The Modern Shadow of Dante Alighieri: Political Appropriations in Italy, the United States, and Argentina

Abstract

Beginning in the nineteenth century, renewed interest in Dante Alighieri led readers to move beyond strictly academic, philological analyses of the poet’s works to “autobiographical” interpretations, in which readers read him through the lens of personal experiences. Ugo Foscolo played a significant role in this exegesis, which historicized Dante by situating his life within the political and literary history of Italian national identity. Foscolo’s approach influenced subsequent readers, such as Giuseppe Mazzini, to reinterpret Dante as a figure of political authority, transforming him into a symbolic idol of Italian nationalism during the Risorgimento. The result of Foscolo’s interpretation, therefore, made it possible to see Dante and his works through not only autobiographical but also historically situated, political narratives. While reception history has extensively documented Dante’s modern influence, less attention has been given to the process through which Dante becomes an accessible figure for political appropriation. The objective of this dissertation is to demonstrate how Dante’s political appropriation occurs through the historicization of the poet and his works, through readers’ reinterpretations of the poet within their own historical circumstances. To demonstrate this process, this study draws on the personal correspondences and writings of Ugo Foscolo and Giuseppe Mazzini, the illustrations and writings of Art Young, and the architectural history of the Palacio Barolo, including Carlos Hilger’s esoteric interpretation of the Commedia. Using an approach grounded in reception history, intellectual history, historiography, and political theory, the dissertation analyzes how these figures situate Dante within their own political contexts, thereby transforming his authority into a means of addressing contemporary political, cultural, and economic concerns. This study concludes that Dante’s enduring authority lies not in a fixed meaning, but in his capacity to be continually historicized globally by actors in different political scenarios. Through this process, readers construct distinct “historic Dantes” that enable the poet’s appropriation across diverse historical contexts, allowing Dante to function as a flexible source of political, cultural, and economic legitimacy.