Inferno
wednesday, september 4: cantos 1 and 2
Questions for our first meeting:
What do we learn from the title? Commedia | The Divine Comedy
What is the structure of the poem? Why does it revolve around the number 3?
What is the poem’s genre?
Who was Dante?
Where does the pilgrim find himself at the beginning of Inferno? How might we read the poem literally and allegorically?
How is Canto 1 a general prologue to or rehearsal of the rest of the poem?
Next meeting? Cantos 3-4.
thursday, september 12: cantos 3 and 4
What’s troubling about the placement of the virtuous pagans?
How does Dante see himself in a line of great poets? What is Dante guilty of in this instance?
What is contrapasso? How is the punishment of the so-called neutral angels a poetic, appropriate punishment?
wednesday, september 25: cantos 5-8
A review of the topography of sin in Dante’s Inferno
Who is Francesca? What’s her story? Let’s look closely at Dante and Francesca’s interaction.
To what extent does Dante participate in the sin of gluttony?
Next time: Cantos 9-12, Who would like to lead?
“But then my mind was struck by light that flashed
and, with this light, received what it had asked.
Here force failed my high fantasy; but my
desire and will were moved already—like
a wheel revolving uniformly—by
the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.”
TEXTs for the year
