Dantedì: Celebrating Dante(dì) through Women’s Eyes: The Modern Beatrices Archive

Name: Dantedì: Celebrating Dante(dì) through Women’s Eyes: The Modern Beatrices Archive
Start: 2025-03-17T18:30:00+01:00
Location: Oscars gate 56, 0258 Oslo, Norway

Schedule

Mon, 17 Mar, 2025 at 06:30 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Oscars gate 56, 0258 Oslo, Norway | Oslo, OS

How did women forge our understanding of Dante?
This Dantedi, we invite you to an immersive and interactive lecture where you will not only learn about these pioneering women but actively participate in rediscovering their voices. Prepare to delve into the monumental legacy of Dante through a unique and illuminating lens: the often-unrecognized influence of women writers. The lecture will offer hands-on access to the Modern Beatrices Archive, the world’s largest collection of women’s writings on Dante. Through guided exploration of primary sources, we will learn how Italian, British, and American women of the nineteenth century transformed Dante from a medieval poet into a global cultural icon, seeing through their eyes as they challenged and enriched literary scholarship.
Unearthing previously unseen documents, the lecture will trace these scholars’ inspiring journey from exclusion to recognition, culminating in the revolutionary Esposizione Beatrice of 1890. We will reconstruct the vibrant intellectual atmosphere of nineteenth-century Florence, where women evolved from marginalized observers to celebrated Dante experts, profoundly influencing how we read his works today. This fresh and vital perspective on Dante’s monumental influence promises to be a deeply compelling and profoundly enriching experience for anyone captivated by his work, Italian literature, and the powerful, often-silenced voices of the women who, until now, have been too often absent from the celebration of his genius. Join us for this unique and long-overdue celebration of Dante, where you will discover the women who brought his world, and his recognizability, so vividly to life.
The conference is held by dr. Federica Coluzzi, a leading scholar of Italian literature, gender studies, and digital humanities, and a Leverhulme Research Fellow at the University of Warwick.