| CODE | LAS1008 | ||||||
| TITLE | Dante’s Divine Comedy | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | I - Introductory Level | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Centre for the Liberal Arts and Sciences | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This Unit intends to introduce students to the mystifying medieval world of Dante Alighieri. The Unit will delve into the context, the themes, the styles, the meanings and the allegories from a selection of cantos from the Divine Comedy. The lectures shall be carried out in English but the students with knowledge of Italian will also be given the opportunity to read a selection of cantos in the original text with their lecturer. Students with no knowledge of Italian will be using the authoritative new verse translation (with facing-page Italian text) by internationally famed scholar and master teacher Robert Hollander and his wife, poet Jean Hollander. The text is available online on the Princeton Dante Project (http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/). Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the Unit the student will be able to: • Identify the historical and literary contexts involved in the composition of Dante’s Divine Comedy; • Acquire a basic knowledge of the main characters, topics and themes tackled by Dante in the Divine Comedy; • Familiarise themselves with the aesthetic and poetic style of Dante’s Commedia; • Appraise the influence which Dante has exercised on the World’s literary canon; • Familiarize themselves with the immense learning resources available on Prof. Robert Hollander’s learning portal, Princeton Dante Project 2.0. 2. Skills: By the end of the Unit the student will be able to: • Analyse and interpret a text of Dante’s DC, using an eclectic approach, i.e. a variety of readings: structuralist/formalist, historicist, thematic and linguistic approaches; • Describe and appraise the role of Dante in the Italian literary canon as well as in the formation of Italian as an established national language; • Provide a written analysis in English on a selected text from Dante’s DC (supplied in the original format with a translation); • Master the reading skills necessary to read, understand and interpret the verses of Dante’s DC; • Master the necessary skills to analyse the meter and the rhetorical devices of Dante’s poetry in the Commedia. Main Text/s: • Alighieri Dante, Inferno, translation by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander, Doubleday/Anchor, 2000. (Available online on http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/) • Alighieri Dante, Purgatorio, translation by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander, Doubleday/Anchor, 2003. (Available online on http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/) • Alighieri Dante, Paradiso, translation by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander, Doubleday/Anchor, 2007. (Available online on http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/) Supplementary readings: • Aa.vv., Enciclopedia Dantesca, voll. 1-5, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia italiana, Roma 1976. • Borsellino Nino, Ritratto di Dante, Laterza, Bari, 1998. • Morgan Alison, Dante and the medieval other world, series Cambridge studies in medieval literature, Cambridge U.P., 1990. • Larner John, Italy in the age of Dante and Petrarch, 1216-1380, Longman, 1980. • Mauro Walter, Invito alla lettura di Dante Alighieri, Mursia, 1990. • Padoan Giorgio, Introduzione a Dante, Sansoni Editore, Milano, 1995. • Petrocchi Giorgio, Vita di Dante, Laterza, Bari, 1986. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Karl Chircop Stephen Zammit |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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