Book Section
Akash Kumar
From Detheologizing to Decolonizing
Toward a Reading of Dante and Alterity
This essay builds on Barolini’s fundamental insight that new readings of Dante’s Commedia can emerge when we read the text apart from its overdetermined aim. I posit that decolonizing is a form of detheologizing, linking Barolini’s meditation on narrative difference to Dante’s interest in cultural difference and moving outward to consider the Commedia through the lens of the Caribbean poetic adaptations of Derek Walcott and Lorna Goodison.
| Title |
From Detheologizing to Decolonizing
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| Subtitle |
Toward a Reading of Dante and Alterity
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| Author(s) |
Akash Kumar
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| Identifier | |
| Description |
This essay builds on Barolini’s fundamental insight that new readings of Dante’s Commedia can emerge when we read the text apart from its overdetermined aim. I posit that decolonizing is a form of detheologizing, linking Barolini’s meditation on narrative difference to Dante’s interest in cultural difference and moving outward to consider the Commedia through the lens of the Caribbean poetic adaptations of Derek Walcott and Lorna Goodison.
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| Is Part Of | |
| Place |
Berlin
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| Publisher |
ICI Berlin Press
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| Date |
December 2025
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| Subject |
Dante
Decolonizing
Derek Walcott
Lorna Goodison
Salman Rushdie
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| Rights |
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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| Language |
en-GB
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| page start |
339
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| page end |
347
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| Source |
A World of Possibilities: The Legacy of The Undivine Comedy, ed. by Kristina M. Olson, Cultural Inquiry, 37 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2025), pp. 339–47
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