Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 51: The Cosmos of the Comedy – Fall 2014

This course provides an in-depth exploration of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, from the standpoint of the history of Western poetry, language, religious belief, geography and science. Particular attention is paid to Dante's dialogue with ancient authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Virgil and Ovid, as well as to imaginative mappings of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. One of the course's highlights is a multimedia web-based competition in which all enrolled students compete for the annual Bedeviled Harvard prize.

Note: Conducted in English.

This course fulfills the requirement that one of the eight General Education courses also engage substantially with Study of the Past.