TY - BOOK N2 - "In this book, Verdicchio provides a canto-by-canto analysis of Paradiso. He maintains that the cantica can allegorically be seen as a commentary on the political and religious establishment, framed as the punitive action of the DXV announced at the end of Purgatorio, denouncing the illicit and destructive alliance between the House of Anjou and the Church. Verdicchio focuses on the relationship that Dante establishes among the ten heavens, into which the poet divides the cantica and their equivalent in the Arts and Sciences of the Trivium and Quadrivium, as outlined in the Convivio. This approach provides the key to interpreting the cantos and the discourse of the inhabitants of Paradise who appear, on the surface, blameless. However, it is the earthly and human side of the blessed souls that captures Dante's attention, and this dichotomy is revealed in his characterization of the heavens. Poetic allegory and irony are the two principal modes of this cantica, and the source of much of its comedic complexity. As one of the characters puts it, in Heaven ẁe do not repent but we smile.' A highly original and comprehensive reading, The Poetics of Dante's Paradiso demonstrates that the intricacies of Dante's text reveal subversive undercurrents and a subtle irony, employed to deliver a critique of the Church and Empire of his own time."--BOOK JACKET. AB - "In this book, Verdicchio provides a canto-by-canto analysis of Paradiso. He maintains that the cantica can allegorically be seen as a commentary on the political and religious establishment, framed as the punitive action of the DXV announced at the end of Purgatorio, denouncing the illicit and destructive alliance between the House of Anjou and the Church. Verdicchio focuses on the relationship that Dante establishes among the ten heavens, into which the poet divides the cantica and their equivalent in the Arts and Sciences of the Trivium and Quadrivium, as outlined in the Convivio. This approach provides the key to interpreting the cantos and the discourse of the inhabitants of Paradise who appear, on the surface, blameless. However, it is the earthly and human side of the blessed souls that captures Dante's attention, and this dichotomy is revealed in his characterization of the heavens. Poetic allegory and irony are the two principal modes of this cantica, and the source of much of its comedic complexity. As one of the characters puts it, in Heaven ẁe do not repent but we smile.' A highly original and comprehensive reading, The Poetics of Dante's Paradiso demonstrates that the intricacies of Dante's text reveal subversive undercurrents and a subtle irony, employed to deliver a critique of the Church and Empire of his own time."--BOOK JACKET. T1 - The poetics of Dante's Paradiso / DA - c2010. CY - Toronto : AU - Verdicchio, Massimo, CN - PQ4451 CN - PQ4451 PB - University of Toronto Press, PP - Toronto : LA - eng LA - Includes some text in Italian. PY - c2010. ID - 343721 KW - Heaven in literature. SN - 9781442641198 (alk. paper) SN - 1442641193 (alk. paper) TI - The poetics of Dante's Paradiso / ER -