Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Inferno by Dante - Class Notes


  • Dante chose not to write The Comedy in Latin but in his common language (Tuscan/Italian dialect)   
                     - Made it more accessible
                     - Challenged authorities at the time

  • Vernacular - common language, vulgar 
  • Dante is half-way through his life at the time of entering the inferno in his book (35 years)
  • The journey into hell begins on Good Friday in 1300 
  • His work was published before the printing press was invented so it had to be written on sheepskin and would have been extremely expensive 
  • Calvinism focuses on predestination, the chosen/elite group 
  • Martin Luther - had a different idea of being saved by faith not by good works 
  • Reoccurring theme of fame and remembrance in many of the works we have read so far this term. Worst case scenario is to be forgotten, even if it is in a negative way people wanted to be remembered by the living.
  • Dante was often carried or cradled by Virgil - father figure? 
  • Dante was often rebuked by Virgil for inappropriate pity or for being overly fascinated by the figures in hell.   
  • Guest friendship remained an important concept in the middle ages as in ancient times
  • Worst kind of betrayal is that of family and kin 
  • Acedia - sloth 

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