LIT 57 — Dante's Inferno: A Guide to the Darkest Parts of The Divine Comedy
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Nicholas Jenkins
Date(s): Apr 1—Jun 3
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Tuesdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Tuition: $550
Refund Deadline: Apr 3
Unit(s): 2
Status: Registration opens Feb 24, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Spring
Day: Tuesdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Date(s): Apr 1—Jun 3
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $550
Refund Deadline: Apr 3
Instructor(s): Nicholas Jenkins
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Feb 24, 8:30 am (PT)
Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, written in Italian in the early 14th century, is a spiritual and poetic epic like no other. It was composed after Dante’s political career had ended in complete failure and forced exile had left him in a kind of living hell. Epic poems are usually the stories of journeys, and The Divine Comedy is the account of a soul’s progress away from sin and toward the vision of God. The work is divided into three parts—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. In this course, we will read Inferno, which depicts a harrowing passage through the many circles of hell. Inferno is a masterpiece of sorrow, anger, regret, wonder, and despair, expressed through a memorable series of ultra-particularized encounters between Dante and friends, enemies, and contemporaries trapped in the lowest levels of the afterlife. With Dante and his guide, the Roman poet Virgil, we meet thieves tortured by snakes, counterfeiters agonized by unquenchable thirst, traitors gnawing on each other’s flesh. Dante’s story might be a metaphysical one, but his means of expression are intensely literal and physical.
The reading for this course will be in English and presupposes no knowledge of poetry, the Middle Ages, or medieval Italian.
NICHOLAS JENKINS
Associate Professor of English, Stanford
Nicholas Jenkins is the author of The Island: War and Belonging in Auden's England. He was the primary investigator for Kindred Britain, a digital humanities website that traces relationships among more than 30,000 British people. He has contributed to the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. He is the literary executor of the ballet impresario Lincoln Kirstein, and he received a DPhil from the University of Oxford. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Dante Alighieri, Robert M. Durling (Ed), The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 1: Inferno (ISBN 978-0195087444)
(Required) Dante Alighieri, Mark Musa (Trans), The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (ISBN 978-0142437223)
(Required) Dante Alighieri, Mark Musa (Trans), The Divine Comedy: Volume 1: Inferno (ISBN 978-0142437223)