9. Inferno XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXIV

Dante in Translation (ITAL 310)

The final cantos of Inferno are read with a view to the role of the tragic within Dante's Comedy. Using Dante's discussion of tragedy in the De vulgari eloquentia as a point of departure, Professor Mazzotta traces the disintegration of language that accompanies the pilgrim's descent into the pit of Hell, the zone of treachery, from the distorted speech of Nimrod in Inferno XXXI to the silence of Satan in Inferno XXXIV. The ultimate triumph of comedy over tragedy is dramatized by the pilgrim's ascent, by means of Lucifer, onto the shores of Mount Purgatory.

00:00 - Chapter 1. The Mode of the Tragic
05:19 - Chapter 2. "De vulgari eloquentia"
19:45 - Chapter 3. Canto XXX: Juno, Myrrha, Sinon
22:47 - Chapter 4. Canto XXXI: The Giants; Theory of Perspective
35:10 - Chapter 5. Canto XXXII: More on the Question of Perspective; Tragic Representation
59:27 - Chapter 6. Canto XXXIV: Satan
01:01:03 - Chapter 7. Canto XXXIII: Inventing the Poetic Myth of Purgatory
01:03:46 - Chapter 8. Question and Answer

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

This course was recorded in Fall 2008.