Sensation (Un)bound: Literary Synesthesia and Cross-Sensory Perception in Dante’s “Purgatorio” 24

This article analyses Dante’s cross-sensory metaphors in Purgatorio 24 and discusses the applicability of the term ‘synesthesia’ to describe the testing of the boundaries of the human sensorium that happens in the canto. The article then reconstructs some of the semantic contexts that the word sentire might have had for Dante and explains how it operates in the pilgrim’s encounter with the Angel of Temperance. Finally, by comparing the use of sentire in Purgatorio 24 with the synesthetic imagery in the Earthly Paradise, this study outlines the broader significance of the canto in the context of Purgatorio as a whole.

Keywords: Dante, Purgatorio, Senses, Cross-sensory metaphor, Synesthesia, Angels