The Author

This chapter will examine Dante both as an historical author as well as the ‘author figure’ he performs in his texts, with particular attention to the tension between these two forms of authorship. The chapter proceeds through three interrelated sections: 1) Dante-poet and Dante-character; 2) Authorship and authority; and 3) Dante and autobiography. In each section the focus is not just on what Dante-the-author is but also on what Dantean authorship does. The casting of himself as the character of some of his works, the establishment of the authoritative status of vernacular poets alongside the ancients, and the ‘pact’ made with his readers are all strategies in the creation of his truly original figure of the author.