DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY: INFERNO
(4 Week Course)
Introduction
The Middle Ages was an epoch of extraordinary building, thought, devotion and crusade. It bequeathed to us the grand cathedrals of Chartes, Reims, and Notre-Dame, the "Summa Theologiae" of St Thomas Aquinas, the university, the Song of Roland, and of course the great mendicant orders of St Bernard, St Dominic and St. Francis. Significantly, it has been said that in no other writer, ancient or modern, do we find the spirit of a great period so completely reflected as the medieval soul is reflected in Dante.
At the turn of the 14th century, Dante...
Overview
In this 4-week module we will read together Dante's Inferno. Our classes will be structured around the guided reading questions provided one week in advance. We will cover all of the above in closer detail, and by the end of the course you will have a good grasp of:
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the factional violence and social conflicts of 13C Florence and how these figure in Dante's depiction of Hell and in the overall ethical design of the Comedy.
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Dante's unique conception of Love and the central importance of the female voice of Beatrice to his Beatific Vision.
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Dante's allegorical method and his use of medieval literary types, especially the Journey and the Vision.
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Dante as a political thinker and the heterodoxy of his theology in relation to Medieval Thought.
