Intertextuality between William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and

Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (Inferno)

Daniela Monroy Fraustro 002092-0013

TECNOLÓGICO DE MONTERREY CAMPUS ESTADO DE MÉXICO

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Contents

Contents.............................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................3

CHAPTER ONE:...............................................................................................................................4

What is intertextuality....................................................................................................................4

1.1. -Julia Kristeva...........................................................................................................................4

1.1.1 Desire in Language.....................................................................................................5

1.1.2 Sèméiôtiké..................................................................................................................5

1.2. - Gerard Genette.....................................................................................................................6

1.2.1 The Architexte: An Introduction..................................................................................6

1.2.2 Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree.............................................................6

CHAPTER TWO:..............................................................................................................................6

Intertextuality between Divine Comedy (Inferno) and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell..............6

2.1. - Settings..................................................................................................................................6

2.2 Symbols....................................................................................................................................7

2.3 Political Approach....................................................................................................................7

References.........................................................................................................................................9

Works Cited......................................................................................................................................10

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INTRODUCTION

The extended essay will constitute of an analysis of two literary works (William Blake’s

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (Inferno)), and

also, it is important to emphasize the fact that the structure of the extended essay is that one

of a comparative essay. The thing to contrast in the essay is the intertextuality between both

works. Throughout history, there have been many authors that have given a meaning to the

theory of intertextuality, such as Julia Kristeva, Gerard Genette, Hans Robert Jauss or

Harold Bloom (Ryan); in the essay I will use two of these authors (Genette and Kristeva) to

explain the meaning of the term and the characteristics that are found in both texts (The

Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Divine Comedy (Inferno)).

One of the main reasons that I am doing this research is that the impact of Dante on

English writers is very big but has been rarely analysed; writers such as Byron, Shelley,

Keats, Coleridge, Blake and Wordsworth used Dante’s work as a trigger and starting point

to produce their own material. They were affected by his style, project and achievement,

which provoked their attention and disagreement (Pite) and thus, lead to their own works

with differing approaches. For example, in Pite’s The Circle of Our Vision: Dante’s

Presence in English Romantic Poetry it is illustrated how Dante’s religion clashed with the

eighteenth-century Anglican thoughts that English writers (including Blake) had about the

afterlife. Also, as mentioned in the review of Pite’s book in the Bars Bulletin & Review no.

15 of the British Association for Romantic Studies: “Like Albert S. Roe (Blake’s

Illustrations to the Divine Comedy, Princeton, 1953), Pite believes that Blake shares this

criticism [conflict between XVIII Century Anglican thoughts and Dante’s religion] and that

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he considers Dante to be a supporter of the Law of the Old Testament” (Braid 15). These

examples portray a view that explains that there is definitely influence from Dante’s Divine

Comedy in Blake’s work, which is one of the principal reasons that I am doing the extended

essay on this particular subject.

Arising from the influence of Dante within Blake’s materials, and how that

influence has been reviewed very little (Pite), is that I create my research problem. The

specific thing in which it is based is: How can both texts, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy

(Inferno) and William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, be related and compared

to each other using the theory of intertextuality. This investigation subject is important to

the research world because it defines clearly by important and specialized authors the

meaning of intertextuality, and applies it to important and relevant works (Divine Comedy

(Inferno) and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell) that have transcended through time and

changed peoples perspective. Also, since Dante’s influence in English writers has not been

under very deep investigation, this extended essay will help the reader understand more

about the way Dante’s work affected Blake and how he interpreted and made use it for his

own material while using specialized literature language.

CHAPTER ONE:

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What is intertextuality

1.1. -Julia Kristeva

One of the most important authors that has talked about the theory of intertextuality

is Bulgarian- French literary critic Julia Kristeva; through different books and essays she

build a thesis which explains that a text a thing alone, hermetic or a self- defined cultural

object. Every text is within a referral system: which include a heterogenous and polysemic

network of references, quotations, citations and influences (Department of English, The

University of Burdwan 1). Books like A Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to

Literature and Art, Sèméiôtiké: Searches for semanalysis or Language: The Unknown: An

Initiation into Linguistics also postulate that intertextuality is the sum of knowledge that

makes possible for the texts to have sense, which implicates that the meaning of a text

depends upon other texts (Culler 104).

1.1.1 A Desire in Language

In 1980 Julia Kristeva published her book A Desire in Language: A Semiotic

Approach to Literature and Art; book that was very important and significant in the

1.1.2 Sèméiôtiké

Thesis

The intertextuality condition of any text whatsoever, obviously does not reduce to a problem of sources or influences the intertext is a general field of anonymous formulas whose origin is rarely detectable, quotes unconscious or automatic data without quotes. Epistemologically, the concept of intertextuality is what brings the theory of the text volume sociality: it's the past and contemporary language that comes to the text, not in the way of a traceable lineage, voluntary imitation, but by that of a spread

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-Image that provides text status not a reproduction, but productivity. (2-1)

There are many things that exist within William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

that are from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, specifically the part of the Inferno, those

things are what makes them have intertextuality; that is because of the relation between

areas of knowledge and beliefs, such as philosophy, history, religion, social sciences and art

1.2. - Gerard Genette

Another of the persons that has explained the term of intertextuality and who I will use as

one of the main authors in the essay is French literary theorist Gerard Genette. He is one of

the most important French theorists after Roland Barthes and is often associated by critics

to the structuralism movement. His work (viewed as an overall) in thirty years has a main

thread which is poetics: “the study of shared or shareable properties of literary works”

(Goreman 1); There are many books that reflect his interpretation in intertextuality and

poetic language function1, such as Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, The Architexte:

An Introduction and Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree, those books that have

been recognized worldwide by the critics and contribute in many things to this Extended

Essay.

1.2.1 The Architexte: An Introduction

As mentioned in the brief introduction of Gerard Genette, one of his books that

explains the meaning of intertextuality is The Architexte: An Introduction; in chapter XI the

1 The poetic function of language is “[to] focus on the message for its own sake” (The Technology Press of Massacltusetts Institute of Techtology and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 356)

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prose narrative that has been followed throughout the book changes into an interview. In

this interview, Gerard Genette, explains to his interviewer the way he interprets

intertextuality:

Intertextuality in the strict (and, since Julia Kristeva, the “classical”) sense—that is, the

literal presence (more or less literal, whether integral or not) of one text within another.

Quotation—that is, the explicit summoning up of a text that is both presented and distanced

by quotation marks—is the most obvious example of this type of function, which comprises

many others as well. (Genette, The Achitexte: An Introduction 81-82)

This quote is very important because it explains the main difference that characterizes

intertextuality (which is the “more or less” literal presence of a text); that feature is the one

that differentiates other literature related words that should not be confused with

intertextuality, for example words like metatextuality 2 or hypertextuality 3.

1.2.2 Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree

In his book Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree Genette extends his

definition of intertextuality; he explains it “in a more restrictive sense” that expresses

intertextuality is the co-presence between two or several texts. That means that the presence

of the text within another text has to be in an eidetically4 or typically manner; which means

that it should be in its most explicit and literal form. Examples of this include quoting (with

quotation marks, with or without specific references); plagiarism, which is a less explicit

2 As Genette expresses it: “The transtextual relationship that links a commentary to “the text it comments upon (without necessarily citing it.”” (Genette, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation xix)3 “The superimposition of a later text on an earlier one that includes all forms of imitation, pastiche, and parody, as well as less obvious superimpositions” (Genette, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation xix)4 “Relating to or denoting mental images having unusual vividness and details, as if actually visible” (Oxford University Press)

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and canonical form in an undeclared way but with literal borrowing; and allusions (a less

explicit and less literal guise), it includes enunciations whose meaning presupposes that the

reader perceives a relationship between the text an another text (Genette, Palimpsests:

Literature in the Second Degree 1-2).

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CHAPTER TWO:

Intertextuality between Divine Comedy (Inferno) and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

2.1. – Settings2.1.1 Initial Setting

An important resemblance in the works, is the environment and setting that is

created at the beginning of both narrations. For example, in Canto number one, “I found me

in a gloomy wood, astray/ gone from the path direct: and even to tell/ it were no easy task”

(Alighieri 19), the initial setting is very similar to that of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:

“Hungry clouds swag on the deep. / Once meek, and in a perilous path, / the just man kept

his course along” (Blake 114) that is because of the heavy atmosphere, and the symbolic

use of a man and a path. Even if the man in Dante’s Divine Comedy is in an opposite

situation than that of Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell, one has lost the rightful path,

and the other is mentioned as a reference for people enhancing that they should retain the

rightful path, the use of concepts is the same. Since both have the same allusions that talk

about a dark and gloomy place, the intertextuality between texts is proved.

2.1.2 Mentor

One of the things that resemble in both works are the adjectives that are used in both

works, for example in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (Hell), the main character

describes the setting as:

“When I beheld him in the desert vast,/ “Have pity on me,” unto him I cried,/ “Whiche’er

thou art, or shade or real man!”/ He answered me: “Not man; man once I was, / […]/ “Now,

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art thou that Virgilius […]/ “Thee it behoves to take another road,”/ Responded he, when he

beheld me weeping, / “If from tis savage place thou wouldst escape;/ […]/ Therefore I think

and judge it for thy best/ Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,/ And lead thee hence

through the eternal place (Alighieri 20-22)

That is the statement explains that the main character of the Divine Comedy, sees hell as a

thing which will destroy him. That idea is not present in the same way as in William

Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; “Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the

burden’d air; / Hungry clouds swag on the deep. / Once meek, and in a perilous path, /The

just man kept his course along/ The vale of death.” (Blake 114). That quote, verifies that in

the reading there is a poetic voice, but not a mentor who accompanies the man, as it can be

seen in the Divine Comedy (Hell). Those are examples that show the use of the literary

device of having a mentor, which associates with the theory of the hero. (Miller 13)

Another important resemblance in the works, is the environment and setting that is

created at the beginning of both narrations. For example, in Canto number one, “I found me

in a gloomy wood, astray/ gone from the path direct: and even to tell/ it were no easy task”

(Alighieri, The Divine Comedy 19), the initial setting is very similar to that of The

Marriage of Heaven and Hell: that is because of the heavy atmosphere, and the symbolic

use of a man and a path. “Hungry clouds swag on the deep/ Once meek, and in a perilous

path,/ the just man kept his course along” (Blake, Bilingual anthology 114). Even if the

man in Dante’s Divine Comedy is in an opposite situation than that of Blake’s Marriage of

Heaven and Hell, one has lost the rightful path, and the other is mentioned as a reference of

just people that retain their way, the use of concepts is the same. Since both have the same

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references, and it was proved that an author read the other’s text, the intertextuality that the

latest work has, is proved. (Fillola 53).

2.2 Symbols

2.3 Political ApproachAnother relation to explain the intertextuality between The Marriage of Heaven and

Hell and the Divine Comedy, is the political approach in the texts. Dante goes through an

epic journey, which aims to reach God, however, it is also a critique to his contemporary

society (Alexander 67-70). The same happens in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake

changes and criticizes society’s view of heaven and hell; “The crow wish’d every thing was

black, the owl that every thing was white” (Blake 126), that is the explanation that Blake

gives to the universe. There is no evil without good, same as a person can not be either

good or bad; both things reside in human beings (Press Syndicate of the University of

Cambridge 185).

. For example, in both works, the narrator is the author as a fictional character; “In the

midway of this our mortal life, / I found me in a gloomy wood, astray” (Alighieri 19) and

“As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted with the enjoyment of Genius,” (Blake

118), are examples of quotes that exemplify the use of the literary device of imagining

themselves as the main characters.

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The differences between William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Dante

Alighieri’s Divine Comedy is what opposes the idea and use of the concept intertextuality;

that is because of the relation that cannot be made between areas of knowledge and beliefs,

such as philosophy, history, religion, social sciences and art.

References

Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: Signet Classic, 2001. 30 March 2013.

Blake, William. “Bilingual anthology; The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1987. 114-143. 31 October 2013.

Braid, Antonella. “Ralph Pite, The Circle of Our Vision: Dante's Presence in English Romantic review.” Bars Bulletin & Review 15 (1999): 14-16. 3 February 2014. <http://www.bars.ac.uk/documents/reviewdocs/pdf/15.pdf>.

Genette, Gerard. “Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree.” 1997. pdf. 27 January 2014. <http://books.google.es/books?id=KbYzNp94C9oC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q&f=false>.

—. Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Trans. Jane E. Lewin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 8 February 2014.

—. The Achitexte: An Introduction. Trans. Jane E.Lewin. Vol. 31 of Quantum books. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992. 17 February 2014.

Goreman, David. “Genette, Gerard.” 2005. The Johns Hopkins University Press. pdf. 10 February 2014. <http://www.davidlavery.net/Courses/Narratology/JHGTC/genette.pdf>.

Haberer, Adolphe. “Intertextuality in Theory and Practice.” 2007. University of Lyon 2. pdf. 13 February 2014. <http://www.leidykla.eu/fileadmin/Literatura/49-5/str6.pdf>.

Oxford University Press. Oxford Dictionary. 2014. 19 February 2014. <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/eidetic?q=eidetically#eidetic__4>.

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Pite, Ralph. The Circle of Our Vision: Dante's Presence in English Romantic Poetry. October 2011. 27 January 2014. <http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112945.001.0001/acprof-9780198112945>.

Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. The Cambridge Companion to William Blake. Ed. Morris Eaves. Cambridge University Press, 2003. 30 October 2013. <http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=yel1AU0YlGsC&hl=es&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

Ryan, Judith. Comparative Literature 245: Intertextality. 2012. 17 February 2014. <http://scholar.harvard.edu/jryan/classes/comparative-literature-245-intertextuality-0>.

The Technology Press of Massacltusetts Institute of Techtology and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Style in Language. 1960. pdf. 19 February 2014.

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: Signet Classic, 2001. 30 March 2013.

Blake, William. “Bilingual anthology; The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1987. 114-143. 31 October 2013.

Braid, Antonella. “Ralph Pite, The Circle of Our Vision: Dante's Presence in English Romantic review.” Bars Bulletin & Review 15 (1999): 14-16. 3 February 2014. <http://www.bars.ac.uk/documents/reviewdocs/pdf/15.pdf>.

Genette, Gerard. “Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree.” 1997. pdf. 27 January 2014. <http://books.google.es/books?id=KbYzNp94C9oC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q&f=false>.

—. Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Trans. Jane E. Lewin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 8 February 2014.

—. The Achitexte: An Introduction. Trans. Jane E.Lewin. Vol. 31 of Quantum books. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992. 17 February 2014.

Goreman, David. “Genette, Gerard.” 2005. The Johns Hopkins University Press. pdf. 10 February 2014. <http://www.davidlavery.net/Courses/Narratology/JHGTC/genette.pdf>.

Haberer, Adolphe. “Intertextuality in Theory and Practice.” 2007. University of Lyon 2. pdf. 13 February 2014. <http://www.leidykla.eu/fileadmin/Literatura/49-5/str6.pdf>.

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Oxford University Press. Oxford Dictionary. 2014. 19 February 2014. <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/eidetic?q=eidetically#eidetic__4>.

Pite, Ralph. The Circle of Our Vision: Dante's Presence in English Romantic Poetry. October de 2011. 27 de January de 2014. <http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112945.001.0001/acprof-9780198112945>.

Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. The Cambridge Companion to William Blake. Ed. Morris Eaves. Cambridge University Press, 2003. 30 October 2013. <http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=yel1AU0YlGsC&hl=es&source=gbs_navlinks_s>.

Ryan, Judith. Comparative Literature 245: Intertextality. 2012. 17 February 2014. <http://scholar.harvard.edu/jryan/classes/comparative-literature-245-intertextuality-0>.

The Technology Press of Massacltusetts Institute of Techtology and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Style in Language. 1960. pdf. 19 February 2014.