Sombras virtuales

Abstract

The paper examines the field of subjectivity as shown in the treatment of characters both in Don Quixote and the Commedia. It does not aim at suggesting direct connections or relationships between Dante and Cervantes, as it neither posits unsurmountable historic distances that hinder the comparison between them. It tries, instead, to suggest potential affinities between the respective cultural and aesthetic horizons as well as of concepts of reality. Its case study is the concept of individuality implied in Don Quixote’s character and in the conceptualization of the biography of the human soul, both before and in the aftermath of death, that Dante develops in Purgatorio XXV.