LIT 92 — A Poem for Our Time: Dante’s Inferno
Quarter: Winter
Instructor(s): Robert Harrison, Alexa (Ali) Hazel
Date(s): Jan 13—Mar 3
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Class Meeting Time: 6:30—8:20 pm (PT)
Tuition: $495
Refund Deadline: Jan 15
Unit(s): 1
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Winter
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 8 weeks
Time: 6:30—8:20 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jan 13—Mar 3
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $495
Refund Deadline: Jan 15
Instructor(s): Robert Harrison, Alexa (Ali) Hazel
Recording Available: No
Status: Registration opens Nov 30, 8:30 am (PT)
A journey through the first canticle of Dante’s three-part poem, The Divine Comedy. The main objective is to probe Inferno in detail and in depth by engaging in close textual analysis and acquiring a basic familiarity with the poem’s prosody as well as some theological doctrines that inform Dante’s vision of human wrongdoing. We will pay special attention to the social, literary, and political climate of Florence and Italy in Dante’s time and to how Dante’s permanent exile from Florence in 1302 revolutionized his literary career and turned him into the author of the poem. The second major objective of the course is to reflect on how Dante’s vision of civic factionalism, human vice, and self-deception continues to remain relevant to contemporary society and our modern experience. Indeed, the course’s major premise is that Dante knows us better than we know ourselves.
This is the first course in a two-course sequence. "A Poem for Our Time: Dante's Purgatorio and Paradiso" will be offered in Spring 2027.
ROBERT HARRISON
Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature, Emeritus, Stanford
Robert Harrison is the host of Entitled Opinions (KZSU Radio) and director of Another Look Book Club at Stanford. He is the author of six scholarly books: Juvenescence: A Cultural History of Our Age; The Body of Beatrice; Forests: The Shadow of Civilization; Rome, la pluie (in French); The Dominion of the Dead; and Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition. Harrison is also the former chair of the Stanford Department of French and Italian. ALEXA (ALI) HAZEL
Writer and Graduate Student in Modern Thought and Literature, Stanford
Alexa (Ali) Hazel’s interests include Dante’s conception of sloth in Purgatorio. She has published essays on the future of humanity, Simone Weil, virtual reality, and other topics. Her work has been featured in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Point, Public Books, Wasafiri, and Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry. She received a BA in English and political and social thought from the University of Virginia and an MSt in world literatures in English from Exeter College, Oxford. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Dante Alighieri, Inferno (ISBN 978-0195087444 )
(Required) Barbara Reynolds, Dante: The Poet, the Political Thinker, The Man (ISBN 978-1593761622)
(Required) Barbara Reynolds, Dante: The Poet, the Political Thinker, The Man (ISBN 978-1593761622)