A Polyvocal Passage With All Its Dissonances: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 13 - 36
Our poet moves from his scholastic and even (medieval) scientific opening of PARADISO into his invocation . . . to Apollo?This passage has often embarrassed Dante scholars who feel the need to excuse ...
29 Heinä 41min
Welcome to a Renegotiated Poem: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 1 - 12
From its opening lines, it's clear that PARADISO is not like what has come before in COMEDY. Dante seems to be renegotiating the terms of his poem, establishing a new voice, a new model, and a new met...
26 Heinä 37min
Final Thoughts On PURGATORIO
We've reached the end of our time on the great mountain of Purgatory . . . and in the great second canticle of COMEDY.Here are some final thoughts, an attempt to bring our time with this part of the p...
26 Huhti 19min
The Seven Addresses To The Reader In PURGATORIO
Dante, the poet, steps out of the story seven times in PURGATORIO to address his reader directly--sometimes to spur the reader on to action, sometimes to put a bridle on the reader's intentions or tho...
19 Huhti 25min
Dante's Theories Of Writing Across INFERNO and PURGATORIO
As one of three sum-up episode to conclude our time on Mount Purgatory, this one’s about Dante’s conception of what he’s doing when he’s writing, outlined in nine selected passages from INFERNO and PU...
12 Huhti 30min
All The Hopeful Ambiguity Of The Second Canticle: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 124 - 145
We come to the end of the second canticle, of PURGATORIO . . . and it includes all the ambiguity and humanness we've come to expect, plus hopeful notes for the journey ahead into Paradise.Dante compli...
8 Huhti 19min
At Long Last, Matelda: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 103 - 123
The procession continues away from Lethe and farther into the Garden of Eden until they come to a dark, frigid spot that stops them . . . a curious moment in this innocent landscape.And it gets more c...
5 Huhti 33min
Images, Schools, Obscurities, And The Promise Of Clarity: PURGATORIO, Canto XXXIII, Lines 79 - 102
After her final discourse in PURGATORIO, Beatrice and Dante enter into a brief conversation in which he admits he already has images stamped into his brain but he doesn't know what many of them mean, ...
1 Huhti 25min
