The Guide

One of the many, many astounding things about The Divine Comedy is it's remarkable ability to exist both within and removed from the narrative.  People speak adoringly about the David Foster Wallace's and Thomas Pynchon's and their ability to craft a "postmodern" novel.  What exactly does postmodern mean in literature?  From my understanding (and i am quite certain that an expert would tell me that I simplify this concept), postmodernity's strength is it's ability to transcend the page and comment on the process itself.  Question everything and deliver that to the page.  While Dante's work doesn't really challange the conventions of writing an epic as he redefines the entire genre.  In fact, Dante is so commanding and sure of himself that on one level his style could be considered the antithesis of postmodernity. 

What I am trying to get at here is Dante's very conscious choice to use the narrative to throw the literary gauntlet down and declare that a new sheriff is in town.  As with any journey or quest, no hero or protagonist can make a go of it alone.  One of the basic human conditions is the idea of community, however small, is essential for survival.  Yes there are the occasional recluse hermits who live perfectly content, but theirs is essentially a selfish retraction from humanity.  The people who effect and change society need connections with other humans to acheive success in their journeys.  Dante understands that he is lost and in need of a guide, someone that Dante the poet and Dante the protagonist will listen to and respect.  Who better to guide an Italian poet than the grandfather of Italian literary artistry, Virgil.  Virgil was the creator of the first Italian epic, The Aeneid.  Virgil is for Dante "the glory and light of other poets."  He is, along with Homer, the gold standard by which any aspiring epic poet judges themselves.  Unlike Homer, who to Dante was unknown and (worst of all) Greek, Virgil is a paison.

Dante is nothing if not full of hubris.  I mean, he started out by wishing to create a work that should be a part of the bible!! He chooses as his guide the father of Italian poetry!!  By using Virgil, Dante is basically telling his readers 'hey check this book out.  i'm such a baddass that my work should be comparable to The Aeneid.  Harold Bloom speaks about a psychological condition in artists which he coined The Anxiety of Influence . Bloom states that every writer is born upon the ashes of his predecessors.  The most original and sucessful (artistically, that is) wrtiers are the ones who recognize the weight of the literary canon and manage to metaphorically slay the writers of the past and forge ahead on their own path.  Dante chooses Virgil as his target, inserts him in his narrative as his guide, the one for whom he learned both writing and the path through his dark forest (a forest inhabited by the ghost of Virgil.  Dante's crisis is as much about him as an artist as it is about him as a man).  Dante is using his story to comment upon his own process and the tradition from which he is writing.  Sounds pretty postmodern if you ask me.