Beginning language program stressing rapid acquisition of spoken ability, with some attention to the development of reading, writing, and listening skills as well. Designed for students with no prior knowledge of Italian or minimal experience in another Romance language

This course features an in-depth approach to Dante's "Inferno," the first, and in many ways the most famous, of the three parts of the "Divina Commedia." We'll study the structure of the poem as well as the structure of Dante's Hell, his verse form and use of the vernacular, his notion of sin and punishment and its relation to the theological traditions of which he is an heir. Because so much of the poem is rooted in and extends Dante's autobiography--literary, sentimental, and political--we'll also read two other important texts by him, his early "Vita nuova" (New Life) and his political treatise, "Monarchy."