The great refusal (Italian: il gran rifiuto) is the error attributed in Dante Alighieri's Inferno to one of the souls found trapped aimlessly at the Vestibule of Hell.[Dante, Hell (Penguin 1975) pp. 86–7]
Theology
Dante Alighieri's view that one could be unworthy of redemption, yet insufficiently evil for Hell, has been described by some scholars as "theologically dubious".
However, behind Dante's adverse judgement of Celestine was the
Thomas Aquinas concept of
recusatio tensionis, the unvirtuous refusal of a task that is within one's natural powers.
[A. Oldcorn, 1998. Lectura Dante]
Petrarch disagreed with Dante's appraisal. He believed that Celestine's adoption of the contemplative life was a virtuous act.[Hexter, J. H. 1979. On Historians. London. p. 260.]
Later elaborations
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Critic Northrop Frye considered that "the 'gran refiuto', the voluntary surrender of one's appointed function, is a frequent source of tragedy in Shakespeare."
[Frye, N. 1967. Fools of Time. London, p. 109.] He suggests that Lear's Division of the Kingdoms is an example of this.
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Alfred North Whitehead used the phrase great refusal for the determination not to succumb to the facticity of things as they are—to favour instead the imagination of the ideal.
[F Webster 2002, Theories of the Information Society, p. 201]
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Herbert Marcuse took up Whitehead's concept to call for a refusal of the consumer society in the name of the liberating powers of art.
[D Kellner 1984, Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism, pp. 276–8]
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Jacques Le Goff considered that "the 'hippie' movement is indicative of the permanent character—re-emerging at precise historical conjunctures—of the adepts of the gran rifiuto".
[J Le Goff 1980, Time, Work, & Culture in the Middle Ages, London, p. 232]
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C. P. Cavafy wrote a poem titled "Che fece .... il gran rifiuto" where he supports those who make the great refusal at personal cost because they are doing the right thing.
[11. C.P. CAVAFY: Collected Poems Revised Edition,1992, p12, Princeton University Press.]
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