Dante and the Sense of Transgression 'The Trespass of the Sign'

In Dante and the Sense of Transgression, William Franke combines literary-critical analysiswith philosophical and theological reflection to cast new light on Dante's poetic vision. Conversely, Dante's medieval masterpiece becomes our guideto rethinking some of the most pressing issues of contemporary theory. Beyond suggestivearchetypes like Adam and Ulysses that hint at an obsession with transgressionbeneath Dante's overt suppression of it, there is another and a prior sense inwhich transgression emerges as Dante's essential and ultimate gesture. His work as a poet culminates in the Paradisoin atranscendence of language towards a purely ineffable, mystical experiencebeyond verbal expression. Yet Dante conveys this experience, nevertheless,in and through language and specifically through the transgression of language,violating its normally representational and referential functions. Paradiso'sdramatic sky-scapes and unparalleled textual performances stage adeconstruction of the sign that is analyzed philosophically in the light ofBlanchot, Levinas, Derrida, Barthes, and Bataille, as transgressing andtransfiguring the very sense of sense.

Preface \ Introduction: Dante's Implication in theTransgressiveness He Condemns \ Part I: Language and Beyond \ 2. TheLinguistic Turn of Transgression in the Paradiso \ 3. At the Limits ofLanguage, or Reading Dante through Blanchot \ 4. The Step/Not Beyond \ 5. TheNeuter-Nothing except nuance \ 6. Forgetting and the Limits of Experience-Letargoand the Argo \ 7. Speech-The Visionthat is Non-Vision \ 8. Writing-The "EssentialExperience" \ 9. The Gaze of Orpheus \ 10.Beatrice and Eurydice \ 11. Blanchot's Dark Gaze and the Experience ofLiterature as Transgression \ 12. Negative Theology and the Space of Literature-Order beyond Order \ Part II: Authority andPowerlessness (Kenosis) \ 13. Necessary Transgression-Human versus TranscendentAuthority \ 14. Dante and the Popes \ 15. Against the Emperor? \ 16. Inevitable Transgression along a HorizontalAxis \ 17. Heterodox Dante andChristianity \ 18. Christianity an Inherently Transgressive Religion? \ PartIII: Transgression and Transcendence \ 19.Transgression and the Sacred in Batailleand Foucault \ 20. Transgressionas the Path to God-The Authority of Inner Experience \ 21. Transcendenceand the Sense of Transgression \ Appendix: Levinasian Transcendence and the EthicalVision of the Paradiso \ 1.Prolegomenon on the Sense of Ethics \ 2. Paradisoas the Trace of the Other \ 3. Witnessing to the Transcendent \ 4.Ethical Un-Selfing of Metaphysical Self-Building \ Notes \ Index