Dante and the Foundations of Argentine National identity: Literature, Politics, and the Dream of a New Nation

MARIANO PÉREZ CARRASCO

Bologna

Conferencia; Institute of Advanced Studies Lectures 2019; 2019

Institute of Advanced Studies, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna

This seminar will explore the literary and political uses of Dante Alighieri in the building of the Argentine national identity, from the mid-19th- to the early 20th-century. The romantic myth of Dante as the father of the Italian nation and as the founder of modern times was unexpectedly adopted by Argentine intellectuals and politicians to build the cultural identity of the new nation. The political dimention of Dante?s reception in Argentina is a hardly studied and still fasciting topic, both for Dante studies and for the better understanding of the rich history of Italian and Argentine relations. The seminar will focus on five major moments in the history of Dante?s reception in Argentina: an introduction to the reception of the romantic interpretation of Dante in the first generation of Argentine intelectuals in the mid-19th century; the discussion on the civic value of poetry and the first Latinamerican translation of the Divine comedy published by the President of the Argentine Republic, Bartolomé Mitre; Leopoldo Marechal and Leopoldo Lugones?s catholic and nationalist interpretation of Dante; and some references to Paul Groussac and Victoria Ocampo?s publications, and Borges?s essays on Dante, read in the broader context of his interpretation of Argentine national identity.