Les cercles infernaux chez Soljénitsyne et Dante

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeRésumé/AbstractThe Infernal Circles in Dante and SolzhenitsynSolzhenitsyn, in his novel The First Circle, quotes several lines from Dante’s Divine Comedy, and indicates that Dante’s image of Hell inspired him to describe the special jail of Mavrino. Around this core-plot Solzhenitsyn builds up his entire novel, in which an important part of the Soviet society is depicted. This device for characterization of his society is another idea of Dante, who depicted the mores of his own medieval Florentine society through the images of his Comedy. Furthermore, Solzhenitsyn creates a certain number of images, symbols and aphorisms, the real meaning and the whole significance of which become clear only in the light of Dante’s imagery and symbolism. Special significance is given to the central image of Stalin, as it becomes evident that Solzhenitsyn makes use of a certain number of artistic devices, which Dante had used in his portrayal of Satan. The similarities and parallelisms here are certainly not accidental, and, when properly interpreted, they add an entirely new dimension to the novel.Among other features in Solzhenitsyn, which are dosely related to Dante’s epic, we examine Abakumov’s character and his role in the Kremlin; it gains in significance, when we decipher his hate for green with the help of the symbolism in Purgatory. Spiridon’s famous and controversial aphorism, “The hound is right, the cannibal is wrong,” too, becomes more relevant to the ideas in the novel, when interpreted with the help of Dante’s imagery. Even in Solzhenitsyn’s other novel, Cancer Ward, the conversation between Kostoglotov and Shulubin becomes more significant when we relate the bird-metaphor to the medieval belief, reflected in Dante’s epic, that uninvolved souls were turned into birds in the hereafter, and were condemned to fly in space between Hell and Paradise.Thus, the importance of keeping the Divine Comedy in one’s mind while reading Solzhenitsyn’s novels, especially The First Circle

Allegory · Art · Character (mathematics · Comedy · Literature · Meaning (existential · Mores · Plot (graphics · Politics · Purgatory · Tragedy (event · French Literature and Criticism · Law · Logistics and Transportation Systems · Mathematics · Philosophy · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought

• A Modern Demonology

  Open Access•Margaret Ziolkowski•Slavic Review•1991

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