Dear all,Abstract
Traditionally, when scholars encounter anomalies in Dante’s juridical otherworld, they search for doctrinal answers that safeguard and reconfirm the classifications of his penal order. The working hypothesis of this seminar instead posits that Dante creates an otherworld based on an elaborate network of laws, jurisdictions, and rulers in order to contemplate the significance of exceptions to this system. Dante wrote the Commedia, in order words, to probe the limits of the law. The workshop will be divided into three classes, each corresponding to a distinct key word. The first class will focus on the concept of privilegium and in particular on the singular privilege granted Dante to traverse the territory of the otherworld, immune from the laws of his own construct. The second class will explore the concept of arbitrium in Dante, especially the relationship that judicial discretion and poetic license in his thinking. The third class will turn to the concept of infamia, and ask how Dante’s autobiographical legal disgrace affects the concept of justice in the poem as well as its own defamatory aesthetics. The readings are not extensive but will require close attention to detail.
Readings
Please try to read all the "canti" below. You can find them on the website http://www.danteonline.it/, in Italian and English.
Lesson 1: Inferno, canti 8-9.
Lesson 2: Inferno, canti 13, 32; Purgatorio, canto 27.
Lesson 3: Inferno, canti 15-16; Paradiso, canto 17
I will send you another (very short) reading via email.
Prof. Steinberg's CV:
http://rll.uchicago.edu/faculty/steinberg
http://news.uchicago.edu/profile/justin-steinberg
I'm really looking forward to this lesson. Would it be useful for us to bring our own commented version of the Divina Commedia? (one of the few high school's books that I've kept!)
ReplyDeletecorallina lopez
Yes, of course! Bring your Divina Commedia and refresh all you have done on it during the Liceo!
ReplyDeleteAbout the “eighth canto”:
ReplyDeleteDante is located in the fifth circle, in front of Dite’ s gates.
In this circle, there are the damned and they are immersed in the swamp.
The law of relation is that , while in the life they were full of anger against the others, now they beat the one against the other.
Dante describes in this canto, the meeting with Flegias, the guardian of the circle.
Dante and Virglio climb in to the boat in which Flegias conveys the damned and the boat is weighted only when Dante rises above .
During navigation, Dante meets Filippo Argenti and says that he will not stay in the swamp like him.
Filippo Argenti annoyed by Dante’ s words, trys to drag Dante in the swamp. At that point , Virgilo helps the writer to do not fall from the boat.
Overcome the difficulty, Virgilio eulogises Dante about his behavior with Filippo Argenti, because this person, during is life has been proud and less generous.
Left Filippo Argenti, Dante and Virgilio arrive at Dite city and they try to enter.
Before entering, Virgilio says to Dante to wait and he goes to talk with the demons ,trying to persuade them to open the Dite’ s gates also for Dante.
Sara De Prosperis
The thing that struck me more about the hell canto 9° is the arrival of the messenger of heaven, Dante recognizes him as one "dal ciel messo", like an angel. He touches the door and opens it, and the devils disappear, then turns and walks away.
ReplyDeleteI wondered what was the allegorical sense that Dante wanted to emphasize.
A general interpretation may be this: the reason, symbolized by Virgil, is not enough by itself to take on and dominate the sins of "malizia"(that are the sins committed by willing,not for incontinence,and punished in the city of Dite). The reason is hampered by the temptations (devils), remorse (the Furies) and despair and that follows the regret and "petrifies the heart " (Medusa), the reason can help just enough to survive the immediate moment (Virgil cares to cover Dante's eyes), but it is only through the grace of God (the "messo") that you can get to a final defeat of sin.
Cristina Di Florio
Today's lesson was very interesting. I was impressed in particular by the concept of "free will". As Prof Steinberg told us, "free will" is the main topic of Purgatorio, but at the same time it is also at the center of the whole Divina Commedia. In fact, in the fundamental premise of his poem, he says: "An individual becomes liable to the rewards or punishments of justice through the exercise of free will".Marco Lombardo, a sort of Dante's alter ego, who helps Dante to understand better the concept of "free will", explains that while the heavens exert influence over human desires, individuals (because they have free will) are responsible for their actions. He focuses on the socio-political implications of human responsibility insofar as guidance, in the form of laws and leadership, is required to direct individual souls to proper ends. Marco concludes that misrule, due primarily to the Church's illegitimate claim to temporal authority, is the reason the world has fallen into corrupt ways and virtue is so rarely seen. So, free will for Dante, as for the theologian Thomas Aquinas, amounts to freedom of judgment, the choice of pursuing or avoiding what is apprehended and then judged to be good or bad according to the dictates of reason. Maria Lisa Avvisati
ReplyDeleteI think that one of the possible key to read Dante's concept of "free will" and the relationship between the end of the XVII Canto and the "De vulgari eloquentia" is the concept of elevation. As the vernacular is elevated in "De vulgari eloquentia" and treated as if it were a creature of free will [unlike the Latin that "nullo singulari arbitrio videtur obnoxia"],Dante completes his free will, which will become creative, straight, healthy and ready to rise and leave the earth for the sky. Moreover,the connection between the redemption of the soul and the "redemption of the vernacular" could be stronger cosidering the crowning of Dante by Virgil compared to the coronation as Poet. A purged soul that can walk on his own legs and a crowned vernacular poet that can write with his own language. It's just a speculation, could it be suitable?
ReplyDeleteClaudio Corsetti
I think that one of the possible key to read Dante's concept of "free will" and the relationship between the end of the XVII Canto and the "De vulgari eloquentia" is the concept of elevation. As the vernacular is elevated in "De vulgari eloquentia" and treated as if it were a creature of free will [unlike the Latin that "nullo singulari arbitrio videtur obnoxia"],Dante completes his free will, which will become creative, straight, healthy and ready to rise and leave the earth for the sky. Moreover,the connection between the redemption of the soul and the "redemption of the vernacular" could be stronger cosidering the crowning of Dante by Virgil compared to the coronation as Poet. A purged soul that can walk on his own legs and a crowned vernacular poet that can write with his own language. It's just a speculation, could it be suitable?
ReplyDeleteClaudio Corsetti
p.s. I posted It yesterday but misteriously it disappeared, I think I've got some problems with my connection, so if it will appears two times I apologize!
12/5/’11
ReplyDeleteToday's lesson was very interesting. I was impressed in particular by the concept of "free will". As Prof Steinberg told us, "free will" is the main topic of Purgatorio, but at the same time it is also at the center of the whole Divina Commedia. In fact, in the fundamental premise of his poem, he says: "An individual becomes liable to the rewards or punishments of justice through the exercise of free will".Marco Lombardo, a sort of Dante's alter ego, who helps Dante to understand better the concept of "free will", explains that while the heavens exert influence over human desires, individuals (because they have free will) are responsible for their actions. He focuses on the socio-political implications of human responsibility insofar as guidance, in the form of laws and leadership, is required to direct individual souls to proper ends. Marco concludes that misrule, due primarily to the Church's illegitimate claim to temporal authority, is the reason the world has fallen into corrupt ways and virtue is so rarely seen. So, free will for Dante, as for the theologian Thomas Aquinas, amounts to freedom of judgment, the choice of pursuing or avoiding what is apprehended and then judged to be good or bad according to the dictates of reason. Maria Lisa Avvisati
ps: it's happened also to me the same thing of Claudio, sorry!
The lessons of this week were very interesting although I think they are a little complicated.
ReplyDeleteProf. Steinberg started from some cantos and then explain some specific issues that are fundamental for all the Commedia. Of particular interest was the analysis of ‘free will’ and the concept of fame and infamy. In fact, the free will is within the legal system and not something alien to it. But Dante's free will is not only legal but also an artistic concept and this it is proved by the fact that for him the artistic freedom is the possibility of arbitrium in poetry.
In my opinion the most interesting part of the lessons is the one who regard the concept of fame. Dante believes that the reputation is essential to people's lives and that is something which allows them to be credible. The fame allows those who possess it, to join the power, the autoritas. People, Dante believes, create an idea of the others by what they see and hear, but, he says, that this way of establishing the reputation is wrong. The author believes that we should go beyond appearances when we think of people and of the texts that often seem to have a meaning but in fact they have another, and this is the true way of reading poetry, so the reader should not judge only the actions or appearances, but should go beyond them. Dante is concerned that this characteristic could cause him some enemies (as he says in Paradiso cantoXVII " io non perdessi li altri per miei carmi "). Dante is very sensitive to the issue of fame, but most of infamy, because of his exile, which has considerable impact on his status as a citizen, however, with the Commedia, Dante tries to regain the reputation and credibility previously lost. Michela Roberto
Huge cycle of lessons!
ReplyDeleteoffered me a good perspective of Divina Commedia, especially for the links between the poem and concept of fama. In fact we can say that Dante's exile was a spur for him to write. A chance to regain honor and to re-establish a good name for his present, and also for the future. I find this kind of feeling so human, and help me to see better Commedia under another light.
Dante Esti
I think that these lessons are very interessing! I never thought about the Dante' s exile and about the influence that it had on his poetry! The reading of the prof.Steinberg' s article made me think about some aspect of the dante's poetry, as his concept of fama in opposition with the concept of infamia. It made me think about the dante' s soffering of exile, something that I had never analyzed by studying the “Divine Comedy”. Also, these lessons were very interessing because with the prof Steinberg we analyzed very well Hell, Purgatory and Heaven and their sins and sinner.
ReplyDeleteValentina Favilli
Thanks so much for the informations about dante's lectures as long as i wasn't able to be there, these Are very helpful to understand better the hard topic!
ReplyDelete