An introduction to Dante's works in the cultural and historical context of the European Middle Ages.

This new class on Dante Alighieri is an interdisciplinary and cross-historical exploration of the poet and his world through his works and through the reception of his works up to the present day. In the Dante year 2021, we are looking back at 700 years of reading Dante, reading with Dante, re-writing Dante, and illustrating Dante in every possible textual and visual medium. Reading Dante, an author who died in Italy 700 years ago, today in California, at Berkeley, is an act of engaging with the author’s heritage through its most long-lasting and relevant aspects: those of the meaning of language and personal memory for the self, of displacement and exile, resilience and recovery, self-reliance, and endurance of that which makes a human being last beyond their death. Classically, this work is about love and loss, death and redemption, hell and paradise. But its reading is also itself an enactment of purgatory, the realm of the in-between and of work that needs to be done to move oneself from Hell to Paradise when engaging with the author’s deeply personal themes of desire, depression, melancholy, hope, recovery, and personal triumph. While Dante has remained relevant as a classic of world literature with bearings on language, history, theology, psychology, and many more fields, this course will take an entirely new angle by focusing simultaneously on questions of ecology and psychology in Dante. Students in this course will embark on researching the meaning of the elements - earth, air, water, fire - in their literal and metaphorical meanings, the influence of catastrophic environmental events and the imagery of natural and landscape for Dante in the Divine Comedy and beyond, up to contemporary Dante illustrations and reverberations of Dante in the present-day global art, film scene, and politics of exile. Conducted in English, the class is open to majors from all fields. No previous art history or literature history preparation required. Italian and other non-English texts (such as French, Spanish,and German) will be introduced on a basic level as desired by the students. This course is designed to connect with other and further studies in broad fields including but not limited to Medieval Studies, Renaissance & Early Modern Studies, critical theory, interdisciplinary studies, and literature studies. Students from all backgrounds are welcome; please email Prof. Lange to discuss your interest in the course and potential adjustments for majors outside the arts and humanities. Texts to be announced.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills