Book review: Antonio Catalfamo, La rivolta dei demoni ballerini (poesie 2014–2021)

Abstract

life, and the second part comprehends a close reading of several sonnets. In Chapter Six, Humor and Evil in Dante’s Global Invective, Applauso’s critical read of invective poetry in the Divine Comedy reveals the way that Dante “directs his invective not merely toward single individuals, parties or groups, but to the entire political institutions and their leaders” (p. 231). Dante’s poetry, the author argues, fits in with the others he includes in the monography, and “the Commedia invective could be still perceived as comic poetry while containing a serious ethical charge” (p. 231). The Cantos analyzed by Applauso (Inferno XIX, Purgatorio VI and Paradiso XXVII) are the perfect examples in which “the aggressive verbal surface and overt rhetorical strategies” are working to engage Dante’s readers “offering them possible responses in the face of wrongdoing” (p. 234). The last chapter serves as a brief conclusion and an invitation for further research in the form of a question: The Ethics of Invective Poetry in Wartime: An Act of Aggression or Encounter with the Other? Applauso suggests both a reevaluation and revival of the genre. In the case of the former, he urges a “strong ethical project behind the genre of vituperation and his notion of calling upon the other” (p. 297), and, for the latter, he writes that we should “revive the numerous authors who are currently still labeled as minori” (p. 299). Through Dante’s “Comedy” and the Ethics of Invective in Medieval Italy: Humor and Evil, scholars of medieval studies (including those in history, literary criticism, and linguistics) will benefit from the larger vantage Applauso’s work has opened up.