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Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Summer 2010 Valleys of the Shadow of Death: The Apocalypses of the Inferno and One Hundred Years of Solitude Deirdre Ann Assenza Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Assenza, D. (2010). Valleys of the Shadow of Death: The Apocalypses of the Inferno and One Hundred Years of Solitude (Master's thesis, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/264 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VALLEYS OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: THE APOCALYPSES OF THE INFERNO AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE A Thesis Submitted to McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art By Deirdre Assenza August 2010 Copyright by Deirdre Assenza 2010 VALLEYS OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: THE APOCALYPSES OF THE INFERNO AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE By Deirdre Assenza Approved July 11, 2010 ________________________________ ________________________________ Bernard F. Beranek, Ph.D. Anne Brannen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English Associate Professor of English ________________________________ ________________________________ Christopher M. Duncan, Ph.D. Magali Cornier Michael, Ph.D. Dean, McAnulty College and Graduate Chair, English Department School of Liberal Arts Professor of English iii ABSTRACT VALLEYS OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH: THE APOCALYPSES OF THE INFERNO AND ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE By Deirdre Assenza August 2010 Thesis supervised by Bernard F. Beranek, Ph.D. The literary genre apocalypse is unknown or, at best, vague to literary scholarship. The genre apocalypse is an important category of religious and world literature. Apocalypses communicate diverse worldviews. They rationalize existence. They encourage audiences unto righteousness and warn audiences of sin. Their common forms and functions achieve their distinctive, visionary, revelatory quality and exhortative force. These forms and functions constitute the genre apocalypses’ definition, and differentiate apocalypses from other works. Dante’s Inferno and Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude are both apocalypses, though they are not normally considered such. Each work manifests an apocalypse’s typical form and function. Each presents a unique vision of reality. Each exhorts consistently with it vision, aims its exhortation at its unique audience and era, and achieves all this through iv vision, aims its exhortation at its unique audience and era, and achieves all this through typically apocalyptic motifs like those seen in Revelation. Inferno and Solitude ’s apocalypticism reveals their meaning and explains their cultural effect. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii I. Introduction ......................................................................................................................1 II. The Genre Apocalypse ....................................................................................................4 III. Worldviews & Exhortation ..........................................................................................14 Inferno ........................................................................................................................ 14 Solitude....................................................................................................................... 22 IV. Transcendent Cosmic & Historical Meaning ..............................................................40 Inferno ........................................................................................................................ 47 Solitude....................................................................................................................... 66 V. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................97 Figures..............................................................................................................................102 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................116 vi LIST OF FIGURES Page Fig. 1. Plot Elements of Jewish Apocalypses ..................................................................102 Fig. 2. “Christian Aristotelian Cosmos” ..........................................................................103 Fig. 3. “The Abyss of Hell” .............................................................................................104 Fig. 4. “Shri Yantra Mandala” .........................................................................................105 Fig. 5. “Overview of Dis and the tombs of the heretics” .................................................106 Fig. 7. “Ezekiel’s vision” .................................................................................................107 Fig. 8. “Sastradhara Hevajra” ..........................................................................................108 Fig. 9. “The celestial rose” ...............................................................................................109 Fig. 10. “Le labyrinthe de Chartres” ................................................................................110 Fig. 11. “Dante at the edge of the seventh circle” ...........................................................111 Fig. 12. Solitude’s character name meanings ..................................................................112 Fig. 13. A Roman coin .....................................................................................................114 Fig. 14. The Buendía’s travels from and to Macondo .....................................................115 vii I. INTRODUCTION Apocalypses are rarely discussed by literary scholars as literary forms. They are an infrequent topic of theological scholarly discourse, and are even less frequently analyzed by literary scholars as cohesive stories with specific structures and a “significant cluster of traits that distinguish them from other works” (Collins Imagination 1–4). Literary scholars too frequently appear ignorant of the genre’s existence, confusing the theological, literary definition of an “apocalypse” with the more general meaning, and labeling as an apocalypse any story treating mass disaster or death. Consequently, the genre apocalypse is too rarely acknowledged as an important category of world literature. The function of its “significant cluster of traits” is inadequately understood. In this study, I argue such acknowledgment. I maintain that literary knowledge is incomplete without knowledge of the genre apocalypse, its function, and its traits. Therefore, I present the genre for examination. I further argue that the genre’s scope is broader than presumed, even by those who understand it as a genre. To demonstrate this, I examine accepted apocalypses alongside two great literary works, Dante’s Inferno and Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude . To be beneficially discussed by either theologians or literary critics, all apocalypses must be first subjected to literary critique. Only theologians may proceed from such critique to determination of an apocalypse’s status as divine revelation and truth, by comparison to religious tenets. A purely literary reading makes no such determination. This is this study’s focus. I make no critical analysis of truth claims. I merely seek to demonstrate how each apocalypse presents its truth claim, and why. This 1 demonstration will not only clarify the literary features of the genre apocalypse, but also demonstrate the specific, central role its features play in the history of literary communication. This study examines Revelation and other acknowledged apocalypses, their functions, and the typical narrative themes, images, and structures supporting those functions. It gives evidence that, and how, the these elements interconnect to produce an apocalypse and its unique effect. Inferno and Solitude are examined for such evidence to prove their apocalyptic status. Inferno and Solitude are chosen as examples of the genre for two reasons. First, and most importantly, they represent two extremely diverse eras and examples of apocalyptic thought. They are each non-canonical, Inferno being both literary and extracanonical, and Solitude being purely literary. Presentation of the genre’s qualities within and without the currently accepted apocalyptic cannon and the Judeo- Christian tradition will illuminate the genre’s scope and religious capacity. It will also provide essential understanding of the genre’s place in contemporary eschatological thought. Second, Inferno and Solitude receive very different treatments by scholarship for their apocalyptic traits, and are nowhere systematically compared. Inferno has been variously studied for unscriptural apocalypticism, but until now Solitude has not been similarly studied. Comparative analysis will advance understanding of

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