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CS92PROD
Re-imagining Dante's Inferno: Social Justice and the Arts
THEA 222
Spring 2025
Section: 01  
Crosslisting: COL 235, ITAL 244, MDST 224, RL&L 222

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. Drawing on innovative techniques of music, dance, painting, and theater Dante denounced political corruption and social injustice in a story that has inspired artists throughout 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 news accounts of modern equivalents to medieval injustices, examine previous adaptations of the poem, and devise their own responses to Dante in the art form of their choice (theater, dance, poetry, playwriting, rap, music, spoken-word, visual arts).
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA THEA
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: None
Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74%

Last Updated on DEC-06-2024
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