Dante-Bezüge im Werk Wolfgang Hilbigs

In Wolfgang Hilbig’s autobiographical text La bella Italia, the protagonist, Hilbig’s alter ego, mentions that he had forgotten Italy when he lived in the GDR and was only sometimes reminded of the country in the south, for example when reading an epilogue to Dante’s Divine Comedy. The essay examines the question of whether Hilbig knew not only an epilogue, but also the Commedia. A work by the Florentine was found in his estate library. Hilbig also refers to Dante in various texts, e.g. in his story “Die Weiber”. In addition, a typescript with the title “Eine Art Ankunft” (“A Kind of Arrival”) was found in his estate, which contains clear references to Dante. Finally, the motif of the dead hanging in trees, which can be found in Hilbig’s Über den Tonfall, is another reference to Dante’s Divine Comedy. On the basis of the evidence presented, it can be assumed with great probability that Hilbig knew Dante’s Commedia.