StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put it, but . . .


Is Dante's Inferno an early example of self-insertion fanfiction?

Yogi wrote:I'm not sure if this is the right place to put it, but . . .


Is Dante's Inferno an early example of self-insertion fanfiction?

If you wish, yes. Though Virgil's was more ancient by far.

With most 'self-insertion' fanfic you generally have the author inserting himself from the present time. More importantly the insert almost certainly has a prominent role and the ability to rework the reality of what he is inserted into. In the case of the Divine Comedy Dante was after a fashion inserting a younger version of himself but it was not really the same.

This is the case because while the protagonist does have a role to play, the larger point of the work is what the protagonist is taught during the three works that comprise the Divine Comedy. Yes, Dante writes it with his own history and background in mind - he is in exile while writing it and makes that a significant theme of the Comedy - but the Comedy is more of a grand tour of enlightenment that willful expression for the 'insert'.