Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Comparative Literature
Document Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Transformation is one of the preeminent concerns of the ancient and medieval minds and continues to be a major focus in economics, politics, philosophy, and psychology. This study of Dante’s The Divine Comedy considers the nature of transformation across his work and philosophy and offers a guide through economic deformations in Dante’s Inferno brought on by usury or theft; the work then considers the importance of birth and death as major transformations in one’s life, and then concludes with an analysis of Dante’s final transformation in the final twelve lines of the poem. During the course of the study, broad sources from Ancient Greek, Hellenistic Greek, medieval Andalusia, and Egypt are brought together to show the bricolage which is the transformative and cosmopolitan nature of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The work concludes with a distinct and new perception of Dante’s pastiche-like understanding of rationalist metaphysics and ontology and powerfully argues that Dante is much more a philosopher than a fideistic theologian as he has been presented in American Dante Studies since the time of Charles Singleton.
Date
5-25-2026
Recommended Citation
Schmid, Alexander E., "DANTE’S TRANSFORMATIONS: POLITICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND ONTOLOGICAL IN THE DIVINE COMEDY" (2026). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 7095.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/7095
Committee Chair
Stone, Gregory
LSU Acknowledgement
1
LSU Accessibility Acknowledgment
1