Foundation Sacrifice in Dante's "Commedia" (Paperback)
Foundation Sacrifice in Dante's "Commedia" is the first book to take an anthropological approach to the Divine Comedy, applying it to a previously unexplored dimension of Dante's great poem. Ricardo Quinones examines foundation sacrifice--the death of another that has become a parable for existence--as a unifying theme that connects the three parts of the poem. In the process, Quinones gives new life to the Purgatorio, treating it not only as a sequel but actually as a dramatic response--in revealing detail--to the Inferno. His motif allows him to reintegrate the Paradiso into the poem as a whole, thus restoring it as a poetic event to critical appreciation.
Ricardo J. Quinones is Director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies and Josephine Olp Weeks Professor of Comparative Literature at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of several books, most recently The Changes of Cain (1991).