On the Poetic of the Double Point and Circle in Dante’s Paradiso 30 and in Desmond Hogan’s Short Story “The Last Time”

Abstract

This essay discusses the interaction of the divine point of light and Beatrice as the unattainable point of revelation for Dante in Paradiso 30. The two points with their respective circles of understanding and expression form a powerful figure which calls for conceptualisation both in the context of Canto 30 but also the whole of the Divina Commedia. Despite the different epochs, ideologies and contexts, a striking similarity as to the poetic of the double point and circle may be found also in Hogan’s text.