EN 527 Dante's Florence and The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy masterfully treats the enduring issues of sin and retribution, worthy and unworthy love, forgiveness and redemption, but it emerged out of Dante's deep involvement with the problems of political and ecclesiastical corruption that beset his own time and place. Through an intensive study of Dante's major text in its political and cultural contexts, this literature course seeks to heighten students' ability to use close textual analysis as ways both of responding to the rich complexities of Dante's poem and of gaining historical insight into the medieval world. (3)