“A te convien tenere altro viaggio” The Dante-function in the infernal routes of Dino Buzzati’s late fiction

The essay analyzes the “Dante-function” in Dino Buzzati’s works. The most evident case of reuse by Buzzati of the Comedy model in a contemporary key is certainly the long story, almost a short novel, Viaggio agli inferni del secolo. New elements of comparison with the first canticle of the medieval poem are highlighted here from this well-known text. Completely new is also the attempt to read from an “infernal” perspective Buzzati’s novel A love affair, the story of a carnal and desperate passion, which can recall the vice of lust, chosen by Dante to represent the first actual encounter with sin.