Divine Comedy

[Faithr]

I've never read this great work of literature. My oldest two never studied it. It is one thing I regret greatly in how we did high school! So I'd really like to get it in with guinea pig number three, er, I mean, child number 3.

 

So for those of you who have already read this work with your high schooler, how did you do it? How would you plan your own study of it? How long would you allot to read the entirety?

 

Thanks!

[Jane in NC]

We only did Inferno. Let me recommend the Teaching Company lectures on the Divine Comedy. We listened to all of the introductory material, then those specific to Inferno. My son adored it!

[SusanAR]

Ds and i read it aloud last month We really enjoyed the Longfellow translation; the engravings/illustrations really added to our study.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Comedy-Dante-Alighieri/dp/0785821201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260672074&sr=1-1

 

 

We used Spark Notes and Peter Lierhart's study guide. It was our best study thus far this year.:001_smile:

[Nan in Mass]

My sons loved it, too. They said it was "sick" and "twisted". We had an edition that had notes and we read them. I'm sure we could have gotten more out of it, but the notes seemed to be enough. Ours had creepy illustrations that definately added to the overall twistedness. I don't think it was the Longfellow translation. I think I would have noticed if it were. My sons did an illustration (or illustrations) of the circles of Hell for a project.

-Nan

[Ester Maria]

I haven't done the full work with either of my daughters yet (they're only 11 and 12 at present), but they've been exposed to it a lot so far - by watching Benigni in "Tutto Dante" (they absolutely loved it!), reading selected cantos with illustrations and reading them paraphrased (we're native Italian speakers so they have the privilege of reading the original, but the language and constructions can sometimes be hard for kids, so hearing it paraphrased helps a lot), learning to recite some famous parts, etc.

 

If I continue to homeschool them for a little more (which I doubt), I intend to do it the way we did it at school (I attended school in Italy) - one canticle per year in depth, three years in sequence. Studying each part would mean reading all cantos with commentary, doing an in-depth study of about at least 6-7 cantos, for Inferno a little more (for example for Inferno, I would insist on the first five, especially on V; then X, XIII, XVI, XIX maybe, XXVI, XXXIII), which would include reading some theoretical essays and insights into those cantos in addition to the regular commentaries (Petrocchi, Pagliaro, etc). So by the end they finish high school, I want them to be really familiar with contents of Commedia, since it's the greatest work of Italian literature.

We did it in the last three years of school, but I think my older daughter would be ready to do it 8th-10th, that is, next year Inferno, 9th (if I'm still homeschooling her then) Purgatorio and 10th Paradiso.

 

Of course, I don't think you should study it in such a detail and the way we do, since for us it obviously has greater importance culturally, but I just thought you might want to get an insight in how do they study it in Italy. :)

[MIch elle]

here's one: http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/

[Nan in Mass]

Interesting. So it is like Shakespeare is to us?

(By the way, I have been thinking about your post of how you studied foreign languages a great deal. Thank you for explaining.)

[Faithr]

Wow, everybody! Thanks for the great resources! I am getting really excited about doing this.

 

Ester Maria, that is fascinating how they study Dante in Italy! What part of Italy are you from (or did you just live there for a while as a child?). I actually studied Italian for about a year after college and I've visited there twice. Next year hopefully my oldest dd will spend a semester in Rome and we are hoping to take a big family vacation over there at Christmas next year!

 

Thanks again everybody!

[Chris in VA]

My husband did a Sunday School class on the Purgatorio--it was absolutely fascinating! He could have gone much farther than he did, but you can still see some of his power pt slides on http://www.pohick.org

[Janice H]

Here http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/comedy/index.html you can compare translations:

 

 

 

• Dante's Comedy with the Henry W. Longfellow translation
  
• Dante's Comedy with the Allen Mandelbaum translation
  
• Henry W. Longfellow translation with the Allen Mandelbaum translation
  

 

Background with links http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture28b.html . I haven’t previewed this but it looks promising.

 

FWIW, in the logic years we read the assigned WTM cantos in the Pinsky translation. I found it to be a difficult translation. Other popular translators of Dante include Dorothy Sayers and Ciardi.

[Ester Maria]

Ester Maria, that is fascinating how they study Dante in Italy! What part of Italy are you from (or did you just live there for a while as a child?).

My dad's family has been in Rome for generations; my mom's family is actually Venetian, but my mom married Roman marrying my dad. I've also lived for short periods in Genova and Bologna.

 

Is your daughter majoring in Italian so she'll spend a semester in Rome?

[Faithr]

Hi Chris in VA! You don't live all that far from me! I'll have to check out your link. Thanks!

 

Janice H, thank you. A long time ago I actually bought the Dorothy L. Sayers translation. That is the one that Kolbe uses, I've discovered. The Naxos audio book of the Divine Comedy is the Mendelbaum. I'm interested in that because we just finished reading/listening to The Iliad. We listened to a recording from the library which was different from the version we were reading (Lattimore). It was really interesting to do it that way. We could see the differences in the translations. So I might try to do something like that with the DC.

 

Ester Maria! Wow, so is a Roman marrying a Venetian kind of like someone from Alabama marrying a New Yorker? We ate lunch in Bologna! We were just passing through unfortunately. My dd is not studying Italian, though she might like to. She's not sure of her major yet, maybe education or psychology. Her school, University of Dallas, has a campus in Rome (or right outside it) where about 80% of the UD kids spend a semester usually during their Sophmore year. She's a Freshman this year. She's hoping to go next fall.

[Chris in VA]

Y'know what's funny, Faithr? Checking out your siggy--we lived in Dallas for 8 years! Let's meet some time. I'm still trying to get together with Mariann, too.