<DIV>In <I>Dante and the<B>Sense of Transgression</I>, William Franke combines literary-critical analysis<B>with philosophical and theological reflection to cast new light on Dante's<B>poetic vision. Conversely, Dante's medieval masterpiece becomes our guide<B>to rethinking some of the most pressing issues of contemporary theory. <B><I>Beyond suggestive<B>archetypes like Adam and Ulysses that hint at an obsession with transgression<B>beneath Dante's overt suppression of it, there is another and a prior sense in<B>which transgression emerges as Dante's essential and ultimate gesture. <B>His work as a poet culminates in the </I>Paradiso<I> in a<B>transcendence of language towards a purely ineffable, mystical experience<B>beyond verbal expression. Yet Dante conveys this experience, nevertheless,<B>in and through language and specifically through the transgression of language,<B>violating its normally representational and referential functions. </I>Paradiso<I>'s<B>dramatic sky-scapes and unparalleled textual performances stage a<B>deconstruction of the sign that is analyzed philosophically in the light of<B>Blanchot, Levinas, Derrida, Barthes, and Bataille, as transgressing and<B>transfiguring the very sense of sense.<B></I></DIV>