Inferno, Canto 24 with Dr. Janelle Aijian
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- Dr. Janelle Aijian from the Torrey Honors College at Biola University reflects on Canto 24 of Dante's Inferno.
100 Days of Dante is brought to you by Baylor University in collaboration with the Torrey Honors College at Biola University, University of Dallas, Templeton Honors College at Eastern University, the Gonzaga-in-Florence Program and Gonzaga University, and Whitworth University, with support from the M.J. Murdock Trust. To learn more about our project, and read with us, visit 100daysofdante...
This was excellently and clearly structured and packed in so much good information. Thank you so much Dr. Aijian!
The eloquent unpacking of this canto reflects clear insight into the text and an ability to instruct that is refreshing and enriching. Whereas other instructors have lacked such clear organization of their thoughts and concrete application of the ideas unveiled, Dr. Janelle has accomplished both with great success. I would love to be her student and hear more from her. Thank you!
This on of my favorite lectures. Honestly, before this lecture, I viewed this as a "lost" canto. I never understood the purpose of parts of it. I know view the "shepherd" scene in the beginning as beautiful. the struggle to ascend out of the rough borgia is now explained. Dr. Aijian has done an amazing job bringing clarity to this canto for me. Thank you.
WOW. This video is a masterpiece of exegesis and so sophisticated and clear in its structure. I'll watch this one multiple times. Outstanding!
Cantos 24 & 25: It may be difficult to equate thievery with fraud until it is recalled that, before the industrial revolution, the family made or produced almost everything it owned. All possessions were extensions of the person. Stealing something made it appear that the possession was now an essential part of the thief, rather than of the original owner. The thieves of the Seventh Bolgia were more like those engaged in today’s identity theft - or stealing an i-phone, rather than jewelry. Taking something by stealth, under the cover of darkness, was a greater sin than seduction in daylight. The contrapasso for the thief was to have his covetous hands bound behind him by serpents who coiled around his loins. Being repeatedly metamorphosed between a reptile and a human (and back again) was a fitting contrapasso of hiding one’s true form. The vivid descriptions of the transformations appearing in these two cantos are worthy of any modern horror movie or vampire thriller. As the preceding two cantos are marked by slapstick humor and the sounds of flatulence, these two contain grotesque changes and crude gestures against God, himself. Once more, Dante, the poet, tells of the slow, painful transfer as Virgil pushes Dante, the pilgrim, who gasps his way from the bolgia of hypocrites to that of thieves, who speak their own version of “parseltongue!” All of this is mere preparation for the climbs yet to come.
Pat - excellent insight into the pre- industrial revolution connection between owner and the item owned. It helped me in seeing why the thieves are placed here. I really do appreciate you sharing these. I was exhausted today and was going to just cruise through this one, but the video coupled with your thoughts really pushed me to think deeper. Thank you so much!
Fantastic commentary -- I liked how you divided the canto into 3 sections -- made it much easier to understand
So helpful and inspiring because it shows that no matter how lost I am someone else can produce a masterful analysis of Dante's poetry. Thanks for taking this underappreciated canto and making it understandable for us.
Dr. Aijian, You are an excellent guide to metaphors! The "lesson" that I appreciated the most is that
beneath the surface and seemingly random violence of the course of human events there is a stability that is the will and power of God and a path of redemption. Thank you.
Excellent! I would never have gotten so much out of just reading without her help.
My thoughts exactly.
Agree 💯
Excellent discussion with so much packed in a very brief mini-lecture! I really appreciated the image of the thief dissolving into ashes as a parody of Ash Wednesday.
Excellent! I don't think one can understand Dante without some understanding of philosophy. The theme of change reminds me of Heraclitus, and Gerard Manley Hopkins' extraordinary poem, "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the comfort of the Resurrection."
Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-
Built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs | they throng; they glitter in marches.
Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, | wherever an elm arches,
Shivelights and shadowtackle ín long | lashes lace, lance, and pair.
Delightfully the bright wind boisterous | ropes, wrestles, beats earth bare
Of yestertempest's creases; | in pool and rut peel parches
Squandering ooze to squeezed | dough, crust, dust; stanches, starches
Squadroned masks and manmarks | treadmire toil there
Footfretted in it. Million-fuelèd, | nature's bonfire burns on.
But quench her bonniest, dearest | to her, her clearest-selvèd spark
Man, how fast his firedint, | his mark on mind, is gone!
Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark
Drowned. O pity and indig | nation! Manshape, that shone
Sheer off, disseveral, a star, | death blots black out; nor mark
Is any of him at all so stark
But vastness blurs and time | beats level. Enough! the Resurrection,
A heart's-clarion! Away grief's gasping, | joyless days, dejection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. | Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; | world's wildfire, leave but ash:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44397/that-nature-is-a-heraclitean-fire-and-of-the-comfort-of-the-resurrection
Excellent! Helped me to see so much I would have missed. Thank you!
A wonderful and informative explication. Thank you!
I have enjoyed all of these lectures, but this is one of my favorites. It is very insightful while being clear and concise.
Thank you for your eloquence and erudition. Beautifully done.
That was a beautiful explanation.
Wow! Obviously I missed a lot when I read this. I never would have guessed there was so much going on in this canto.
This is fascinating. I seem to remember hearing that there was an idea in early medieval/Ptolemaic cosmology that motion was sinful and immobility was perfection. But there is also the idea that God is the Primum Mobile, the source of all motion. What's going on there? Is this a paradox in the medieval mindset? Maybe I am just remembering my undergraduate courses wrong...
Dr Aijian's reading really brought this Canto to life - superbly structured and insightful. Thank you!
Loved her analysis and her even-keeled style of delivery.🙂
Excellent Commentary! The insights were profound and enlightened this very dense brain of mine !
Gorgeous!!!!!
Excellent and helpful.
Wow! Very helpful!
Thank you for this excellent commentary.
Thank you! Very illuminating!
Thank you for this excellent well-structured commentary with its encouragement. I'm behind with these talks and it's Lent now, which suited.
Brilliant and so beautifully explained. So blessed to have your insights on this journey.
I have been a professional educator for 25 years, and that, was excellent teaching.
Wonderful. Just wonderful
Fantastic commentary!
My favorite analysis of any canto so far. Just brilliant. Thank you!
Many startling and deep insights. Thanks so much!
Beautiful video.
Very helpful.
That was so insightful!
Thank you, my former mentor! I thought I was aware of how intensely rich Dante's Cantos are, but this is even more than I imagined. No simple transition Cantos here!