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Birds of Paradise and Other Transitional Phenomena: A Vertical Reading of Cantos 23
- Pedagogy
- Duke University Press
- Volume 17, Issue 3, October 2017
- pp. 495-502
- Article
- Additional Information
This essay explores Dante's idea of trasumanar, "going beyond the human," through a vertical reading of cantos 23 of the Commedia. It examines how Dante relies on bodies and their sensory experiences to explain heavenly paradise and the ineffable. The essay invokes D. W. Winnicott's idea of transitional phenomena to understand the cognitive activity of reading as an act of creativity and collaboration.