Some Notes on Dante in Russian Symbolism

This paper aims at identifying the main lines and orientations in the reception of Dante by the Russian Symbolists. The role Dante played for Russian Symbolism is fundamental for the representation of Dante in Russia till date. The story of Dante’s reception by the Russian Symbolists is marked by two main approaches from 1890 to the 1920s: the first is exemplified by Valeriy Bryusov, who saw in Dante a model of nastavnichestvo (“mentorship”, “preceptorship”) and a moral authority for contemporaneity, while the second approach is represented by Andrey Belyy, who depicted Dante as a poet of Sophia and mystical love. The synthesis of the two approaches can be found in the works of Vyacheslav Ivanov and Aleksandr Blok, which, by providing, respectively a more intellectual or existential reading of the Divine Comedy, produced a peculiar reinterpretation and imaginery of Dante within European literature.