I believe Dante was Joyce's favorite writer. He had great admiration for his work, which like Aquinas' encyclopedic prose, influenced Joyce. I don't agree that Dante, Goethe, and Shakespeare always wrote in a simple way. Ingenuity of expression is very much part of what is being expressed in the hands of a great writer.
But this is off topic. I have to add that Vendler is being academic in the worst way, almost as if she's trying not to perish by publishing. As if she needs to!
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