March contra Dante (o el diàleg intertextual per una lectura del cant LXXXVI)

This paper proposes to track the references of some canonic pieces from the Inferno into the poem LXXXVI («Si·m demanau lo greu turment que pas») by Ausiàs March. Different key points, such as the meaning of the substantive «pas» (and «contrapàs») in this lyric, can be clarified thanks to the subjacent arguments on the text. This fact implies an update of the Dante’s model that concerns a central conflict: the one between the mundane love and the salvation of the great beyond. March resumes this conflict drawing an alternative way to the «straight» one propagated into the Commedia. This operation is based on a certain kind of love experience that allows a high valuation of the contingent present versus the transcendental eternity. Inevitably, this movement means two things: on the one hand, turning into a ruins the strong moral and temporal structures of Christianity, evoked through Dante’s thinking; and, on the other hand, a cultural and inner conflict in March or, in other words, the possibility of building new horizons of sense from the fragments of these ruins.