
There Are Very Few Accounts Of The Afterlife Across The Period From Homer To Dante. Most Traditional Studies Approach The Classical Afterlife From The Point Of View Of Its Evolution Towards The Christian Afterlife. This Book Tries To Do Something Different: To Explore Afterlife Narratives In Spatial Terms And To Situate This Tradition Within The Ambit Of A Fundamental Need In Human Psychology For The Synthesis Of Soul (or Self) And Universe. Drawing On The Works Of Homer, Plato, Cicero, Virgil, And Dante, Among Others, As Well As On Modern Works On Psychology, Cartography, And Music Theory, Mapping The Afterlife Argues That The Topography Of The Afterlife In The Greek And Roman Tradition, And In Dante, Reflects The State Of Scientific Knowledge At The Time Of The Various Contexts In Which We Find It. The Book Posits That There Is A Dominant Spatial Idiom In Afterlife Landscapes, A Journey-vision Paradigm--the Horizontal Journey Of The Soul Across The Afterlife Landscape, And A Synoptic Vision Of The Universe. Many Scholars Have Argued That The Vision Of The Universe Is Out Of Place In The Underworld Landscape. However, Looking Across The Entire Tradition, We Find That Afterlife Landscapes, Almost Without Exception, Contain These Two Kinds Of Space In One Form Or Another. This Double Vision Of Space Brings The Underworld, As The Landscape Of The Soul, Into Contact With The Scientific Universe; And Brings Humanity Into Line With The Cosmos.
This work investigates how afterlife narratives from the classical period through Dante function as spatial representations of the human psyche and the scientific knowledge of their respective eras. Emma Gee, a scholar of classical literature and history, synthesizes ancient texts with modern frameworks in psychology, cartography, and music theory. She argues that afterlife landscapes are not merely symbolic, but are structured by a consistent 'journey-vision' paradigm that aligns the individual soul with the broader cosmos.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars recognize this text as a sophisticated interdisciplinary study that challenges traditional teleological views of the afterlife. Readers often note the academic density of the prose, which requires familiarity with both classical literature and spatial theory to fully appreciate the author's arguments.
Page Count:
286
Publication Date:
2020-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190670495
ISBN-13:
9780190670498
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