English 360B

Major Author: Dante

Fall Term 2003

Professor Michael Curley

Scheduled meetings: MWF 10:00 - 10:50

Office hours: MWF 3:00 - 4:00 p.m., Wyatt Hall 151 or by appointment

Phone: Ext. 3779

Dante takes his place among the major authors of world literature for the depth and richness of his portrait of the human condition, and for the power and beauty of his poetry. He has exerted a strong influence on later writers from Boccaccio and Chaucer in his own day, down to James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. Major new translations of his works appear with regularity. A history of critical responses to Dante's Commedia would constitute a history of criticism from the late Middle Ages to the present. This course will provide you with the opportunity to read the entire Commedia, La vita nuova and a selection of Dante’s early prose works, and to situate them against the political and literary context in which Dante wrote. We shall also study the wide variety of critical and artistic responses to Dante, primarily during the twentieth century. A word of advice: leave time in your schedule to read the assignments in this course slowly, patiently and attentively. Read actively, ask questions, write your papers on the enduring problems that Dante addressed: love, hatred, hope, despair, damnation, death and redemption.

Texts:

Dante Alighieri, Dante’s Vita Nuova, trans. Mark Musa (Bloomington

and London: Indiana University Press, 1973)

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri (Inferno, Purgatorio,

and Paradiso), trans. Allen Mandelbaum (New York: Bantam Books,

1982)

Dante Alighieri, On World Government (De monarchia), trans. Herbert

Schneider (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1949) – Handout

Saint Augustine, On Christian Doctrine (De doctrina christiana), trans.

D. N. Robertson (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958)

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. V. E. Watts, (Harmondsworth:

Penguin, 1969)

Course Requirements:

Dante qualifies as a major author principally because of the richness and depth of his art, but also because of the impact his works, especially the Commedia, have had on our thinking about literature. The following course requirements have been designed to help you to understand the artistic achievement of Dante, but also to become acquainted with the variety of critical responses which Dante's works have evoked. The requirements provide you with opportunities throughout the semester to consolidate your own critical thinking about the works under consideration.

1. All assigned readings.

2. Class attendance and participation.

3. Two brief (15 minutes) oral reports, usually based on the Reserve Reading list on the syllabus. These readings can be found at the Reserve Desk in Collins Memorial Library under my name and the course title. In order to spread the reports evenly over the course of the term, you will be assigned the dates and essays on which your two oral reports will be based. The detailed written outline from which you deliver your oral report will be due on the day you make your report.

4. Four short critical papers (3-5 pages). The first two critical papers will be devoted to the material in parts 1 and 2 of the course. The third and fourth papers will be on the Inferno and the Purgatorio respectively. The due dates will be announced well in advance.

5. A term paper (10 pages plus notes and bibliography) on some aspect of the work of Dante. Due on Tuesday, 16 December at 5:00 p.m.

Schedule of Readings:

PART I: MEDIEVAL LITERARY THEORY

Week 1-2: September 2-12

Augustine, On Christian Doctrine

RESERVE READINGS: Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo, 259-69.

SECONDARY READINGS: Gerald Bonner, “Augustine as Biblical Scholar,” in The Cambridge History of the Bible, 1:541-63; James J. O’Donnell, “Introduction Augustine’s Life And Works” (On Christian Doctine) – http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/augustine/navbar.html; E. Talbot Donaldson, “Patristic Exegesis in the Criticism of Medieval Literature: The Opposition,” in Speaking of Chaucer, ch. 10.

Week 3: September 15-19

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy

RESERVE READINGS: William Bark, “The Legend of Boethius’ Martyrdom,” Speculum, XXI (1946): 312-17 (available on JSTOR in Collins Memorial Library); John Morehead, Theoderic in Italy, pp. 219-235.

SECONDARY READINGS: John Block Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages, pp. 90-118; E. K. Rand, The Founders of the Middle Ages, ch. 5; H. M. Barrett, Boethius: Some Aspects of His Time and Work; Howard M. Patch, The Tradition of Boethius: A Study of His Importance in Medieval Culture.

Week 4: September 22-26

Dante, Epistle to Cangrande (Handout)

RESERVE READINGS: Giuseppe Mazzotta, “Life of Dante,” The Cambridge

Companion to Dante, pp. 1-13.

SECONDARY READINGS: Theodolinda Barolini, The Undivine Comedy: Detheologizing Dante, ch. 1; Charles T. Davis, Dante’s Italy and Other Essays, esp. ch. 1 (Dante’s Italy); John Hollander, Dante’s Epistle to Cangrande.

PART II: THE EARLY WORKS

Week 5: September 29 – October 3

Dante, La Vita Nuova, I-XV

RESERVE READINGS: Charles Singleton, “From Love to Caritas” in An Essay on the

Vita Nuova, pp. 55-77.

SECONDARY READINGS: Musa, “Essay,” pp. 89-106; Theodolinda Barolini, “Dante and the Lyric Past,” in The Cambridge Companion to Dante, pp. 14-33; Kenelm Foster, “Courtly Love and Christianity,” in The Two Dantes and Other Studies, ch. 3.

Week 6: October 6-10

The Vita Nuova, XVI – XLII, De monarchia (Handout)

RESERVE READINGS: Charles Till Davis, “Dante and the Empire,” in The Cambridge

Companion to Dante, pp. 67-79.

SECONDARY READINGS: Musa, “Essay,” pp. 106-134 and 134-174; Robert Pogue Harrison, “Approaching the Vita Nuova” in The Cambridge Companion to Dante, pp. 34-44; Joan Ferrante, The Political Vision of the Divine Comedy, Introduction, esp. pp. 21-43.

PART III: THE COMMEDIA

Week 7: October 13-17

Dante, Inferno, cantos 1-11; Virgil, Aeneid, Books 1 - 3.

RESERVE READINGS: Renato Poggioli, "Paolo and Francesca" in Dante, A Collection of Critical Essays, pp. 61-77.

SECONDARY READINGS: Erich Auerbach, "Farinata and Cavalcante," in Mimesis:

The Representation of Reality in Western Litereture, pp. 174–202; Robert Hollander,

Allegory in Dante’s Commedia, pp. 112-113 (Handout).

FALL BREAK

Monday, October 20

Week 8: October 20-24

Dante, Inferno, cantos 12-21; Virgil, Aeneid, Books 4 - 6.

RESERVE READINGS: John E. Boswell, “Dante and the Sodomites,” Dante Studies

112 (1994): 63-76; Richard Kay, “The Sins(s) of Brunetto Latini,” Dante Studies 112

(1994): 19-31.

SECONDARY READINGS: Georgio Petrocchi, “The Violent Against Themselves,” in Lectura Dantis, Inferno, pp. 178-184; Erich Auerbach, "Figural Art in the Middle Ages," in Scenes From the Drama of European Literature, pp. 60-76.

Week 9: October 27-31

Dante, Inferno, cantos 22-34

RESERVE READINGS: John Freccero, "Dante's Ulysses: From Epic to Novel,"

in Dante, The Poetics of Conversion, pp. 136 – 151; Robert Hollander,

Allegory in Dante’s Commedia, pp. 114-123 (Handout).

SECONDARY READINGS: Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz (“The Canto of Ulysses”) [Handout]; Edoardo Sanguineti, “Count Ugolino and Others,” in Lectura Dantis, Inferno, pp. 424-31.

Week 10: November 3-7

Dante, Purgatory, cantos 1 - 12

RESERVE READINGS: Charles Singleton, "In Exitu Israel de Aegypto," in Dante, A

Collection of Critical Essays, pp. 102-122.

SECONDARY READINGS: Teodolina Barolini, "Casella's Song," in Modern Critical Interpretations: Dante's "The Divine Comedy," pp. 151-158; Teodolina Barolini, “Representing What God Presented: The Arachnean Art of the Terrace of Pride,” in The Undivine Comedy: Detheologizing Dante, ch. 6; Robert Hollander, “Cato’s Rebuke and Dante scoglio,” Italica 52 (1975), 384-63 (Handout).

Week 11: November 10-14

Dante, Purgatory, cantos 13 - 24

RESERVE READINGS: John Hollander, “Dante’s Virgil: A Light That Failed,” Lectura Dantis [virginiana] 4 (1989): 3-9.

SECONDARY READINGS: Kenelm Foster, “Dante and Eros,” in The Two Dantes and Other Studies, ch. 3; Francis Fergusson, Dante's Drama of the Mind, pp. 80-104.

Week 12: November 17-21

Dante, Purgatorio, cantos 25 - 33

RESERVE READINGS: Richard Lansing, “Narrative Design in Dante Earthly Paradise,”

Dante Studies 112 (1994): 101-13.

SECONDARY READINGS: Robert Hollander, "The Women of Purgutorio: Dreams, Voyages, Prophecies," in Allegory in Dante's Commedia, ch. IV (pp. 136 - 191); Singleton, The Journey to Beatrice, esp. pp. 72-99.

Week 13: November 24-28

Dante, Paradiso, cantos 1-18

SECONDARY READINGS: Jeffrey Schnapp, "Unica Spes Hominum" in The Transfiguration of History at the Center of Dante's Paradise, pp. 121-149; John Freccero, "An Introduction to the Paradiso," in Dante, The Poetics of Conversion, pp. 209 - 220.

THANKSGIVING BREAK

Thursday - Sunday, November 27-30

Week 14: December 1-5

Dante, Paradiso, cantos 19-33

SECONDARY READINGS: Patrick Boyde, “Creation: ‘Paradiso’ XXIX, 1-57,” in Dante Philomythes and Philosopher, Man in the Cosmos, pp. 235-247; John Freccero, “The Final Image: Paradiso XXXIII, 144,”in Dante, The Poetics of Conversion, pp. 245-257.

Week 15: December 8-10

Final Reports

Reserve: Collins Library

Dante:

Boswell, John E. “Dante and the Sodomites,” Dante Studies 112 (1994): 63-76.

Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo. Berkeley, 1967.

The Cambridge Companion to Dante. Edited by Rachel Jacoff, Cambridge, 1993.

Dante, A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by John Freccero. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1965.

Foster, Kenelm. The Two Dantes and Other Studies. Berkeley, 1977.

Freccero, John. Dante, The Poetics of Conversion. Cambridge, Mass., 1986.

Hollander, John. “Dante’s Virgil: A Light That Failed,” Lectura Dantis [virginiana] 4 (1989): 3-9.

Kay, Richard. “The Sins(s) of Brunetto Latini,” Dante Studies 112 (1994): 19-31.

Lansing, Richard. “Narrative Design in Dante Earthly Paradise,” Dante Studies 112 (1994): 101-13.

Morehead, John. Theoderic in Italy. Oxford, 1992.

Singleton, Charles S. An Essay on the Vita Nuova. Cambridge, Mass.

1949.

Selected Bibliography

Dante:

Auerbach, Erich. Dante, Poet of the Secular World. Chicago, repr. 1969.

Auerbach, Erich. Scenes from the Drama of European Literature, Six Essays. New York, 1959.

Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis, The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton, rev. ed., 1968.

Barolini, Teodolinda. Dante's Poets: Textuality and Truth in the Comedy.

Princeton, 1984.

Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. Translated with a commentary by Charles Singleton. 3 vols. Princeton, 1970-75.

Davis, Charles. Dante and the Idea of Rome. Oxford, 1957.

Fergusson, Francis. Dante's Drama of the Mind, A Modern Reading of the Purgatorio. Princeton, 1953.

Ferrante, Joan. The Political Vision of the Divine Comedy. Princeton, 1984.

Foster, Kenelm. The Two Dantes. Berkeley, 1977.

Harrison, Robert Pogue. The Body of Beatrice. Baltimore, 1988.

Hollander, Robert. Allegory in Dante's Commedia. Princeton, 1969.

Lectura Dantis, Inferno, Edited by Allen Mandelbum, et al. Berkeley, 1998.

Mazzotta, Giuseppe. Dante, Poet of the Desert. Princeton, 1979.

Modern Critical Interpretations: Dante's The Divine Comedy. Edited by Harold Bloom. New York, 1987.

Schnapp, Jeffrey T. The Transfiguration of History at the Center of Dante's Paradise Princeton, 1986.

Thompson, David. Dante's Epic Journeys. Baltimore, 1974.

Dante Websites:

http://www.georgetown. edu/labyrinth/

This is the best general website for medieval studies. Explore it especially for its links to other sites on more specialized topics. You can start with Labyrinth (see Italy and Italian) to reach the following Dante sites:

http://www.ilit.columbia.edu/projects/dante/

This site will enable you to consult a wide variety of works by Dante in Italian and Latin; there are also translations of these works. Especially useful are links to the works of Dante's sources (Aristotle, Virgil, Ovid and Thomas Aquinas). There is an excellent bibliography of studies of Dante.

http://www.princeton.edu/~dante/

Find links to The American Dante Bibliography, the Electronic Bulletin of the Dante Society of America, and the Princeton Dante Project where you will find lectures, maps, audio, and reference works pertaining to Dante.

Reference Works:

The Dante Encyclopedia, ed. Richard Lansing. New York, 2000.

Toynbee, Paget. A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante. Oxford, 1968.

Visual Arts:

Altcappenberg, Hein-Th. Sandro Botticelli: The Drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy. London, 2000.

Brieger, Peter, Millard Miess, Charles S. Singleton. Illuminated Manuscripts of the Divine Comedy. 2 vols. Princeton, 1996.

Taylor, Charles H. and Patricia Finley. Images of the Journey in Dante’s Divine Comedy. New Haven, 1997.