This class follows Dante's dramatic voyage through the regions of the
afterlife, a voyage which has fascinated readers for the last 700 years.
At the same time, the Divine Comedy represents an interior journey,
a spiritual autobiography which explores the meaning of being human.  In this
course we will discuss and analyze Dante justice, of virtue and vice, of
love both sacred and profane, of allegory and of art, and above all of human
nature.  We will analyze Dante's work as a synthesis of the philosophical,
spiritual and esthetic ideals of his age, an age in which people perceived
the cosmos as an ordered whole, where everything had its place and its
meaning.  In this respect, Dante's times may seem far from ours, which call
everything into question and hold nothing as certain.  Yet beyond its interest
as a synthesis of his age, Dante's Divine Comedy has the value of
an enduring classic, that speaks to each of us with a universal voice.

We will read The Divine Comedy in its entirety, as well as Dante's
New Life.  All readings will be in English