconocol trovarsiin mano tanti pezzi eterogeni: parte prosaici,artificiosi e morti,e partemembravive o che paion tali, ancorcapacidi movimento e di resisterecon la loro indistruttibilevitalitpoeticaa ogni violenza di anatomia.18Gentile here takes issue with Croce's conception of poetry as a lyricalfragment, since for Gentile poetry is not to be found in lines or passages,but in the whole of a work. The meaning and relevance of a line or apassage result from the context to which they belong, and they acquirevalue in the complex organism of which they are a part. Each word hasan accent in which its individuality lies; and this accent cannot be feltoutside the rhythm of the whole. It is absurd to try to isolate a word or aphrase from it.There is general agreement that Canto vi of the Purgatorio containsa highly poetic moment. It occurs when Sordello, who stands asideand alone, proud and disdainful, without uttering a word, suddenlysprings to his feet at the sound of the name of his birthplace mentionedby Virgil. "O Mantuan, 1 am Sordello, from your own land " criedout the solitary soul, embracing the Latin poet without even knowingwho he was. In this touching scene there is the whole of Sordello, thewhole of his personality and his inner world; it is a Sordello who remainsunforgettable. The scene prompts Dante's well-known invectiveagainst Italy torn by dissension and anarchy. While these two noblesouls in purgatory feel united by the love of their city, the Italianscannot live without war against one another even within the walls ofthe same city.But according to Croce, the invective against Italy is a piece of oratoryand not poetry. From the tone of deep and serene humanity, from thepinnacle of poetry, Croce argues, Dante descends to a bitter politicaldiatribe against the perversity of the Italian people and the indifferenceof their leaders:

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L'invettiva all'Italiaprorompeimprovvisaed una vera disgressione come ilpoeta stesso, del resto, la chiama), troppo lunga ed elaborataper adagiarsispontanea n quellasituazione,che solo ne comporterebbe e primetre terzine:Dante declamaun intero pezzo oratorio,con partizioni,trapassi, sclamazioni,esortazioni, ronie, sarcasmi,come chi preso bens dal furore della passione,ma non dimentica nulla di quanto gli sta a cuore di dire per l'effetto politicoche si proponedi conseguire.14Poetry has here vanished to reappear when Dante, "rendendo vanol'udire di cose politiche, distornandosi dai discorsi di Sordello, s'immergenella scena che gli si forma attorno."16

Gentile, on the contrary, considers Dante's outburst as reflecting thefeeling of the poet, the patriot, the citizen- the whole of Dante. There-fore, the so-called oratorical digression is an integral part of the whole,for it throws light, by contrast, on the poetic figure of Sordello asimagined by Dante:I soliti critici armati di coltello anatomico, vi diranno che la "digressione"un pezzo oratorio: un pezzo che l'uomo praticoinserisceper la suapolemicaepropagandapolitica nell'organismo vivo della sua poesia; e s'intende cheavrebbe fatto meglio ad astenersene,perch,si sa, dove entra la pratica, uninteresseo movente della vita realein cui l'uomo opera, la poesia ita. Tuttovero, ma in astratto. In concreto,nulla perse stesso mpoetico e refrattarioalsoffio animatoredell'arte. Convien vedere se la praticarestagrezzae massicciapratica,o se essasi fonde al fuoco dellainspirazionepoetica.1*The "digression" is, to Gentile's mind, the expression of the feeling andthe judgment of the poet; and it is essential to the whole episode. Thecontrast between the tender scene the poet had just seen and the bloodyconflicts ravaging Italy at the time was too striking to leave himindifferent and silent. His political ideal and the tragic reality of politicalevents are a part of the very drama of his own life. His aversion to thepolitical situation gives the figure of Sordello an extraordinarymagnitude. It is not the case, argues Gentile, to speak of oratory, butof a picture in which the artist, in order to throw a vivid light on thefigure he intends to bring out, had to give it a somber and frighteningbackground. When we read the digression with the tone required byits true meaning, it does not tolerate any oratorical emphasis, but onlythe passion which is in the words of the poet, the passion which was inhis soul as citizen and artist, engaged both in action and poetic creation.In the passage, Dante's imagination fuses all of his political passions inorder to enlighten his social conduct with the ideals of his spirit ofrefined poet and thinker.Gentile's aim in literary criticism is to explain the works through thestudy of the author's thought and actions; he seldom judges a literary

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work on purely artistic grounds. He is concerned with the writer as awhole, as a totality of intellectual and practical experiences, and not withspecifically artistic qualities. This attitude explains his firm oppositionto Croce's imagistic conception of art which tends to disregard all thephilosophical awareness underlying the poetic image. Gentile agrees thatthe life of a man must be distinguished from his works; but for him thisdistinction is possible only insofar as the antecedents of the man's worksare in his life. In the events of his life there is always the very subjectwhich manifests itself fully in his artisticcreations. In order to understandhis art, one must look at the man, at his moral character, which breaksthrough in the light of his poetry. This seems to be a return to the roman-tic conception of criticism, to the major tendencies of the nineteenthcentury, to the historical and biographical school. But this return to anineteenth-century artistic ideal is broader in scope, for it is fostered by adeep philosophical exigency striving to encompass the whole man inhis unity and totality. Thus it is opposed to the esthetics of frag-mentariness prevailing in the twentieth century. In this sense, Gentile'sapproach not only may prove more adequate for a thorough apprecia-tion of complex artistic personalities and works, but it is definitely morebroadly humanistic than Croce's, for it embraces the whole man, notjust the artist. It presents in a broader vision, the whole life of a writer,as it finds expression in his works.

Experience proves, Gentile says, that in all great poets there is a philo-sophy, a thought, however unsystematic, which is enlivened by poetry.Dante is one of the most outstanding examples; many others could bementioned - Lucretius,Virgil, Goethe, and so on. The problem, therefore,is to examine the intrinsic relation between poetry and philosophy,rather than to exclude philosophy from art and to relegate the formerto another sphere of the spirit. The distinction between philosophy andpoetry is not real but purely logical, for in reality there are no pure poetswithout concepts, no pure philosophers without feeling. There is nopurely economic man who has no moral preoccupations. The poet hasa moral personality, a thought, a practical energy. Although it is hispoetic genius which prevails in him and creates images, there is noradical difference between esthetic and logical activities, since both arenecessary functions of the same unfolding process of spiritual activity.The presence of thought would not break the esthetic spell, since thoughtis the very condition of the expression of feeling; art as pure feeling in itsimmediacy is completely unreal. Feeling and thought cannot be consi-dered separately in a work of art, for art is the feeling given to thought.In the artist any lack of feeling stems from the lack of thinking and

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acting, froma

completely passive life.Although Gentile emphasizes the lyrical nature of art, that is, thefeeling permeating a certain thought, his marked inclination toward apoetry fostered by reflection often leads him to focus attention on thephilosophy of a writer and to deal rather generically with specific artisticqualities. He concentrates on the spiritual genesis of the art work, on thepersonality and characterof a writer, rather than distinguishing the poeticfrom the non-poetic. In his approach to Dante he fuses the teacher, theprophet, the patriot, and the poet in order to form Dante's personality,warning against the distinction between the man and the artist. He pointsout the philosophical intentions of the Divine Comedy,emphasizing thatpoetry is not the expression of barbarity, of the infancy of mankind, asasserted by Vico, nor a pre-logical activity, but that it springs from aphilosophical conception which involves all the activities of the spirit.The relation poetry-structure should be inverted to structure-poetry,structure being the total intellectual experience which converges in thecreation of the poem. Gentile's approach can be defined as a vigorousattempt to undermine a purely imagistic and "fragmentistic" conceptionof art and to call attention to the cosmic experience underlying the imageof the poet.State Universityof New YorkBinghamton,New York

NOTES1 Gentile's Dante studies are now collected in a volume, Studisu Dante (Opere complete,Vol. xm; Firenze: Sansoni, 1965).2. See Benedetto Croce, La poesia di Dante, 10a ed. (Bari: Laterza, 1961), Appendix:"Intorno alla storia della critica Dantesca," pp. 175-210.3. The work, written in 1902, was the chapter of a book (chap. 4), Lafilosofia, publishedin 1904 by Vallardi (Milan) and republished under the title of Storia dellafilosofia italianafino a Lorenzo Valla in 1962 (Firenze: Sansoni), as Vol. xi of Opere completedi GiovanniGentile.4. The first published work of Gentile is in fact an erudite monograph on a Renaissancewriter, Le commediedi Anton FrancescoGrazzini detto il Lasca (1896), prepared under thedirection of D'Ancona and following the method of historical and philological research ofthe master.5. This exigency was felt by Croce himself several years later (1917), when he theorized,under the influence of Gentile, that art breaks the limits of the individual (in his first for-mulation of esthetics, art was viewed as intuition of the individual) and encompasses thewhole life of the spirit in its universality (see his essay "D carattere di totalit dell'espressioneartistica" in Nuovi Saggi [Bari: Laterza, 1920]. Unfortunately, after the essay on Ariosto,which was inspired by the newly acquired theoretical principle, Croce, in his activity as aliterary critic, fell back to his old positions which he had theoretically outgrown.

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6. Manzoni e Leopardi,2a ed. (Firenze: Sansoni, 1960), pp. 47-48.7. Il pensieroitaliano delRinascimento,3a ed. (Firenze: Sansoni, 1940), p. 23. The chapterfrom which the passage is taken was published in 1920.8. Ibid., p. 24.9. Conversazionicritiche,Vol. v (Bari: Laterza, 1951), p. 104. See also Lapoesia di Dante,ed. cit., pp. 14-17; Nuovi saggi (Bari: Laterza, 1958), pp. 332-338.10. See Frammentidi esteticae letteratura Lanciano: Carabba, 1921), pp. 244-245; Dantee Manzoni (Firenze: Sansoni, 1923), pp. 79-80; Studisu Dante, pp. 83-84; // pensieroitalianodel Rinascimento,pp. 23-24.11. Conversazionicritiche,Voi. v, p. 8 (footnote).12. Conversazionicritiche,Voi. iv, p. 300.13. Studisu Dante, p. 224.14. La poesia di Dante, 10a ed. (Bari: Laterza, 1961), p. 111.15. Ibid., p. 112.16. Studi su Dante, p. 231.

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