he (exclusively male) Oxford Dante Society was created in 1876, testifying to an approach of the Florentine poet’s works that tended to (re)assert scholarly prerogatives. Yet this should not obliterate the fact that simultaneously other constituencies engaged with Dante’s poetic legacy in creative, original ways for its perceived vivifying, subversive or emancipatory potential. Such was the case of female Victorian artists, writers and translators such as Marie Spartali Stillman, Anna Jameson, George Eliot, Vernon Lee or Maria Rossetti. Building on the recent critical studies that have paved new ways for exploring the pervasive influence of Dante across literatures, cultures, languages and media in the wake of his seventh centenary in 2021—Dante Beyond Borders: Contexts and Reception (edited by N. Havely and J. Katz, Legenda 2021), The Oxford Dante Handbook (edited by M. Gragnolati, E. Lombardi and F. Southerden, Oxford UP, 2021) or the 2024 journal issue "Dante e il Preraffaelismo" (Dante l’Arte 11)—this seminar invites proposals that engage with the gendered and transmedial reception of Dante in the long nineteenth century.
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Created November 10, 2025
Last modified November 10, 2025