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Dante's Divine Comedy (275-0-20)

Topic

Finding Freedom

Instructors

Paola Nasti

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-435: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

Refashioning the conventions of poetry, Dante (1265-1321) used the account of his presumed journey through the three realms of the Christian afterlife - Hell, Purgatory and Paradise - to explore the world at the close of the Middle Ages. The poem is both an adventure story and an exhaustive, assessment of the state of politics, society, religion, literature, philosophy, and theology at the beginning of the fourteenth century. This course examines a selection of the Divine Comedy's cantos in their cultural, social and political context. In particular we will explore how the world imagined by the poet relates to late medieval life and culture. A guiding concern of the discussion is to assess the ways in which Dante changed our understanding of the relationship between the human and the divine, justice and love, will and reason, happiness and knowledge, literature and the Bible. Political turmoil, philosophical and theological paradigms social and religious conflict all converge in the making of Comedy and will thus form crucial elements of our investigation.

Taught in English.

Registration Requirements

No prerequisites in Italian; taught in English.

Teaching Method

Lectures and discussions

Use will be made of audio-visual resources as well as of reading and in-class discussion.

Class Materials (Required)

Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, translated by Robert and Jean Hollander, edited by Robert Hollander, New York: Doubleday 2002. 2004, 2007.

Dante's text is available online (with various commentaries) for those students who prefer not to buy books. If you want to buy 1 volume buy at least ‘Inferno', and avoid 'Paradiso,' from which we will read far less. Students can therefore buy as much or as little as they see fit as long as they can access the online text with ease.

Class Notes

Taught in English.

Class Attributes

Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area