«Tra cotanto senno». Fortini e i dantisti

Abstract

This article – which examines little-known and unpublished materials – studies Fortini’s writings on Dante, following their evolution from 1946 to 1994, reconstructing their contexts, and discussing their arguments. In spite of the several references to Hegel, De Sanctis and Croce, as well as to Corti and Fubini, Fortini dialogues most closely with Contini, Auerbach, and Singleton. I argue that, in Fortini’s work, Dante’s two stylistic “speeds” intersect both with the figura-fulfilment link (which connects different chronological and ontological dimensions) and with the overlap between Dante the character and humanity as a whole. Among the most important topics that this essay covers are the role of philology, (literary) history, and school teaching; the processes of translation, reception, and dissemination of classics; the subtle connection between theology, psychoanalysis, and politics.