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Approaches to Teaching Dante's Divine Comedy

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Approaches to Teaching Dante's Divine Comedy Approaches to Teaching Dante’s Divine Comedy Second Edition Edited by Christopher Kleinhenz and Kristina Olson Modern Language Association of Amer i ca New York 2020 320-81809_ch00_6P.indd 3 12/13/19 12:31 PM © 2020 by The Modern Language Association of Amer i ca All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca MLA and the MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION are trademarks owned by the Modern Language Association of Amer i ca. For information about obtaining permission to reprint material from MLA book publications, send your request by mail (see address below) or e- mail (permissions@mla . org). Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Kleinhenz, Christopher, editor. | Olson, Kristina, editor. Title: Approaches to teaching Dante’s divine comedy / edited by Christopher Kleinhenz and Kristina Olson. Description: Second edition. | New York : Modern Language Association of Amer i ca, 2020. | Series: Approaches to teaching world lit er a ture, 1059–1133 ; 163 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifers: LCCN 2019039483 (print) | LCCN 2019039484 (ebook) ISBN 9781603294690 (cloth) | ISBN 9781603294270 (paperback) ISBN 9781603294287 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781603294294 (Kindle) Subjects: LCSH: Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321. Divina commedia. | Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321— Study and teaching. | Epic poetry, Italian— Study and teaching. Classifcation: LCC PQ4371 .A6 2020 (print) | LCC PQ4371 (ebook) | DDC 851/.1— dc23 LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019039483 LC ebook rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019039484 Approaches to Teaching World Lit er a ture 163 ISSN 1059-1133 Cover illustration: Joseph Anton Koch, L’Enfer (Divine Comedie) de Dante: Detail representant l’ecrivain. Casino Massimo, Rome, fresco. Photo © S. Bianchetti / Bridgeman Images. Published by The Modern Language Association of Amer i ca 85 Broad Street, suite 500, New York, New York 10004-2434 www . mla . org 320-81809_ch00_6P.indd 4 12/13/19 12:31 PM CONTENTS Preface xi PART ONE: MATERIALS Overview 3 Italian Editions of the Comedy 3 En glish Translations of the Comedy and the Minor Works 4 The Instructor’s Library 5 PART TWO: APPROACHES Introduction: Dante’s Comedy in the Classroom 21 Christopher Kleinhenz and Kristina Olson Textual Traditions, Language, and Authority Dante, Teacher of His Reader 36 Teodolinda Barolini Teaching the Divine Comedy from Its Manuscripts 45 H. Wayne Storey and Isabella Magni Duels of Interpretation: The Bible between Dante and the Church 59 Ronald L. Martinez Following Virgil’s Lantern: Teaching Dante in the Light of Antiquity 67 Elsa Filosa Dante Casts Shadows over the Legacy of the Classical Past 73 Brenda Deen Schildgen Teaching Dante, Beatrice, and Courtly Love in the Divine Comedy 80 F. Regina Psaki Dante and the Spectrum of Medieval Vernacular Poetry; or, How Giacomo and Joyce, Brunetto and Eliot, and Bertran and Pound Rhyme 88 Martin Eisner Transnational Dantes 96 Nick Havely Society and Ethics Sodomite, Homosexual, Queer: Teaching Dante LGBTQ 103 Gary Cestaro Conceptions of Women and Gender in the Comedy 110 Kristina Olson 320-81809_ch00_6P.indd 7 12/13/19 12:31 PM viii Contents Teaching Dante’s Divine Comedy in a History Course 120 Joanna Drell Dante and the Papacy 126 George Dameron The Quest for Ethical Self- Refection 134 Sherry Roush Teaching the Theological Dimension of Dante’s Comedy 140 Paul J. Contino Dante, Poet of Loss 148 Peter S. Hawkins The Reception of the Comedy Teaching Dante and the Visual Arts 154 Aida Audeh Reading Dante’s Comedy with Giotto 164 Heather Webb Rewritings and Relevance: Teaching Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills alongside Dante’s Inferno 170 Suzanne Manizza Roszak Teaching Dante through Music 175 Francesco Ciabattoni Dante’s Afterlife in Popu lar Culture 185 Elizabeth Coggeshall From Poem to PlayStation 3: Teaching Dante with Video Games 192 Brandon K. Essary Instructional Contexts and Pedagogical Strategies On Selecting the “Best” Translation of Dante 200 Madison U. Sowell Damned Rhe toric: Teaching Dante’s Inferno in Translation to Undergraduates 210 Suzanne Hagedorn Dante’s Comedy as First- Year Seminar: From Early Engagement to Self- Reliance 216 Simone Marchesi Writing like Dante: Understanding the Inferno through Creative Writing 223 Nicolino Applauso Scaffolding Scholarly Research for a Senior- Level Course on Dante in Translation 231 Katherine V. Haynes 320-81809_ch00_6P.indd 8 12/13/19 12:31 PM Contents ix “Cliques in Hell”: Teaching Dante to Nontraditional Students 238 Susan Gorman Teaching Dante to High School Se niors 245 Jessica Levenstein Teaching Dante in Prison 252 Ronald Herzman Beatrice in the Tag Cloud 257 Carol Chiodo Notes on Contributors 263 Survey Respondents 269 Works Cited 271 320-81809_ch00_6P.indd 9 12/13/19 12:31 PM Part One MATERIALS 320-81809_ch01_6P.indd 1 12/13/19 12:31 PM Overview In the past thirty- fve years we have witnessed the publication of numerous book- length critical studies and hundreds of insightful essays that represent the fndings of recent research on Dante and his poem. Some of these are espe- cially recommended to instructors looking for sound and innovative resources that will enhance their understanding of a wide range of issues as they prepare their courses. Others provide more up- to- date information about Dante’s life and works, and still others open win dows on new ways of interpreting the Com- edy for the twenty- frst- century classroom. In these three and a half de cades some impor tant Italian editions of the Comedy have appeared, as well as a plethora of mostly annotated En glish translations of either the entire poem or one or more canticles, a situation that has led to an embarrassment of riches for instructors. In his essay in this volume Madison Sowell addresses the consider- ations that instructors should make when choosing a translation for their courses. With few exceptions we have limited the publications presented in the following pages to those published after 1982 in En glish, when the frst Ap- proaches volume on the Comedy appeared. The “Instructor’s Library” section relies in part on the observations and suggestions made by survey respondents. Italian Editions of the Comedy Most Italian and bilingual En glish editions of the Comedy pre sent Giorgio Pet- rocchi’s Italian text, but the editions by Federico Sanguineti and Antonio Lanza are worthwhile to consult in more specialized, philologically oriented courses where comparative analyses of dif fer ent manuscript readings are de rigueur. For those courses on the Comedy taught in Italian, instructors would be well served to adopt one of several annotated Italian editions published in recent years. In par tic u lar, we recommend the editions by Anna Maria Chiavacci Leonardi; Um- berto Bosco and Giovanni Reggio; and Nicola Fosca, all of which have extensive commentary, as well as the older but still ser viceable texts edited by Natalino Sapegno; and Emilio Pasquini and Antonio Enzo Quaglio. As part of the instruc- tor’s arsenal of ancillary materials, we note the digital edition, available on DVD, that Prue Shaw has produced, Dante Alighieri, Commedia: A Digital Edition, containing full transcripts of seven manuscripts (six with images), together with Petrocchi’s and F. Sanguineti’s editions. Depending on the level of the course and the students’ knowledge of Italian, we suggest that instructors may adopt one of several texts designed for the secondary schools of Italy, for they often feature questions and exercises aimed at promoting a better understanding of the text and, at times, offer a modern Italian paraphrase of the poem.1 320-81809_ch01_6P.indd 3 12/13/19 12:31 PM 4 Translations En glish Translations of the Comedy and the Minor Works For those numerous courses taught in En glish we highly recommend dual- language editions for the fa cil i ty they offer those instructors who wish to note certain aspects of the Italian text. In par tic u lar, we would note the translations with commentary by Allen Mandelbaum; Robert Hollander and Jean Hol- lander; and Robert Durling and Ronald L. Martinez; as well as those by Robin Kirkpatrick and Stanley Lombardo for their readability, valuable notes, and sometimes extended commentary on points of interest. We recognize the ap- peal that some earlier versions have for many instructors (e.g., those by Mark Musa, John D. Sinclair, Charles S. Singleton, John Ciardi, and Henry Wad- sworth Longfellow). We also would note that, among the many recent transla- tions, those by Robert Pinsky, Anthony Esolen, Clive James, and Mary Jo Bang have been used to good effect by instructors. Madison Sowell’s essay on evalu- ating En glish versions of the Comedy discusses the vari ous ele ments involved in choosing translations for a course on Dante. Readings from Dante’s minor works are also used proftably in many courses. At times, the entire Vita nuova is assigned and relevant sections of the Monar- chia, the Letter to Can Grande, Convivio, and De vulgari eloquentia are incor- porated to provide background material for the study of the Comedy or to highlight their intrinsic importance in the more general medieval context. John Took provides a fne overview of these writings in Dante: Lyric Poet and Phi los- o pher. Therefore, in addition to the editions and versions of the Comedy noted above, we call attention to several recent En glish translations of Dante’s minor works that are impor tant additions to class syllabi. The most frequently used text in classes is the Vita nuova, often read in its entirety, and instructors should note the debate concerning its division and pre- sen ta tion, even though these considerations do not affect its meaning vis- à- vis the Comedy.2 Generally, earlier En glish translations of the Vita Nuova— those of Musa and Barbara Reynolds— still enjoy great popularity, although the more recent versions by Anthony Robert Mortimer and by Andrew Frisardi have re- ceived favorable comments.
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