CLC 4401G /It 4406G Dante and Beatrice J. Miller May 20, 2014 WESTERN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES (UC 115) CLC 4401G /It 4406G -- Research Seminar: Dante and Beatrice Winter (2 nd semester) 2015 Instructor: James Miller (jmiller@uwo.ca) Time: Tues (11:30-1:20) and Thurs (CLC: 11:30-12:20) Office hours: by appt (Pride Library) Location: TBA Course Description Panel #1 Panel #2 Panel #3 Elisabeth Sonrel (1874 1953): Dante s Three Meetings with Beatrice This introductory half-course on Dante s startling innovations as a poet of earthly and heavenly love will focus on his various writings concerned with the mysterious character of his beloved Beatrice, a Florentine lady who first appears to him as an eight-year-old girl in the Vita Nuova (see Panel #1 in the painting above). He was only nine years old at the time, but this number, she being in her ninth year, would mystically connect them for the rest of her life and afterlife. His second meeting with her (see Panel #2) would occur when he had added another nine years to his age: he happened to pass her at the ninth hour of the day while she was taking a walk with her friends, and, amazingly, since she had never spoken a word to him before, she offered him a
sweet greeting that filled him with such joy that he immediately returned to his lonely room to think about her gracious person. Her sudden death in 1290 filled him with such anguish that his very identity as a lover, a thinker, and a writer was shaken to the core. His most intense meeting with her (see Panel #3) takes place outside of ordinary time in the second cantica of his great allegorical poem La Commedia. The Garden of Eden, a fervently imagined realm of innocent love and recovered bliss at the top of Mount Purgatory, is the divinely ironic setting where her angry spirit appears to him in the daunting form of a saint. She causes him to weep again, to relive his amorous breakdown, this time for having rejected her in favour of another lady. Her stern forgiveness is the prelude to a journey through the nine spheres of the visible cosmos, and beyond, with her intellectual guidance, into the Empyrean where she eternally abides with the heavenly host in the presence of God. The ups and downs of Dante s emotionally turbulent, intellectually dynamic relationship with Beatrice will be closely studied in a series of primary and secondary readings concerned with the poet s momentous efforts to contemplate (and construct) the significance of his perplexing lady. Though Beatrice is strangely reminiscent of Dido, and Venus, and Urania, and Eurydice, and Eve, and Mary, and Lady Philosophy, and a host of other dominant female characters in pagan and sacred writings known in the Middle Ages, she proves to be an inamorata utterly unlike any other woman celebrated by medieval love poets. Learning Outcomes 1. Introductory understanding of Dante's self-conception as a love poet in response to his main literary forerunners (Virgil, Ovid, Boethius, Guillaume de Lorris) and in relation to his Italian contemporaries (Guido Guinizelli, Guido Cavalcante) 2. Comprehensive knowledge of Dante's three major works the Vita Nuova, the Convivio, and the Commedia in which Beatrice s complexly gendered significance is developed 3. Interpretive confidence in the application of Dante's method of allegorical reading to the unfolding narrative of his love for Beatrice and her transference of his love to God 4. Typological insight into Dante's comparison of Beatrice to a series of female and male prototypes from the classical and Christian literary traditions 5. Critical engagement with contemporary feminist discussions and theological assessments of Beatrice s role as a female mystic within a patriarchal religious worldview
Henry Holiday, Dante and Beatrice (oil painting, 1884) Grade Breakdown Article Review (due Feb 12 ).....10% Learning Outcomes 1, 5 Midterm Test (on Feb 24)...15% Learning Outcome 2, 3 6-8-page Essay (due Apr 7)...25% Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4 Final Examination...50% Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Required Texts 1. Coursebook, Dante and Beatrice [secondary sources: journal articles and excerpted chapters from recent studies of Dante s love poetry] 2. La Vita Nuova [Penguin paperback, revised edition, 2004] 3. Convivio [books one and two: online translation] 4. Purgatorio [Hollander: annotated text and translation] 5. Paradiso [Hollander: annotated text and translation] Policy on Written Assignments The Faculty of Arts & Humanities does not permit faculty members to accept written assignments after the last teaching day of the term. Contact James Miller UC 351 (Office) or The Pride Library (Weldon Mainfloor) ex 85828 (UWO) 519-673-1165 (Home) jmiller@uwo.ca
Plagiarism Plagiarism is a major academic offense (see Scholastic Offense Policy in the Western Academic Calendar). Plagiarism is the inclusion of someone else's verbatim or paraphrased text in one's own written work without immediate reference. Verbatim text must be surrounded by quotation marks or indented if it is longer than four lines. A reference must follow right after borrowed material (usually the author's name and page number). Without immediate reference to borrowed material, a list of sources at the end of a written assignment does not protect a writer against a possible charge of plagiarism. This also applies to work facilitated or written for students by third parties. Absenteeism Students seeking academic accommodation on medical grounds for any missed tests, exams, participation components and/or assignments must apply to the Academic Counseling office of their home Faculty and provide documentation. Academic accommodation cannot be granted by the instructor or department. N.B. E-mail will be used extensively for communication with the students. Please make sure your UWO account is in order. Week One: Love s Scribe Dante s Rime Schedule of Topics and Readings Jan 6: The Gentle Heart [ Amore e 'l cor gentil sono una cosa : handout] Jan 8: The Stony Lady [Rime petrose handout] Week Two: Love s Preceptor Classical Sources Jan 13: Virgil s Aeneid: Dido and Beatrice Jan 15: Ovid s Metamorphoses: Eurydice and Beatrice Week Three: Love s Convert Patristic Sources Jan 20: Augustinian Love Psychology: Monica and Beatrice Jan 22: Boethian Love Cosmology: Philosophia and Beatrice Week Four: Love s Vassal Medieval Sources Jan 27: The Galehaut Episode: Guinevere and Beatrice Jan 29: Romancing the Rose: Venus and Beatrice Week Five: Love s Dreamer Vita Nuova [part one] Feb 3: Beatrice in Vita #1 [VN chapters 1-16] Feb 5: Beatrice in Vita #2 [VN chapters 17-27]
Week Six: Love s Pilgrim Vita Nuova [part two] Feb 10: Beatrice in Morte #1 [VN chapters 27-34] Feb 12: Beatrice in Morte #2 [VN chapters 35-42] due: Article Review Week Seven: READING WEEK Feb 17: no class Feb 19: no class Week Eight: Love s Philosopher Convivio Feb 24: Screen Ladies [Conv. Book 1: online] Hour #2: Midterm Test Feb 26: Reasoning in the Heart [Conv. II: online] Week Nine: Love s Go-Between Inferno Mar 3: The Dark Wood [Inf. 1-2] Mar 5: The Whirlwind [Inf. 5] Week Ten: Love s Penitent Purgatorio Mar 10: The Terrace of the Lustful [Purg. 26-27] Mar 12: The Garden of Eden [Purg. 28] Week Eleven: Love s Admiral Purgatorio Mar 17: The Return of Beatrice [Purg. 30-31] Mar 19: The Reversal of the Fall [Purg. 33] Week Twelve: Love s Disciple Paradiso Mar 24: The Launch into Paradise [Par. 1] Mar 26: The Heaven of the Moon [Par. 3] Week Thirteen: Love s Prophet Paradiso Mar 31: The Heaven of Venus [Par. 8-9] Apr 2: The Heaven of the Sun [Par. 10] Week Fourteen: Love s Saint Paradiso Apr 7: Un-romancing the Rose [Par. 30-33]: Due: Essay