22. Paradise XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX

Dante in Translation (ITAL 310)

This lecture focuses on Paradise XXVII-XXIX. St. Peter's invective against the papacy from the Heaven of the Fixed Stars is juxtaposed with Dante's portrayal of its contemporary incumbent, Boniface VIII, in the corresponding canto of Inferno. Recalls of infernal characters proliferate as the pilgrim ascends with Beatrice into the primum mobile. Bid to look back on the world below, Dante perceives the mad track of his uneasy archetype, Ulysses. Dante's remembrance of this tragic shipwreck at the very boundary of time and space gains interest in light of his allusion to Francesca at the outset of Paradise XXIX. These resonances of intellectual and erotic transgression reinforce the convergence of cosmology and creation Dante assigns to the heaven of metaphysics.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Canto XXVII: St. Peter and the Boundary of the Material Universe
20:12 - Chapter 2. Canto XXVIII: The Order of Angels
24:04 - Chapter 3. Shift to the Order of Creation in Canto XXIX
37:43 - Chapter 4. Question and Answer on Creation, Incarnation
01:00:56 - Chapter 5. Question and Answer on Sexual Language, Theological Risk

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2008.