The System of Dante's Hell - Introduction by Woodie King, Jr. - NEUTRALS: The Vestibule

Sep 21, 2026

Experimental novel material built around Dante Alighieri’s Inferno and reimagined through LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka’s artistic and political emergence. The introduction traces Jones’ search for identity in New York, from Newark to Howard University, the Air Force, and Greenwich Village, framing “walking in memory” as the genesis of a distinct voice. It outlines a free-association structure with headings, mapping circles of hell and connecting the imagery to African American experience and frustration in America.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages95

Reading Time2 h 26 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction by Woodie King, Jr.

The System of Dante's Hell

NEUTRALS: The Vestibule

HEATHEN

HEATHEN: No. 1

HEATHEN: No. 2

THE INCONTINENT

Lasciviousness

Gluttony

INCONTINENT: The Prodigal Wrathful

SEVEN (The Destruction Of America SEDUCERS

The Flatterers

Simonists

The Diviners

CIRCLE 8 (Ditch 5)

Grafters (Barrators) Hypocrite(s)

Thieves

THE EIGHTH DITCH (IS DRAMA

THE NINTH DITCH: MAKERS OF DISCORD

Personators (alchemists) Falsifiers

CIRCLE 9: Bolgia 1—Treachery To Kindred

The Heretics

SOUND AND IMAGE

About Amiri Baraka

Table of Contents Introduction by Woodie King, Jr. The System of Dante's Hell NEUTRALS: The Vestibule HEATHEN: No. 1 HEATHEN: No. 2 THE INCONTINENT: Lasciviousness Gluttony INCONTINENT: The Prodigal Wrathful SEVEN (The Destruction Of America SEDUCERS The Flatterers Simonists The Diviners CIRCLE 8 (Ditch 5) Grafters (Barrators) Hypocrite(s) Thieves THE EIGHTH DITCH (IS DRAMA THE NINTH DITCH: MAKERS OF DISCORD Personators (alchemists) Falsifiers CIRCLE 9: Bolgia 1—Treachery To Kindred 6. The Heretics SOUND AND IMAGE About Amiri Baraka Also by Amiri Baraka Copyright & Credits About Akashic Books LeRoi Jones and the Emergence of Amiri Baraka by Woodie King Jr. The System of Dante s’ Hell is an experimental novel by the award-winning poet and playwright LeRoi Jones, written some eight years before he took the name Amiri Baraka. The author ’s autobiographical journey is so heavily influenced by Dante Alighieri ’s Inferno that it begs the question: did the poet/activist Jones see qualities in Dante that would lead him to become Baraka, for whom art and politics were inextricably connected? When Jones first arrived in New York City, he was searching for an identity and for like-minded artists, poets, musicians, and writers. As it often does, his search took him back to where it all started. From his childhood in Newark, New Jersey, through his time spent at Howard University and later the US Air Force, to his self-imposed exile in Greenwich Village in the mid-1950s, The System ofDante s’ Hell captures the young poet/novelist “walking in memory.” The walk is both vague and exciting to witness, as it foreshadows the emergence of a poet, novelist, and activist who would become a major force in American literature. Rereading it now, it is easy to rediscover his literary influences in Beckett, Joyce, Pound, T. S. Eliot, and the existential philosophers Hegel and Kierkegaard; his stylistic and political ties to other writers of the time like Allen Ginsberg, Corso, Ferlinghetti, Frank O’Hara, Olson, Bob Kaufman, Diane di Prima, Larry Rivers, and Nat Hentoff; and his deeper connection to fellow Greenwich Village exiles like Calvin Hicks, A.B. Spellman, Bob Hamilton, Steve Cannon, Harold Cruse, Archie Shepp, Leroy Lucas, and Roland Snellings. In his 1984 autobiography, Baraka explained how his voice emerged from The System of Dante s’ Hell: I consciously wrote as deeply into my psyche as I could go. I didn ’t even want the words to “make sense.” I had the theme in my mind but the theme was just something against which I wanted to play endless variations. Each section had its own dynamic and pain. Going so deep into myself was like descending into Hell I was tearing away from the “ready-mades ” that imitating Creeley (or Olson) provided. I’d found that when you imitate peoples ’form you take on their content as well. So I scrambled, and roamed, sometimes, blindly in my consciousness, to come up with something more essential, more rooted in my deepest experience I wrote in the jagged staccato fragments until at the end of the piece I had come to, found, my own voice, or something beginning to approximate it. This results in a structure of free association, in which each section has headings instead of chapters. For example, the heading “Gluttony” tells us: “This place is not another. Cold white sidewalks. Time, as intimate. To myself, beautiful fingers . . .” In “SEVEN (The Destruction of America,” note the free association of riffs, not unlike Ella Fitzgerald scatting. In the heading“CIRCLE 8 ,” I have no idea what LeRoi means by “Ditch 5” but I do know he comes to a beautiful and lasting observation: “I am hidden from sight and guarded by demons.” The journey into hell had already been explored by Milton, Virgil, and Homer, but found a new readership with LeRoi Jones. This new version was as experimental as free-form jazz and abstract art; however, now it was from an African

FAQs

What is the role of Woodie King Jr. in The System of Dante's Hell?

Woodie King Jr. provides an introduction that situates LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka’s work in relation to Dante’s Inferno and explains how the novel’s themes connect to Baraka’s emergence as an artist and activist.

How does the text describe the novel’s structure and headings?

The work uses free association rather than traditional chapters, with each section presented through headings. Those headings guide readers through riffs and imagery that function dynamically like the pieces of a unified descent.

How does the document connect the journey into hell to earlier literature and a new audience?

The introduction notes that the journey into hell had been explored by Milton, Virgil, and Homer, but argues that LeRoi Jones’ version creates a new readership by reframing hell from an African American perspective.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Genevieve