LARTS 322 — Going to Hell: Introduction to Dante’s Inferno

Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . Right around the corner from Juilliard and facing the Metropolitan Opera House stands the statue of a taciturn, pensive figure with a crown of laurels atop his head. This statue represents the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), famous for having written the Commedia, one of the most important works of world literature. The overarching goal of this class is to uncover the aesthetic, political, and philosophical connections between this medieval figure and the modern world of drama, dance, and music; it seeks to make visible the invisible connections between past, present, and future. We will closely read the first part of this trilogy, the Inferno, and journey together through time and space into the strange world of Medieval Europe and the underworld as imagined by Dante. By the end of the semester, students will have formed a deeper understanding of Dante’s place, both physically and philosophically, in our contemporary, everyday lives.

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