RT Article
T1 Dante in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets: Vision, Mysticism, and the Mind's Journey to God
JF Literature and theology
VO 30
IS 4
SP 398
OP 409
A1 Aresi, Anna
LA English
YR 2016
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1663447926
AB This article develops a parallel reading of select passages from Eliot's Four Quartets and Dante's Comedy, highlighting a new relation between the two works. Since the structure of Dante's journey is best understood through the work of Bernard of Clairvaux, the article begins with a brief exposition of Bernard's theory of contemplation and the role it plays in Dante. Once the structure at work in Dante's Comedy becomes apparent, it is possible to observe the same structure at work in Four Quartets. In the second part of the article, on this basis, I propose my reading of the two works, arguing that, like the Comedy, the Quartets is an intellectual and spiritual journey starting from a basis in material reality and arriving, through philosophy and by grace, at the contemplation of the divine.
DO 10.1093/litthe/frv014