Divine Comedy Assignment Sheet

Write 3-4 typed pages on one of the options below, on an adaption of one of these options, or on an option you devise and I approve. When you turn in this paper, you will turn in both of the workshop drafts with it.

• Use all MLA formatting rules, see MLA for how to incorporate quotations, etc., though you don't need a Works Cited page unless you cite secondary sources.
• Due dates are shown on your syllabus.
  
  

The primary criteria for this literary analysis paper are

• Theoretical complexity and depth;
• Literary-historical context in the introduction paragraph and, when appropriate, throughout;
• Substantive points of argument for thesis and topic sentences; and
• Close/detailed analysis of the text (use at least three quotations per body paragraph and analyze them closely).
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Note: I'm giving you the criteria in order to signal to you what I'll look for as I grade the essays. Look at the elements on the Writing Review page on the website for guidelines on formatting and writing. You should refer to the Writing Review, accessible through the website navigation bar, to review writing requirements for this essay. Also, take your final draft of the paper through the Checklist for Papers before you turn it in.

Option one: Dante learning from sin, from penance, and/or from saints. Choose a single scene from the Commedia in which Dante learns or fails to learn a lesson about the sin, penance, or form of grace that is being practiced in that realm. Be sure to analyze the subtext of the exchange in which Dante engages with his interlocutor (the one he's talking to), not just what is said on the surface. How does Virgil play a part in the exchange? What gestures does Dante use and what gestures does his interlocutor use?

Option two: Dante learning humility. Choose a particular focus—Dante's art, Dante's persona, Dante's manner with his interlocutors or his manner with Virgil—and analyze the manner in which Dante, the writer, shows Dante, the pilgrim, learning humility. You might want to begin with Dante in a prideful stance and then show him learning humility or you might see him humble from the beginning.

Option three: Dante and his interlocutors: Choose a mode of relationship between Dante and one of his interlocutors in the Inferno—conversation, teaching, scolding, reproving, gesturing—and show the parallels among incidents or the progress that Dante envisions as he passes along his spiritual path.

Option four: Monster or Angel: Choose one encounter Dante has with a monster or an angel in the Commedia. Determine what happens to bring about the encounter, what Dante's mood indicates about it, and what affect this creature has upon him. What function does the monster or angel serve—architectonic (i.e. structural design of the Commedia, i.e. repetition or echoes of incident or theme), spiritual, justice, psychological? How does the monster or angel relate to the larger work?

Option five: Human Sin/Human Goodness: Examine the idea of human sinfulness versus human goodness in Dante's Inferno. Limit yourself particularly to revealing episodes or encounters for analysis and explain why they reveal your theory of Dante's vision of humanity.

Option six: Self-Reflexivity: Analyze the moments of self-reflexivity in Dante's Commedia, those moments when Dante reflects on the nature of his art. Define a theory of Dante's idea of art as it relates to his Divine Comedy. (Make sure you don't confuse self-reflection, i.e. Dante reflecting on himself, with self-reflexivity, i.e. Dante reflecting on his writing as art).

Option seven: Pagans: Why does Dante bring the pagan elements so prominently into his Christian epic? Formulate a theory about this element of the Commedia and choose a pagan element in the Inferno to illustrate your idea.

Option eight: Pairs: Dante punctuates the Commedia with significant pairs. Choose one of these pairs and examine closely the encounter Dante has with them. How do the two figures operate together? How does silence function in the pair? What is Dante's relationship with them?

Option nine: Betrayal: Dante explores betrayal in the Church, of God's plan, of human relationships, of the sinners' god-given nature. Limit yourself to one form of betrayal and analyze how it appears in several instances over the course of the Inferno. Examine Dante's attitude toward it. Theorize from that attitude the ideal relationship Dante envisions in God's plan.

Option ten: Physics of the Afterlife: Examine Dante's uses of the device of verisimilitude to mark the "reality" of the spiritual journey. Notice where Dante contradicts himself in his physics of the Afterlife and speculate on the significance of these moments.