#1247 Zygmunt Baranski: Dante's Divine Comedy
RECORDED ON JANUARY 28th 2026.
Dr. Zygmunt Baranski is Emeritus R. L. Canala Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Notre Dame, and Serena Professor of Italian Emeritus at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Baranski has worked primarily on Dante, concentrating on Dante’s relationship to medieval literary theory and criticism and on his intellectual formation. In addition, he has published extensively on Dante’s reception in the fourteenth and twentieth centuries, on medieval Italian culture and literature (in particular, Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and Boccaccio), on modern Italian literature and culture, on Pasolini, on Italian cinema, and on Italo-Polish cultural relations.
In this episode, we talk about Dante’s Divine Comedy. We start by discussing the original title. We talk about the progression through hell, purgatory, and paradise. We discuss the roles of Virgil and Beatrice. We talk about the place of Dante in the history of Western literature. Finally, we discuss why an atheist would like The Divine Comedy.
Time Links:
Intro
The Comedy
Hell/inferno
Purgatory/purgatorio
Paradise/paradiso
The roles of Virgil and Beatrice
Dante in the history of Western literature
Why would an atheist like The Divine Comedy?
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Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/2trtyys3