Reimagining Dante's Inferno: Social Justice and the Arts
THEA 222Z
Winter 2026
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
COL 235Z, MDST 224Z, RL&L 222Z |
Sentenced to death for crimes he did not commit, Dante Alighieri wrote his epic poem about a journey from hell to heaven in an impoverished state of exile. Combining autobiography and cinematic writing techniques Dante denounced political corruption and social injustice in a story that has inspired artists through the world to create new work about the search for freedom, including the Russian dissident poet Osip Mandelstam, Black revolutionary playwright Amiri Baraka, the Chinese artist/activist Wei Wei, and 17th-century prisoners of the Inquisition. Students will read selected cantos from Dante's Commedia, consider contemporary equivalents of medieval injustice, examine previous adaptations of the poem, and devise their own responses to Dante in a form of their choice (prose monologue, poetry, playwriting, rap, music, song, spoken-word, drawing, painting, visual collage, epistolary dialogue, etc.). |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA THEA |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (Theater) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
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Dante Alighieri, INFERNO, PURGATORY, PARADISE
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Examinations and Assignments:
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short papers and short responses to Dante's in form of student's choice
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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No previous artistic experience required. Guest artists will visit class via zoom.
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| Instructor(s): Jenkins,Ronald Times: ..TWRF. 10:00AM-12:30PM; ..TWRF. 02:00PM-04:30PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 12 | | SR major: 2 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 3 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 2 | FR: 2 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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