In this class we will do a close reading of the first two of the three canticles of Dante Alighieri's Commedia. We will focus our class discussions upon specific episodes (in bold on the calendar below) in order to draw out and explore the contemporary significance of this complex text from our culture's Medieval past.

We will seek to uncover the ways in which the poet blends elements of classical pagan literary culture with his own medieval literary traditions and Christian beliefs to create a text that still generates interest today, poetically, ethically, politically, historically and simply as a pleasurable read.
Our study of the Commedia will be supplemented by several catabatic precedents from classical epic poetry and medieval mystical literature in an effort to illuminate the literary backgrounds of the poem.