ITAL 731

Prof. Maggie Fritz-Morkin (mfritzm@email.unc.edu)

 The harsh and crude poetics of Dante’s Inferno send readers on a linguistic tour of Italy, lingering “in taverna coi ghiottoni” (in the tavern with the gluttons) and stumbling into post-Babelic wastelands of semantic decay. The course combines a close reading of Inferno and its critical tradition with understudied medieval hellscapes (literary, visual, even linguistic). Students will learn research methods for medieval texts and Dante studies, how to engage fruitfully with literary theory, and connect visual and textual cultures. The portfolio of coursework will ask students to propose an article, dissertation chapter, or undergraduate syllabus based on their course paper. Students may choose to speak and write in English or Italian, but must have reading and listening knowledge of both languages.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Previously: Dante’s Poesis”]Once-rigid categories of style and genre had already begun to destabilize when Dante brought them into his poetic workshop to be dismantled and reconfigured in experimental and hybrid forms. This course will trace Dante’s interventions in literary theory and aesthetics from his early lyric to the Commedia, and explore how Dante reframes critical themes and questions from previous works as he matures poetically. Students will take turns presenting critical essays to the class, create an annotated bibliography, and workshop a seminar paper with a proposal for developing it into an article or dissertation chapter. Students may choose to speak and write in English but must have reading and listening knowledge of Italian.

Reading List

Stilnovist poets, especially Cavalcanti, Donna me prega et. al.

Dante: Vita nova
            De vulgari eloquentia
            Convivio (selections)
            Letter to Cangrande della Scala
            Commedia (selections from Inferno, Purgatorio in full, selections from Paradiso)[/vc_toggle][/vc_column][/vc_row]