From the Perspective of Eternity

作     者：Robin McAllister 

作者机构：Sacred Heart University Fairfield Connecticut USA 

出 版 物：《Journal of Literature and Art Studies》 (文学与艺术研究（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2016年第6卷第10期

页      面：1149-1154页

学科分类：07[理学] 08[工学] 070104[理学-应用数学] 0814[工学-土木工程] 0701[理学-数学] 082301[工学-道路与铁道工程] 0823[工学-交通运输工程] 

主　　题：eternity Chaucer Boethius Cervantes 

摘      要：This is a partial history of the literary topos ＂sub specie aetemitatis＂. The Latin phrase means ＂from the perspective of eternity＂. Eternity is the way God sees the universe, not as a succession of moments in time from past, to present, to future, but as a simultaneous present which includes the past and future as if they are already and always present. This temporal simultaneity is accompanied by a spatial totality and simultaneity. In both Chaucer and Dante the protagonist ends life＇s wanderings and struggles by being carried up into the heavens and looking back on earth from the point of view of eternity. Their literary source is Maerobius＇ Commentary on the Dream of Scipio and Boethius＇ The Consolation of Philosophy. The vision results in epistemological transformation that provides consolation or ＂contemptus mundi＂, the rejection of earthly concems. The ＂sub specie aetemitatis＂ vision is both a revelation of the nature of the universe, time, and the protagonist＇s place in them and a disillusionment that radically changes the protagonist＇s understanding. The work of literature and the reading of it are potentially transformational. For the pagan lover Toilus in Chaucer＇s Troilus and Criseyde the ＂sub specie aeternitatis＂ vision results in religious conversion as well as epistemological transformation. Boethius, whom Chaucer translated, offers an analogue to the vision in the way humans perceive a sphere through their senses and reason. Dante＇s version of the vision in Paradiso xxxiii is the most famous literary example as the protagonist＇s vision merges with the vision of God as an intense ray of light. The conversion and consolation associated with the ＂sub specie aetemitatis＂ vision takes cosmic dimension in Dante. A modem example is Jorge Luis Borges＇ parody of Dante in his story ＂The Aleph＂ where a satiric vision takes place not in the heavens but in the basement of the house in Buenos Aires. In Cervantes＇ Don Quixote the ＂sub specie aetemitatis＂ trope is p