ITAL10120

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
- analyse a selection of cantos of Dante's Inferno in terms of both form and content and provide an informed, critical reading of them;
- demonstrate familiarity with the social and political context of fourteenth-century Italy;
- define and use the concepts of intertextuality, adaptation, and reception;
- creatively engage with the core text, reflecting on its relevance in our times;
- participate in in-class discussions, presenting personal ideas or critical readings orally;
- complete written assignments, focusing on content, structure, style of the analysed texts.

Indicative Module Content:

- Reading of selected cantos from Dante Alighieri's Inferno
- Reading of secondary sources on Dante, his works and the selected cantos
- Examination of literary, visual, musical, and multimedia content related to Dante's Inferno

Student Effort Hours:

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

Lectures, reflective learning, collaborative teaching, creative learning

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Learning Requirements:

Not applicable to this module. This module is open to students without previous knowledge of Italian. The primary texts will be read in English.

Module Requisites and Incompatibles

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy

 

Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Not yet recorded.

Core text: Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Canto I, III, IV, V, VI, X, XXVI, XXXIII. Text, translation and commento baroliniano available on Digital Dante website: https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/

Secondary readings (uploaded on Brightspace):

Week 1:
• Lino Pertile, Dante, in The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, eds Peter Brand and Lino Pertile, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 37-69.
• Lino Pertile, Introduction to Inferno, in The Cambridge Companion to Dante, ed Rachel Jacoff, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 67 – 90.
• Linda Hutcheon, Beginning to Theorize Adaptation: What? Who? Why? How? Where? When?, in Linda Hutcheon, A Theory of Adaptation, New York: Routledge, 2006, pp. 1-32.

Week 2:
• Katherine Powlesland, Dante and Video Games: The Unrealised Potential of the Virtual Commedia, Italian Studies, 77:2, 2022, 146-156.
• Dante’s Inferno, Visceral Games, 2010 (Videogame).
• Extracts from the script of 7 Deadly Sins by Niall Austin (2024).

Week 3:
• Deborah Parker, Doré’s Dante: Influence, Transformation, and Reinvention, in Dante Alive, eds Francesco Ciabattoni and Simone Marchesi, New York: Routledge, 2022, pp. 3-21.
• Go Nagai, La Divina Commedia (Manga).

Week 4:

• Alastair J. Minnis, Medieval Theory of Authorship, London: Scolar Press, 1984, pp. 9-12.
• Simone Marchesi, Classical Culture, in The Cambridge Companion to Dante's "Commedia", eds Zygmunt G. Baranski and Simon Gilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 127-39.

Week 5:
• Teodolinda Barolini, Dante and Francesca da Rimini: Realpolitik, Romance, Gender, Speculum, 75,1, 2000, pp. 1-28.
• The Dante Project (Wayne Mc Gregor), The Royal Ballet, 2021.

Week 6:
• Philip Terry, Dante’s Inferno, Manchester: Carcanet Press, 2014.
• Paola Loreto, «Englishing» Dante: Three Recent American Poets’ Translations of the Inferno, ACME, LXXIV, 2, 2021, 181-195.

Week 9:
• Macs Smith, The Icon, the Exile: Dante and Contemporary Italian Street Art, in Dante Alive, eds Francesco Ciabattoni and Simone Marchesi, New York: Routledge, 2022, pp. 262-287.

Week 10:
• Primo Levi, If This Is a Man, The Canto of Ulysses Chapter: https://levidigitalcommentary.org/english/.
• Risa Sodi, “La terza via": Dante and Primo Levi, MLN, 127,1, 2012, 199-203.

Week 11:
• Jorge Luis Borges, The False Problem of Ugolino, in Selected Non-Fictions, ed. Eliot Weinberger, New York: Viking, 1999, pp. 277-279.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.