Jung, Dante, and the Making of the Red Book: Of Fire and Form

Book excerpt: This book explores the genesis of the Red Book (or Liber Novus), through the lens of Jung’s lifelong confrontation with Dante and, in doing so, provides the first-ever thorough comparative analysis of the intertextual and symbolical correspondences between Liber Novus and the Commedia. Starting from Jung’s multifaceted fascination with Dante and his pivotal role in the former’s visionary material at historical, hermeneutical, and psychological levels, the book challengingly envisions Liber Novus as Jung’s Divine Comedy. This work finds a new way of approaching Jung’s understanding of concepts such as "visionary works" and "visionary mind" and considers how this approach can enhance our vision of depth psychology. Through various thematics such as the metanoia and the symbolism of animals, as well as the transformative role of the feminine and the erotic and spiritual imagery of the soul, this work revolves around the Jung-Dante correlation. Offering an original perspective within the field of Jungian and Dante scholarship, this book will be of great interest to academics and postgraduate students studying in the areas of Jung, Dante, analytical psychology, depth psychology, hermeneutics and Western esoteric currents and practices. The book will also appeal to Jungian analysts and psychoanalysts more broadly.