num_pages: 320
description: A towering figure in world literature Dante wrote his great epic poem Commedia in the early fourteenth century. The work gained universal acclaim and came to be known as La Divina Commedia  or The Divine Comedy . Giuseppe Mazzotta brings Dante and his masterpiece to life in this exploration of the man his cultural milieu and his endlessly fascinating works. Based on Mazzottas highly popular Yale course this book offers a critical reading of The Divine Comedy and selected other works by Dante. Through an analysis of Dantes autobiographical Vita nuova  Mazzotta establishes the poetic and political circumstances of The Divine Comedy . He situates the three sections of the poemInferno Purgatory Paradisewithin the intellectual and social context of the late Middle Ages and he explores the political philosophical and theological topics with which Dante was particularly concerned.
language: English
title: Reading Dante
publisher: Yale University Press