HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS -- DANTE'S JOURNEY -- VITA NUOVA & INFERNO --
FALL 2004
We are beginning with Dante's La Vita Nuova -- abbreviated V N.
(A) Each homework answer should be a brief essay -- no less than 1/2 page/ no more than one page. Extend yourself; write beyond your first stopping point. Use all that you know and more. Be creative and insightful and interesting!
(B) Hand in an assignment each class -- after the discussion period. Please Title each set of homework questions as below: e.g. Assignment 1 (for Mon. 9/6/04)
ALL HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE TYPED AND THE PAGES STAPLED TOGETHER. Please invest in a small stapler.
Unless you were absent with an excused absence, homework
handed in late will gain no credit.
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Assignment 1: Given 9/1/04, for Mon. 9/6/04: Read V N, pp. 11-41. Answer the following questions:
1. Explain in everyday language how each of Dante's three spirits affected him when he first beheld Beatrice. Such an experience ennobled him. What in your life have you loved that has ennobled you. Compare to Dante's experience.
2. How does Beatrice appear when at 18 she first speaks to Dante and what is the meaning of D's dream after he has that experience? Why does Love have both a horrible and joyful aspect? Discuss.
3. What is the significance of "screen ladies"? What are your views on the qualities of a "secret love" -- one known only to the lovers? Note the ennobling qualities mentioned in section XI.
Assignment 2: Given Mon. 9/6/04, for
ANSWER THREE OF THE FOUR QUESTIONS BELOW.
1. Give an explanation of Dante's dream in which Love says: "I am like the centre of a circle . . .; you, however, are not." Why must Love go with Dante's poetry? Would Dante die for Beatrice as his poem says? Are there several ways of "dying"? Discuss.
2. Discuss the paradoxes of love -- that it is a good thing and not a good thing; that it brings sweetness and it brings grief. Give examples from your experience of these four effect of love.
3. Discuss carefully the canzone: "Ladies who know by insight what love is." Donne ch'avete intelleto d'amore. What is this "intelleto d'amore" -- an intelligence sensitive to love?
4. Discuss carefully Dante's idea of what love is by commenting insightfully on the two sonnets in sections XX and XXI. Notice what calls love forth from potentiality to actuality. Notice the special attention given to the eyes and to speech.
Assignment 3: Given Wed. 9/8/04, for
1. Courtly love seemed to offer a way of the heart -- to refine relationships and encourage virtue. Yet orthodox Catholics suspected that any love which had as its object a creature (specifically a women) would promote forgetfulness of God. Dante seems to refuse to separate Beatrice and Christ or God. Show, with examples for the text, how Dante speaks of Beatrice as if she were functioning like Christ or God.
2. The 31 poems of the Vita Nuova may be seen in either of these two patterns:
(1 + 9) + 1
+ NINE + 1 + (9
+ 1)
or
(1 + 9) + Canzone
I + [Four + Canzone II + Four] + Canzone III + (9 + 1).
Compare the three canzoni: the first is in section XIX (pp. 55-57); the second in section XXIII (pp. 67-69); the third in section XXXI (pp. 82-85). What do these three poems tell us of how Dante sees Beatrice in relation to God?
3. In sections 35 through section 39, we see Dante after Beatrice's death. He is drawn to the lady at the window. (How easily when we are grieving for one love, a slight graciousness can win us over!) Describe his "battle of thoughts" and how the battle is resolved.
Assignment 4: Given Mon. 9/13/04, for
1. Dante meets three obstacles: the Leopard, the Lion, and the She-Wolf (Lupa). How might they be understood? Discuss how you have encountered them in your life.
2. Explain the story of Paolo and Francesca in the 2nd circle. What exactly is the nature of their first subtle move downward? How is their fall related to romantic or courtly love? How is it not?
3. Discuss the differences between the 2nd circle where Paolo and Francesca are and the 3rd circle where the gluttonous are.
Assignment 5: Given
1. Discuss the 4th and 5th circles and their relevance to today.
2. Who are the heretics. Discuss why their sin is worse than the sins of those in the 1st 5 circles?
3. In Canto XI, Virgil explains to Dante the geography of Hell. Explain the major divisions, including your own insights on them.
Assignment 6: Given Mon. 9/20/04, for
1. Discuss the first two subsections of the 7th circle -- the Circle of the Violent -- that is, discuss the river of blood and the pathless woods.
2. Discuss the third subsection of the 7th circle -- the burning sand. What is it exactly that makes these sins "sins of violence"? If today we are justified in distinguishing proper and improper usury (lending money at interest), might we not likewise distinguish proper and improper forms of homosexuality? Discuss why or why not.
3. Discuss the figure of Geryon and the geography (ten ditches) of the 8th circle of Hell.
Assignment 7: Given Wed. 9/22/04, for Mon.9/27/04: Read Inferno, cantos 19-24 + Dark Wood, pp. 28-34. (Blue presents 9/27)
1. Consider the seducers and flatterers. Discuss the nature of their sin; show how Dante sees this evil in his day; and then show how this evil appears in our day.
2. Consider the simoniacs, the sorcerers and the barrators. Discuss the nature of their sin; show how Dante sees this evil in his day; and then show how this evil appears in our day.
3. Consider the hypocrites and the thieves. Discuss the nature of their sin; show how Dante sees this evil in his day; and then show how this evil appears in our day.
Assignment 8: Given Mon.9/27/04, for Wed. 9/29/04: Read Inf., cantos 25-30 + Dark Wood, pp. 35-40 (Indigo presents 9/29)
1. Consider carefully the counsellors of fraud. Discuss the nature of their sin; show how Dante sees this evil in his day; and then show how this evil appears in our day.
2. Explain the three types of sowers of discord. Discuss the nature of their sin; show how Dante sees this evil in his day; and then show how this evil appears in our day.
3. Examine the significance of
the various types of falsifiers and also the image of the
Assignment 9: Given Wed. 9/29/04, for
1. Explain the significance of the giants and the deepening evil of betrayal: betrayal of kin, of country and hospitality.
2. Discuss Ugolin and Roger and compare with the Paolo-Francesca episode in the 2nd circle.
3. Discuss the deepest center of Hell with the three-headed Satan. Notice that Satan is a caricature of the Trinity. Where the Trinity is life-giving, light-giving and warmth-giving, deepest hell deals in death, darkness (ignorance) and cold. Discuss.
On Wed. October 6th, we shall review Dante – the Vita Nuova and the Inferno. No written homework. Begin to review for yourself and come to Wednesday’s class prepared to discuss and share insight into this material.
Monday, October 11th: First Exam -- Time to learn what going through Hell has to teach!
On Wed. October 13th, we begin the Purgatorio. Check webpage for the next homework series.
The minute I heard my first love story Lovers don't finally meet somewhere
I started looking for you, not knowing. They're in each other all along.
how blind that was. Sufi poet Rumi (1207-1273)
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