ENGLISH 122: Dante's Comedy

Sect. A 9:30-10:45 TTh A207 Annex

WILLIAM STEPHANY (wstephan@zoo.uvm.edu)

420 Old Mill (Phone: 656-4151)

Office hours: 11:00-12:00 TTh, 1:00-3:00 W

TEXTBOOKS: Inferno, trans. Robert Durling / Ronald Martinez (Oxford)

Purgatorio, trans. Charles S. Singleton (Princeton)

Purgatorio, trans. Mark Musa (Penguin)

Paradiso, trans. Charles S. Singleton (Princeton)

Paradiso, trans. Mark Musa (Penguin)

The Durling / Martinez translation of Inferno is my favorite because of its combination of literal translation and excellent notes, but so far only the Inferno volume has been published. It's not a mistake that I'm requiring two translations each of Purgatorio and of Paradiso. To my mind, Singleton's literal prose translation is the "best" available of these canticles. The problem is that the accompanying, separate-volume commentary by Singleton is very expensive and less user-friendly to non-specialist readers than Musa's notes are. I'm asking you, therefore, to buy Musa's relatively inexpensive volumes to use as explanatory notes while reading the text in Singleton's edition. Bring Singleton's translations to class; when I make textual references, they will be to Singleton's translation, and you'll need to have it with you to take participate.

GRADING: Quizzes: 40%

Exam 10%

Letters: 15%

Papers: 25%

Participation: 10%

QUIZZES: Detail does matter in Dante's poem. It's not enough just to get a general impression of what you've read, since the work is, by its nature, self-referential, and if you don't have a backlog of details at your disposal, you won't catch what's tossed your way. It's analogous to a language class: you need to add to your cultural vocabulary and learn something of the poem's "syntax" if you are to understand the poem's nuances. In order to encourage you to keep up on the reading and to read carefully--for most people this means with pencil or pen at the ready--I will give 12 quizzes, largely factual in nature, and I will count the 10 best as your quiz grade. I assume that a couple of times during the semester, on a "quiz-day," you might be ill or unprepared or mystified by the format of a given quiz, and it is for this reason that the two additional quizzes are provided. You will not have the opportunity to make up missed quizzes since two "make-up quizzes" are in effect built in. (See me if something unforeseeable such as a prolonged illness makes this unfair.)

LETTERS: You will write three papers of 4-5 pages each during the semester to be turned in by the beginning of class on the dates indicated on the syllabus. N.B.: If your paper is not ready by the beginning of class, please come to class anyway. Do not cut class and compound the problem. Cutting classes will lower your grade in this course. Late papers will be downgraded by one "grade-increment" per class period. A paper never turned in will earn a zero. If you use secondary resources, be sure to document your secondary material in the manner recommended by the English Department Style Sheet (i.e., in MLA Style). I will make suggestions for paper topics as our discussion of the text develops, sufficiently in advance of the due date to allow you to write thoughtful and well-considered papers.

PAPERS: Three papers of 4-5 pages in length (1000-1500 words) will be due, to be turned in by the beginning of class on the dates indicated on the syllabus. NB: If your paper is not ready by the beginning of class, please come to class anyway. Do not cut class and compound the problem. Cutting classes will lower your grade in this course. If the first two papers are late, they will be downgraded one "grade-increment" per class period. A paper never turned in will earn a zero. If you use secondary resources, be sure to document your secondary material in the manner recommended by the English Department Style Sheet (i.e., in MLA Style). Please note that the third paper is due at our final class period. You might want to think of the paper as due earlier than this date, especially if you will be dealing with material from earlier in the poem. I have set such a late date to allow for maximum reading and discussion of the ending of Paradiso, should this later material be the subject of your paper. I will make suggestions for paper topics as our discussion of the text develops. I will try to do this sufficiently in advance of the due date to allow you to write thoughtful and well-considered papers.

PARTICIPATION/ATTENDANCE:There are some cultural assumptions that I make in any class, and, to avoid confusion, I'd like to make some of them explicit. First of all: you can't claim to be participating in a course if you cut a lot, and my sense of what constitutes "a lot" is to have more unexcused hours cut than credit hours awarded. For a three credit hour class, that means no more than two cuts total in a class that meets two times a week. I take attendance regularly, and if you cut "a lot" (by my definition), it will affect your grade. Secondly, when in class, you need always to have the textbook in class with you. (Consider this to be true of any literature course unless the teacher tells you otherwise.) The way we exemplify ideas, assertions, questions is by reference to specific passages in the readings, and without the book you won't be able to take part in the most basic activities of the class. Third, you need always to have read the material in advance: otherwise how will you be able to evaluate whether assertions from the rest of us make sense? How will you know whether those assertions raise questions that you need to pursue? How will you be able to join intelligently in our ongoing discourse? Fourth, on days when your group has a letter due, be sure to have your letter in hand at the start of class, and be prepared to discuss its content with small groups or with the class as a whole. Fifth and finally, don't be late and don't leave class early: I find this behavior distracting, and I'm sure I'm not alone. (If circumstances require you to come late or leave early, let me know in advance of class so I won't misinterpret your behavior.)

MAIL-LIST: You will need to subscribe to the class mail-list "eng122." You will find that I commonly communicate with the class through this medium, and it will give you a chance to do the same. If you haven't done this before, here's how to do so: 1) While you're in your primary email account--the one you want course related material to be sent to--send an email message to listserv@list.uvm.edu (please note the address--list, not zoo, dot uvm, etc.). 2) Leave the subject line blank, go right down to the message area (where you usually write messages to people) and type in the message sub eng122 Your Name (substituting your name, of course, when you do so.

SYLLABUS

TUESDAY	THURSDAY
1/15 Intro to Course	1/17 Inferno 1-3
1/22 Inferno 4-7, Read Inferno Essay	1/24 Inferno 8-11 Letter A
1/29 Inferno 12-15	1/31 Inferno 16-19 Letter B
2/5 Inferno 20-23	2/7 EXAM
2/12 Inferno 24-27 Letter C	2/14 Inferno 28-31
2/19 Inferno 32-34	2/21 Purgatorio 1-4, Read Purg. Essay, Inf. Paper Due
2/26 Purgatorio 5-9 Letter B	2/28 Purgatorio 10-13
3/5 TOWN MEETING DAY	3/7 Purgatorio 14-17
3/12 Purgatorio 18-21 Letter C	3/14 Dante Videos
3/19 SPRING BREAK	3/21 SPRING BREAK
3/26 Purgatorio 22-25	3/28 Purgatorio 26-29
4/2 Purgatorio 30-33Letter A	4/4 Paradiso 1-4, Read Par. Essay
4/9 Paradiso 5-9, Purgatorio Paper Due	4/11 Paradiso 10-14
4/16 Paradiso 14-17 Letter C	4/18 Paradiso 18-21 Letter A
4/23 Paradiso 22-25 Letter B	4/25 Paradiso 26-29
4/30 Paradiso 30-33 Paradiso Paper Due

SOME DANTE WEB SITES:

The Dante Society of America. Interesting Links including to the annual American Dante Bibliography, the Princeton Dante Project, and the Dartmouth Dante Project)

Società Dantesca Italiana Italy's version of the Dante Society of America. When you get there, click on the British flag and you'll get the English-language version of the site. Another great one.

Digital Dante The Dante Site at Columbia University with many relevant links)

Otfried Lieberknecht's Dante Site A remarkably complex page compiled by this German scholar)

Labyrinth The Mother of All Medieval Web Sites. Run by Georgetown University: the first site to try to organize the mass of medieval material on the web and still one of the best.

The "Online Reference Book" for Medieval Studies An alternative to "Labyrinth," another remarkably vast collection of material.

Dante Alighieri on the Web Includes translations, among them some of the lyric poems