Everyman and the Threefold Dante Subject in the Diegetic Structure of the Commedia

Abstract

One of the most conspicuous features of the Commedia that shapes how the poem packages and delivers meaning also happens to be among the most significant keys to discerning how the text frames different degrees of epistemic authority in the poem’s narrative voices. I refer here to Dante Alighieri’s multifaceted subjectivity in the text. Numerous studies have dedicated attention to the first-person-singular speakers who, either intradiegetically or extradiegetically vis-à-vis the journey through the world beyond, answer to the identity “Dante.”2 To date, the three figures generally recognized in this respect are Dante the pilgrim, Dante the narrator, and Dante the author. Undeveloped by critical tradition, however, is a clear structural map distinguishing these three figures and articulating the epistemic function that these