Wilson Harris's Divine Comedy of Existence: Miniaturizations of the Cosmos in Palace of the Peacock

Authors

Gay Wilentz

Abstract

Although the European world which accepted the allegory of Dante's Divina Commedia no longer exists, the concept of a sovereign ideal, Christian and European, governing humanity is still prevalent in Western civilization. The idea of a homogeneous world has been imposed on all parts of society so that those groups and individuals outside this concept of society are inevitably suppressed as alien to it. This view of the unity of all minds has been a problematic one even within 'homogeneous' cultures (for example, Tuscany of Dante's time), but it is completely ineffectual in dealing with the fragmented nature of the multi-cultural 20th century — the heterogeneous cultures of the New World in particular.

Recommended Citation

Wilentz, Gay, Wilson Harris's Divine Comedy of Existence: Miniaturizations of the Cosmos in Palace of the Peacock, Kunapipi, 8(2), 1986.
Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol8/iss2/8