1/16: Reading Cantos 33 & 34: We are in the ninth circle now (third and fourth rings) – betrayal of friends or guests and betrayal of masters or benefactors. They are ensconced in ice. Dante expresses such fear that he is afraid he cannot even tell the stories accurately, but he forges ahead. At the end of Canto 32, Dante encounters (in the ring) those who have betrayed their homelands. He comes across a sinner who is gnawing on the skull of another. Dante asks him who he is, what he did to be in this place and even hints that he might be able to tell the man’s story when Dante is safely back on earth. This is where Canto 33 begins. I am giving you some notes from the Pinsky translation – these should help shed some interesting light on some of the elements of these two cantos. Read the notes in the modern translation as well
1/13: See "Working through Inferno in groups" (attached below). Read Cantos 13 and 17 tonight. Read 33 + 34 for Friday.
1/8: see "Medieval art and starting Dante" attached below.
1/7: In class: finish the Augustine packet. Explore tensions in Medieval world. Homework: Tonight, take all that you’ve learned from the excerpts (the two excerpts from A World Lit Only By Fire and from Augustine’s writing) and THINK in terms of the tensions at play in the culture and how these are addressed in Augustine’s writings and the church’s teachings. On the front of the notecard: list at least one of the tensions you see in the culture and bullet evidence from the materials you’ve read (please identify source and page number) that speaks to the tension(s). On the back of the notecard: explore the tension(s) more completely by thinking about how it played out in daily life, how the church and governments tried to respond, by exploring the possible problems created by the tensions, by the responses, etc. make connections/contrasts to what we have seen in earlier cultures in the course, etc. Fill both sides of the card.
1/6: In class, mark up for meaning the writings of Augustustine. homework: read the second packet (A World Lit Only by Fire) and make a list of the 7-10 most interesting ideas.
1/5: Tonight, read the first of the excerpts from A World Lit Only By Fire. The purpose of this reading is to give you some background knowledge about the early medieval world and to explore Christianity’s rise in that world after Constantinople. Pay attention to the ways in which the religion is shaped by thinkers (Augustine) and by culture. As you read, mark the text for what might be important and after you’ve read, make a list of the 7-10 most important ideas you take away from the reading (put these on a piece of notebook paper you can hand in).