June 2005
Italian professor publishes new book on Dante’s work
By: Susan Guibert
Christian Moevs, associate professor of Romance languages at the University of Notre Dame, has published a book in which he sheds new light on the interpretation of Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”
In “The Metaphysics of Dante’s ‘Comedy’,” Moevs explores Dante’s metaphysics – his understanding of reality – and argues that if we are to resolve the central problem of the “Comedy’s” claim that the status of revelation, vision or experiential record is more than imaginative literature, then Dante’s metaphysics must be recovered.
Through this exploration, Moevs arrives at the conclusion that Dante believed that all of what we perceive as reality is a creation or projection of conscious being, which can only be known as oneself.
A Notre Dame faculty member since 1994, Moevs specializes in Dante, medieval Italian literature, lyric poetry and poetics, and the intersection between literature and philosophy. He also serves as a faculty fellow in the Medieval Institute.
Contact Christian Moevs at Christian.Moevs.1@nd.edu