Department of English

Creative responses to Dante in paint, illumination, performance, and written word sparked off all over Europe after his death in 1321, and have never stopped. New and experimental translations appear every year, plus sculptural, dance, and performance pieces, plus AI adaptations. We will pay special attention to African American (Douglas, Baraka, Naylor, Lil Naz), American (Longfellow, Whitman, Eliot, Pound, Rauschenberg, [Orchid] Tierney), Irish (Joyce, Beckett, Heaney), and English (Chaucer, Milton, Blake, Pre-Raphaelite) creatives. Final essays can themselves include creative elements, or be more conventionally scholarly. We will read in English/Italian parallel text, favoring Mandelbaum's translation (but open to others). No prior experience orknowledge of Italian required.