Introductory description

The module leads students through a multisensory journey into Inferno, the first realm of his grandiose vision of the afterworld, the Inferno (Hell).

The lectures will introduce you to the central figures, themes and stylistic features of the first cantica of the Divine Comedy through the close-reading of selected cantos (full and abridged) in English translation (with facing Italian text). Students will engage in a collaborative exploration of its historical context, narrative complexities and the ethical issues Dante poses and which are still relevant in the contemporary world (including, but not limited to, desire and sexuality, freedom of thought, punishment and expiation).

The seminars will further the thematic reading from the perspective of their afterlife in modern and contemporary literary and visual, material and digital culture, reflecting upon the sources and implications for ‘mediation’. The seminar will enable you to trace and discover the many reverberations and reconfigurations of Dante’s Inferno in literature, film, comic books, theatre, videogames, and TV series.

3500-word essay (75%) plus a individual presentation with group discussion (15%) presentation on one of the topics explored in the lectures. Formative assessment will be provided throughout, by means of individual research projects, in preparation for the assessed essay.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1
General Introduction
(L) Dante’s Poetic Invention: language, narrative structure and sources of the Commedia
(S) Recreating Dante: from literary monument to Pop icon.

Week 2
Introduction to the Inferno
(L) The Dark Wood
Part 1. The poet as a (lost) hero and his guides (Virgil, Beatrice), Inf. I-II
Part 2. Spatial and moral structure of the underworld, Inf. I and XI

(S) Hellish Cartographies from Manuscript to Video Games and Augmented Reality.
Week 3
(L) Entering Hell: From Limbo to the circle of the Lustful
Part 1. The poetic journey: Dante and literary authorities, Inf. IV
Part 2. (Mis)Reading with Francesca: literature, gender and moral agency, Inf. V.

(S) The Many Meanings of a Kiss: female readership and mediation in the Commedia.

Week 4
(L) Hellish encounters: the psychology of sin and the mechanism of punishment, passages from Inf. VI; X; XIII; XV; XXVI

(S) Questioning the contrappasso:
P 1. Lectura Andreapolitana https://lecturadantisandreapolitana.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/category/video/the-dante-debate/
P 2. The sounds of Inferno

Week 5
(L) Protecting Hell: Guardians, Monsters and Beasts, selection extracts from Inferno.
(S) Visual re-mediations of the monstrous: from Gustave Dore’s plates to Go Nagai’s comic book.

Week 7
(L) Metamorphosis and the humanity of the sinful body, selection of extracts from Inferno.
(S) Presentations
Week 8
(L) Church, politics and civil conflict: Dante’s prophecies, extracts from Inf. VI; X; XV; XIX
(S) Presentations

Week 9
(L) Ulysses: Politics of language and the threat of the Intellect, Inf XXVI.
(S) Presentations

Week 10
(L) The 
Pit 
of 
the 
Universe: Ugolino, Satan and the Exit from Hell, Inf. XXIX; passages from XXXIII-IV
(S) Presentations

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A copy in Italian with English facing-page translation, options include Robin Kirkpatrick (Penguin, 2006); Robert and Jean Hollander (Doubleday, 2003); Charles Singleton (Princeton University Press, 1991)
Useful introductory studies
Z. G. Barański and S. A. Gilson, The Cambridge Companion to Dante’s ‘Commedia’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Z. G. Barański and L. Pertile, Dante in Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
R. Jacoff, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Dante (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 2012).
R. Kirkpatrick, Dante: The ‘Divine Comedy’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, 2003)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Use knowledge acquired in lectures, seminars and from prescribed reading as a basis for individual research
• Demonstrate relevant factual knowledge about the Dante and the Inferno, and contexts and issues under discussion and demonstrate understanding of the texts at a thematic as well as linguistic and stylistic level
• Successfully communicate what they have learnt both orally and in writing
• Critically analyse the texts and engage where appropriate with scholarly debates surrounding the texts
• Evaluate the impact of political, intellectual and literary developments on Dante's Inferno
• Develop IT skills

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ critical and linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in either Italian or in English translation. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of Italian culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of Dante's Hell will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from English and target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.