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Course Description

Summary

T.S. Eliot famously said, “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them.” Agree or disagree, but the work of Dante Alighieri, the fourteenth century Florentine poet and statesman, remains vital to the study of poetry and its history—particularly as the lyric tradition intersects with long-form narrative and Christian allegory begins reconciling with pagan mythology in the lead-up to the Italian Renaissance.  Descending into that iconic and allegorical landscape shot through with the freezing exhalations of Lake Cocytus and populated by some of history’s most famous artists, thinkers, influencers, and bad actors, we will closely read and compare four different translations of the Inferno, the first section of Dante’s masterwork, the Divine Comedy. With great care, we will attempt to unravel the Inferno’s dense tapestry of symbols and literary allusions; parse its various themes, such as sacred and profane love, exile, suffering as purification, and radical empathy; and compare the translators’ respective approaches to the problems and opportunities of the original’s form (hendecasyllabic terza rima), diction, music, narrative apparatus, voice, and imagery.