{"title":"Sinful wives and queens","authors":"F. Alfie","doi":"10.1075/jls.19010.alf","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The author of the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), dealt with “sodomites” twice in his\n masterpiece, once in Inferno and again in Purgatorio. In their examinations of the passage in\n Inferno, literary critics have typically conflated the modern-day definition of “homosexual” with the\n medieval “sodomite.” In order to see how Dante viewed non-normative sexuality accurately, however, it is necessary first to\n uncouple the medieval term “sodomite” from today’s term, “homosexual,” and to apply instead the medieval definition of the\n former. Numerous sources of Dante’s time indicate that “sodomy” did not mean, strictly speaking, same sex practices between men,\n but rather it encompassed a wide array of sexual activities. The same is probably true of the sodomites in Dante’s\n Inferno, some of whom might not have bedded other men. Examination of the passage in\n Purgatorio, moreover, indicates a greater degree of subtlety in Dante’s thought regarding non-normative\n sexual attraction.","PeriodicalId":36680,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2022-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Language and Sexuality","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.19010.alf","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The author of the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), dealt with “sodomites” twice in his
masterpiece, once in Inferno and again in Purgatorio. In their examinations of the passage in
Inferno, literary critics have typically conflated the modern-day definition of “homosexual” with the
medieval “sodomite.” In order to see how Dante viewed non-normative sexuality accurately, however, it is necessary first to
uncouple the medieval term “sodomite” from today’s term, “homosexual,” and to apply instead the medieval definition of the
former. Numerous sources of Dante’s time indicate that “sodomy” did not mean, strictly speaking, same sex practices between men,
but rather it encompassed a wide array of sexual activities. The same is probably true of the sodomites in Dante’s
Inferno, some of whom might not have bedded other men. Examination of the passage in
Purgatorio, moreover, indicates a greater degree of subtlety in Dante’s thought regarding non-normative
sexual attraction.