What’s the significance of the dark wood?

Brent and Jennifer Holberg continue their discussion of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ with a look at ‘Inferno’.

Jennifer is professor and chair of the English Department at Calvin University in the States and co-director of the Calvin Center for Faith and Writing. She’s also the author of the book ‘Nourishing Narratives’.

• (2:00) The narrator and the opening;
• (4:10) The dark wood;
• (5:00) Epic;
• (6:30) The 3 beasts;
• (8:45) Virgil;
• (11:30) Canto 9;
• (13:10) Beatrice;
• (17:10) The structure of Hell;
• (21:45) Sin;
• (23:10) Dante’s sin issue;
• (26:40) Some of the famous sinners; popes in Hell;
• (30:10) Moments of hope.

Links mentioned in this episode:

World of Dante:

https://www.worldofdante.org/index.html)

Digital Dante:

https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy

Dante Worlds:

https://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/

100 Days of Dante:

https://100daysofdante.com

Editions:

For all in one volume:

Mark Musa, ‘The Portable Dante’ (Penguin)

First rate notes:

Robert and Jean Hollander (Vintage/Anchor)

New poetic translation that retains the terza rima:

Michael Palma (Liveright)

Prose translation:

Charles S. Singleton (Princeton University Press)

Other notable translators:

Robin Kirkpatrick

John Ciarda

Allen Mandelbaum

Older translations by Dorothy L. Sayers

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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