Dante's Divine Comedy (ENG 352)
Spring 2023
In this course we will study Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth-century masterpiece The Divine Comedy, seeking to understand this ambitious poem both on its own merits and as an index of the major literary, artistic, and intellectual currents of European culture during the High Middle Ages. The Divine Comedy as a whole narrates Dante’s fictional journey through the afterlife, where he witnesses the eternal torments of the damned souls in Hell, the patient endurance of the restless Christian spirits in Purgatory, and the ineffable delights of the blessed in Paradise. As we follow Dante-pilgrim on his journey, we will look specifically at the poetic and narrative strategies that Dante-poet employs in thinking through the changing relationships between language and truth in the separate canticles of the poem, thinking about how an infernal poetics, for example, differs from a paradisiacal one. In light of ongoing debates in Dante studies, we will also focus on the extent to which Dante’s poem enjoins readers to a process of conversion and on the ways in which Dante establishes his own poetic and moral authority as a counterweight to the corruptions of the fourteenth-century Church.
Schedule of Readings and Assignments
WEEK ONE M Jan 23: Introductions. Read Inferno 1-2 and “Life of Dante” by Giuseppe Mazzotta (PDF) W Jan 25: Inferno 1-3; and read “Why Did Dante Write the Commedia?” by Teodolinda Barolini (PDF) F Jan 27: Inferno 3-4 WEEK TWO M Jan 30: Inferno 5-7 (focus especially on Canto 5) W Feb 1: Inferno 8-10 (focus especially on Cantos 9 and Canto 10); and read “Tundale’s Vision” (PDF)
F Feb 3: Inferno 11-13 WEEK THREE M Feb 6: Inferno 14-16 (focus especially on Canto 15 and end of Canto 16); and read "Queering Dante" by Gary Cestaro
W Feb 8: Inferno 17-19 (focus on Canto 17) F Feb 10: Inferno 20-23 WEEK FOUR M Feb 13: Inferno 24-26 (focus especially on Canto 26); and read "The Harvest of Reading" by Alison Cornish (PDF) W Feb 15: Inferno 27-29 (focus especially on Cantos 28); and read “Muhammad in Hell” by Karla Mallette (PDF) F Feb 17: Inferno 30-32 WEEK FIVE M Feb 20: Inferno 33 -34 W Feb 22: Purgatorio 1; and read “The Time of Purgatory (Third to Thirteenth Century)” by Jacques Le Goff (PDF) F Feb 24: Purgatorio 2-4 PAPER #1 (on Inferno) due by Saturday, February 25, 5:00 p.m. WEEK SIX M Feb 27 1: Purgatorio 5-7; and read “Orientation” by Alison Cornish (PDF) W Mar 1: Purgatorio 8-10 (focus especially on Canto 9 and Canto 10) F Mar 3: Purgatorio 11-14 (focus especially on Canto 11) WEEK SEVEN M Mar 6: Purgatorio 15-17 W Mar 8: Purgatorio 18-20 F Mar 10: Purgatorio 21-23 SPRING BREAK: March 11-19 WEEK EIGHT M Mar 20: Purgatorio 21-23 W Mar 22: Purgatorio 24-26; and see here for some ideas about Dante's Poets. F Mar 24: Purgatorio 27-29 WEEK NINE M Mar 27: Purgatorio 30-31; “Beatrice’s Dante: Loving the Individual?” by Martha Nussbaum (PDF) W Mar 29: Purgatorio 32-33 F Mar 31: Paradiso 1-2; and read The Mystical Theology by Pseudo-Dionysius (PDF) WEEK TEN M Apr 3: Paradiso 3-5; and read "The Representation of Paradise" by Alison Morgan (PDF) W Apr 5: Paradiso 6-9; and the Kitab al-Miraj or Night Journey of Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) to Heaven F Apr 7: Paradiso 10-12 (focus especially on Canto 10) PAPER #2 due by Satuday, April 8, 5:00 p.m. WEEK ELEVEN M Apr 10: Paradiso 13-15 (focus especially on Cantos 14 and 15) W Apr 12: Paradiso 16-18 (focus especially on Canto 18 F Apr 14: Paradiso 19-21 (focus especially on Canto 20); and read “Dante’s Beatrice: Priest of an Androgynous God” by Joan Ferrante (PDF) WEEK TWELVE M Apr 17: Paradiso 22-24 (focus especially on Canto 23) W Apr 19: Paradiso 25-27; and read "The Poetics of Trespassing" by Elena Lombardi (PDF) F Apr 21: Paradiso 28-30; and read “Paradiso 29: Saving the Appearances” by Alison Cornish (PDF) WEEK THIRTEEN M Apr 24: Paradiso 31-33; “The Sexual Body in Dante’s Celestial Paradise” by Regina Psaki (PDF) W Apr 26: Paradiso 33; and read " Love, Ideology, and Inter-Religious Relations in the Commedia" by Vittorio Montemaggi (PDF); and "Dante's Sympathy for the Other" by Teodolinda Barolini (PDF) F Apr 28: Paradiso 33 — reflections Paper # 3 due by Friday, May 5, 5:00 p.m. |
Required Texts
Readings will be from the English translation by Jean Hollander and Robert Hollander, with the Italian text of Dante’s poem on the facing page. Please purchase a personal, paper copy of the following books, and please bring that copy to each conference. Please do not substitute other translations or editions.
And follow this link to a useful Dante bibliography. Click here for a useful chronology of events in Dante's life.
Click here to see the excellent Digital Dante website at Columbia.
The Bodleian Library has graciously scanned and provided open digital access to several medieval manuscripts of the Divine Comedy. You can explore one of the most beautiful, MS Holkham misc. 48, here.
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Learning Outcomes
- To read, understand, and appreciate what is arguably the most significant and influential poem in the European literary tradition
- To practice the art of literary analysis; to practice thinking intelligently, writing intelligently, and speaking intelligently about the narrative, poetic, cultural, philosophical, and theological aspects of Dante’s epic poem
- To think through the merits and pitfalls of various critical approaches to literary texts
- To understand, through Dante’s encyclopedic vision, something of the standard medieval worldview (but also to recognize ways in which Dante is atypical or idiosyncratic)
- To learn to evaluate artistic achievement in a pre-modern culture whose worldview and values may be quite different from our own
- To enrich one’s own inner life through generous, sympathetic, and open-hearted engagement with humanistic texts from the pre-modern world
Course Requirements
Active Participation: A Reed conference, in whatever format, should foster discussions that are both civil and critical. The responsibility for making this happen is incumbent upon each one of us, and for that reason I want to hear from everyone on a regular basis. If there are impediments to your regular participation, please see me so that we can make other arrangements.
Attendance: Regular attendance, both physical and mental is required: you need to be present and you need to be present. More than two absences will affect your grade. More than four absences constitutes grounds for failing the course. If, however, you have a Covid-19-related issue that requires your absence, please let me know and arrangements will be made.
Papers: There will be three papers due this semester. The first two will be shorter (4-5 pages), the last will be longer (8-10 pages). All papers need to be passed in in hard copy to receive a grade. Further information about topics and parameters will be provided. Please note that I do not provide written comments on papers that are passed in late without permission. Late papers will additionally be subject to the standard deduction of half a grade per day late.
Grading: The course grade will consist of the following:
Paper #1: 20% , due anytime during the week of February 20, but no later than Saturday, February 25, at 5:00 p.m.
Paper #2: 20%, due anytime during the week of April 3, but no later than Saturday, April 8, at 5:00 p.m.
Paper #3: 40%, due anytime after April 28, but no later than Friday, May 5, at 5:00 p.m.
Class participation: 20%
Active Participation: A Reed conference, in whatever format, should foster discussions that are both civil and critical. The responsibility for making this happen is incumbent upon each one of us, and for that reason I want to hear from everyone on a regular basis. If there are impediments to your regular participation, please see me so that we can make other arrangements.
Attendance: Regular attendance, both physical and mental is required: you need to be present and you need to be present. More than two absences will affect your grade. More than four absences constitutes grounds for failing the course. If, however, you have a Covid-19-related issue that requires your absence, please let me know and arrangements will be made.
Papers: There will be three papers due this semester. The first two will be shorter (4-5 pages), the last will be longer (8-10 pages). All papers need to be passed in in hard copy to receive a grade. Further information about topics and parameters will be provided. Please note that I do not provide written comments on papers that are passed in late without permission. Late papers will additionally be subject to the standard deduction of half a grade per day late.
Grading: The course grade will consist of the following:
Paper #1: 20% , due anytime during the week of February 20, but no later than Saturday, February 25, at 5:00 p.m.
Paper #2: 20%, due anytime during the week of April 3, but no later than Saturday, April 8, at 5:00 p.m.
Paper #3: 40%, due anytime after April 28, but no later than Friday, May 5, at 5:00 p.m.
Class participation: 20%