Dante's Divine Comedy (275-0-20)
Topic
A Dream of Peace
Instructors
Paola Nasti
Meeting Info
Kresge Cent. Hall 2-380 Kaplan: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM
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 fashioned the relationship between the human and the divine, justice and love, will and reason, happiness and knowledge, literature and the Bible to craft his dream of universal peace. 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.
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.
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area