Walking With Dante
390 episodes - English - Latest episode: 14 days ago - ★★★★★ - 120 ratingsEver wanted to read Dante's Divine Comedy? Come along with us! We're not lost in the scholarly weeds. (Mostly.) We're strolling through the greatest work (to date) of Western literature. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I take on this masterpiece passage by passage. I'll give you my rough English translation, show you some of the interpretive knots in the lines, let you in on the 700 years of commentary, and connect Dante's work to our modern world. The pilgrim comes awake in a dark wood, then walks across the known universe. New episodes every Sunday and Wednesday.
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Episodes
Storytelling, Moral Allegory, And The Human Paradox: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 64 - 72
April 14, 2024 14:00 - 18 minutes - 16.6 MBDante the poet adds a coda to his (fake) ekphrastic poetry on the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory. He steps back and explains the very nature of the art to us: realer than real, as it were. Then he moves the passage out from its narrative base and into a moral lesson based on an allegorical (and anagogical) reading of his masterwork, COMEDY. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the last passage on the theory of art for this terrace of PURGATORIO. ...
More Questions Than Answers About The Reliefs In The Road Bed Of Pride: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 22 - 63
April 10, 2024 14:00 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBWe've spent three episodes going over the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride on Mount Purgatory. Now let's step back and look at the whole passage. Yes, its sweet. But also its curiously crafted problems. And the way it leaves us with more questions than answers, even though we're supposed to take away a very distinct moral lesson. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we run through this entire complicated passage in PURGATORIO. If you'd like to help out with the many costs associated...
Walking On Pride, Part Three: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 49 - 60
April 07, 2024 14:00 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBWe've come to the last four reliefs in the paving stones of the terrace of pride. We're almost on our way to the next terrace of Purgatory . . . but not quite. Dante the pilgrim has to pay attention to these final moments, the final exemplars, some of whom are stated outright in the carvings and some of whom are strangely occluded. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look through this last passage on the reliefs in the road bed. There are still plenty of surprises under our feet! Please consid...
Walking On Pride, Part Two: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 37 - 48
April 03, 2024 14:00 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MBWe're still walking on top of the reliefs of the prideful in the road bed of the first terrace of Mount Purgatory after the gate: the terrace of pride. Here, Dante the pilgrim sees four more figures: two from the classical age and two from the Biblical age. And the classical figures seem distinctly connected to art. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore another short passage on the reliefs in the road bed of the terrace of pride. Would you like to help support this podcast? I have many f...
Walking On Pride, Part One: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 25 - 36
March 31, 2024 14:00 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MBVirgil has directed Dante the pilgrim to look down at the road bed. Dante sees figures carved into the terrace . . . and he begins to walk on pride, the way one might walk over tombs in the floor of a church. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first four figures carved into road bed. Who are they? How is the passage crafted? And what can they tell us about the dualism of pride and humility? Want to help support this otherwise unsupported podcast? You can donate to help me cover li...
Art, Realism, And Dante's Sheer Audacity: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, lines 13 - 24
March 27, 2024 14:00 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBThe opening of PURGATORIO, Canto XII, becomes even stranger as the poet Dante claims that the art he’s about to see beneath his feet is even clearer than the actual events when they happened. All well and good, until we remember this isn’t God’s art, as Dante wants us to believe. It’s Dante’s. And audacious. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the second half of the opening twenty-four lines of PURGATORIO, Canto XII. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:...
Dante's Pride Both Lanced And Swelling: PURGATORIO, Canto XII, Lines 1 - 12
March 24, 2024 14:00 - 20 minutes - 18.7 MBDante is still hunched over, going along like a dumb ox, paired up with the souls on the terrace of pride. His pride has been lanced by their monologues. Until Virgil tells him to be like the damned Ulysses. And then he straightens up and heads out. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the curious opening lines to PURGATORIO, Canto XII. Dante seems to want to have it both ways at once. But all cakes spoil, no matter how careful you are. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING...
Some News That Affects Future Episodes Of PURGATORIO
March 21, 2024 14:00 - 3 minutes - 4.22 MBSome personal news . . . and not the sort I ever want to share . . . about future episodes of this podcast. I hope you'll understand.
Some News That Affects Future Episodes On PURGATORIO
March 21, 2024 14:00 - 3 minutes - 4.22 MBSome personal news . . . and not the sort I ever want to share . . . about future episodes of this podcast. I hope you'll understand.
A Bad Boy Makes Good On The Terrace Of Pride: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 109 - 139
March 17, 2024 14:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBIf you'd like to make a contribution to help me with hosting, licensing, streaming, editing, and royalty fees, please consider visiting this PayPal link right here. We’ve come to the end of PURGATORIO, Canto XI . . . and the end of the artist Oderisi’s monologue. He finishes up, not with more about himself, but with the tale of the third penitent we see on the first terrace after the gate: Provenzan Salvani, a bad boy from Siena who plotted Florence's demise and who also perhaps foreshadow...
Oderisi Redux: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 73 - 108
March 13, 2024 14:00 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBI said we'd move on to the second half of Oderisi da Gubbio's speech . . . but there's no way we can. There are still so many unanswered questions about the way Dante cryptically inserts himself into the text, the way the art of miniaturization reflects the new style in poetry that Dante practices, and the very fact that Dante meets someone whose life is spent with manuscripts. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work our way through more questions about the first half of Oderisi's speech in PU...
Proud Oderisi Confronts The Vagaries Of Artistic Fame: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 73 - 108
March 10, 2024 14:00 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBIf you'd like to help underwrite this podcast, WALKING WITH DANTE, you can use this PayPal link right here. On Purgatory's terrace of pride, we turn from noble Omberto to an artist, a manuscript illuminator, Oderisi da Gubbio, who delivers some of the most memorable lines in all of PURGATORIO. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the first half of Oderisi's speech, all about the vagaries of artistic fame, the passing of Cimabue in favor of Giotto, and the coming of a poet who can k...
Proud Omberto, Humbled . . . Or Humbled Omberto, Still Proud: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 46 - 72
March 06, 2024 14:00 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MBWe've come to the first penitent who speaks after the gate of Purgatory: Omberto Aldobrandesco. He's from a storied, titled family, a nobleman brought low. Or is he? Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear Omberto's side of the story, try to discern his character through his words, and ponder why Dante makes the first penitent of Purgatory proper so very boring. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:27] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, ...
Disorienting The Reader On The Terrace Of Pride: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 25 - 45
March 03, 2024 14:00 - 31 minutes - 29.2 MBIf you'd like to help out with editing, licensing, streaming, hosting, and website fees for this podcast, please consider donating at this PayPal link right here. Dante the pilgrim has heard the prayer of the prideful penitents under their boulders and now he sees them more clearly, weighed down "as if during dreams." What? It gets more confusing. Dante the poet interrupts the narrative to remind his readers of their duties (to his imagined penitents? what?). And then Virgil speaks without...
Dante Rewrites The Foundational Prayer Of Christianity: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 1 - 24
February 28, 2024 14:00 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MBPlease support this podcast! Help me with streaming, hosting, licensing, and editing fees by donating whatever you can at this PayPal link right here. Dante now hears the first of the penitents of Purgatory proper. They're under their boulders, reciting the foundational of Christianity. Except they're not. They're reciting Dante's rewrite of that prayer. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this curious passage that opens PURGATORIO, Canto XI, in which our poet has the sheer bravado to rewrite t...
When Art Envisions What Is: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 112 - 139
February 25, 2024 14:00 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBPlease consider supporting this podcast by donating to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and editing fees, as well as royalties for the sound effects, by visiting this PayPal link right here. Virgil has prompted the pilgrim Dante to look at the penitents coming around the bend on the first terrace of Purgatory proper. But Dante can't make them out . . . until the poet intervenes with an invective and the envisions these penitents as works of art. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we ...
A Seam In The Narrative Sewn With Virgil's Murmurs: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 94 -111
February 21, 2024 14:00 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MBHelp support this podcast by donating at this PayPal link right here. Having seen the intaglios, Dante is still in wonder as the first penitents round the bend. Virgil spots them first . . . and murmurs to Dante. Murmurs? It’s a loaded verb in a passage about Dante’s theory of art. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we take on this short passage in PURGATORIO, Canto X, a passage that seams the canto together . . . or perhaps reveals its stitching. Here are the segments for this episode of WALK...
The Moral Crux Of Justice And Compassion In The Last Intaglio: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 70 - 93
February 18, 2024 14:00 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBPlease consider helping to support WALKING WITH DANTE. You can help me cover streaming, licensing, royalty, hosting, and editing fees by donating whatever you can at this PayPal link right here. Dante goes on to find the last intaglio or relief carving in the austere, too-steep, marble wall of the first terrace of Purgatory. Here, he finds a scene between the Roman emperor Trajan and a sorrowing mother who demands justice. Demands it so much, in fact, that she and Trajan have a dramatized ...
Realism And Its Discontents: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 46 - 69
February 14, 2024 14:00 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBAfter the intaglio about the annunciation, Dante moves beyond Virgil (or is prodded to move beyond his guide) to discover a second sequence, this time from the story of King David and his journey with the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem. The scene is so realistic that it causes a sensory confusion in our pilgrim. Problem is, his amazement at the realism in the art is based on the poet's fabrication of details in the scene. The imagined enhances the real? A complex game indeed! Join me, ...
Art, Creativity, And The False Promise Of The New: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 28 - 45
February 11, 2024 14:00 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBPlease donate to help support this walk with Dante. You can help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, editing, and royalty fees by visiting this PayPal link right here. Dante the pilgrim and (shockingly!) Virgil have made it to the first terrace of Purgatory proper, although they (and we?) are still not sure exactly what's going on. All we know is that the terrace has gorgeous carvings in the white marble. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at the first of these carvings that will hel...
The Post-Gate Letdown: PURGATORIO, Canto X, Lines 1 - 27
February 07, 2024 14:00 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBIf you'd like to help support this podcast, please consider donating to cover hosting, licensing, and streaming fees by using this PayPal link right here. Dante and Virgil have come through the dramatic gate of Purgatory proper and entered a wildly open space, edging out to the void. This stark emptiness provides an existential contrast to all of the sound and fury that came just before. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the hard climb up to and the initial step onto the first of the...
The First Terrace Of Purgatory Proper: A Read-Through of PURGATORIO, Cantos X - XII
February 04, 2024 14:00 - 30 minutes - 28 MBIf you'd like help support this podcast by underwriting its hosting, streaming, royalty, website, and editing fees, please consider donating at this PAYPAL link right here. I hope you're ready for the climb. We've come through the gate of PURGATORY to find ourselves on the first terrace of those actually getting rid of their sins. In this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE, we'll read through my rough--very rough--English translation of PURGATORIO, Cantos X - XII, to give us all a chance to see...
Screeching And Singing Into Purgatory Proper: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 130 - 145
December 20, 2023 14:00 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBHelp support the work of the podcast by donating to help me cover licensing, royalty, hosting, streaming, and editing fees associated with our walk. You can do so by visiting this PayPal link here. Dante and Virgil finally walk through the gate into Purgatory . . . in one of the most complex endings of any canto in all of COMEDY. There's tragedy and comedy, classical leaning and Christian resolution, emotional distress and safety, screeching and singing, tyranny and polyphony, all tied up t...
Of Keys, Gates, And Letters On The Forehead: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 106 - 129
December 17, 2023 14:00 - 28 minutes - 26.3 MBHelp keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. To help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and editing fees, please consider donating through this PayPal link here. Does Dante walk up the steps to the gate of Purgatory? Not without Virgil's help. And then we get a close view of the angel's ashy robes. And then we hear about letters on the forehead. And then we see the two keys. And it all comes down to a tangled knot, both in the passage and in the thematics. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as w...
Three Steps Up To The Gate And Into An Interpretive Quagmire: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 94 - 105
December 13, 2023 14:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBPlease consider donating to WALKING WITH DANTE to help me cover the costs of streaming, editing, royalties, hosting, and web domains for this podcast. You can do so by visiting this PayPal link right here. We've made it to the steps into Purgatory. In other words, we've made it to an interpretive quagmire. Seven hundred years of scholarship sit on these steps. But maybe there's a way we can clear off the dons and see the steps in a new way. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore these imp...
The Forbidding Angel At The Gate: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 79 - 93
December 10, 2023 14:00 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBPlease help me cover the costs of streaming, editing, hosting, and producing this podcast by visiting this PayPal link right here. Dante seemed so full of confidence when he learned that his dream was indeed only a dream and that Lucy had in fact carried him to the gate of Purgatory. But that was before he faced the angel guardian at the gate, whose forbidding presence seems to silence the pilgrim. Fortunately, Virgil is ever ready to answer. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue to w...
Brace Yourself For The Gate Of Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 64 - 78
December 06, 2023 14:00 - 20 minutes - 19 MBHelp me cover the costs for this podcast: its hosting, licensing, streaming, and royalty fees. (Those sound effects require royalties!) You can donate using this PayPal link right here. Dante undergoes a total transformation: from the scared guy who burned up in his dream to the fully confident pilgrim who walks right up to the gate of Purgatory. In the meantime, he asks his reader to change, too: to read the poem as fearlessly as he journeys across the known universe. Join me, Mark Scarb...
Lucy, Virgil, The Christian Reality, The Classical Texture: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 43 - 63
December 03, 2023 14:00 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBHelp keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Please support this work by donating to cover hosting, streaming, editing, licensing, and other fees associated with this podcast. To do so, please visit this Paypal link right here. Dante awakens in stark terror. But he's beside his constant companion, Virgil. And he's a long way up the mountain, looking far down at the sea. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear Virgil tell about the arrival of Lucy and discover that the Christian truth of comedy ...
A Dream Of Classical Sex And Sorrows: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 13 - 42
November 29, 2023 14:00 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBHelp keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free! Please donate to help me cover hosting, streaming, licensing, royalty, and research fees. You can do so at this PayPal link here. Dante dreams his way to the gate of Purgatory using three classical images that explain his sexual rapture in the presence of divine love but also give his journey a texture of sadness. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for the first dream of PURGATORIO. Let's explore the imagery from Ovid, Virgil, and Statius, as well as Dante...
Asleep In A Messy Bed Of Classical Imagery: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 1 - 12
November 26, 2023 14:00 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBHelp support WALKING WITH DANTE! To help me cover hosting, streaming, licensing, research, and royalty fees (that music costs money!), consider donating to the podcast at this PayPal link. We begin PURGATORIO, Canto IX, with a mess of classical imagery that's befuddled scholars for centuries. We won't come to any conclusions about it, other than to say that such misdirection may be the heart of the matter. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this difficult opening to a central canto fo...
The Gate Of Purgatory: A Read-Through Of PURGATORIO, Canto IX
November 22, 2023 14:00 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBHelp keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Donate to help me cover licensing, streaming, hosting, and royalty fees associated with this podcast. You can donate at this PayPal link here. We're finally at the gate of Purgatory! And it's a corker of a canto, to say the least. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this quick read-through of PURGATORIO, Canto IX, before we take it apart line by line to study it in the depth Dante intends. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: ...
The Generosity That Ends The Cantos Of Ante-Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, Lines 109 - 139
November 19, 2023 14:00 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBHelp support WALKING WITH DANTE. Please donate to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and research fees, as well as royalties for the music. You can donate at this PayPal link here. We've reached the end of PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, which means we've reached the end of Ante-Purgatory, those cantos and those parts of the mountain before the main gate of Purgatory proper. Here, Dante changes the tone completely, ending our stay outside of Purgatory proper in praise of generosity--or s...
The Sun Sets On The Classical Landscape: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, Lines 85 - 108
November 15, 2023 14:00 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBPlease help keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free by donating to help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and royalty fees associated with this podcast. You can give as you like here at this PayPal link. After Judge Nino's misogynistic diatribe, Dante the pilgrim stares at the stars. The four from the opening of PURGATORIO have passed beyond his sight; three new stars are rising, when the long-awaited snake makes its appearance in the dale of the negligent rulers. Join me, Mark Scarbrou...
Misogyny Rears Its Head: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, Lines 64 - 84
November 12, 2023 14:00 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBAfter Dante shocks Judge Nino and the poet Sordello with the revelation of the pilgrim's own corporeality, Judge Nino launches into a disgusting diatribe about his "unfaithful wife," a pernicious bit of misogyny that threatens to derail COMEDY . . . or at least our appreciation of it. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this difficult passage in PURGATORIO, one that must be addressed but leaves us with no good answers about works of art from the past. Here are the segments for this epi...
I Saw Them, They Saw Me, So The Journey Is Real: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, Lines 46 - 63
November 08, 2023 14:00 - 23 minutes - 21.1 MBSordello leads Dante down three steps into the valley of the kings. There, our pilgrim Dante meets Judge Nino, perhaps a figure from the poet Dante's own past, certainly a figure tied to a major character in INFERNO, and a figure who helps our poet "prove" that his journey was indeed real, not imagined. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this descent into the valley of the negligent rulers in the final bits of our time before the gate of Purgatory proper. Here are the segments of this...
The First Angels Descend From Heaven: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, Lines 19 - 45
November 05, 2023 14:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBHelp underwrite the costs associated with this free podcast! Licensing fees, hosting fees, streaming fees, music and sound royalties: it all adds up. You can donate to WALKING WITH DANTE at this PayPal link here. Still standing on the cusp of the valley of the negligent rulers, not yet among them, Dante witnesses two angels descend from heaven, the first we've seen come from the blessed realms. (The first angel of PURGATORIO is apparently a boatman between a spot in Italy and Mount Purgator...
Ecstatic While Longing For Home: PURGATORIO, Canto VIII, Lines 1 - 18
November 01, 2023 14:00 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBHelp me keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. You can donate to support the podcast at this PayPal link here. We move closer to the negligent rulers on the slope of Mount Purgatory, seated or standing about in a dale on the slope before the main gate. Among them, we encounter longing, yearning, dreaming, sadness, all at the moment of the end of the day, its death, even as someone is already anticipating sunrise (and resurrection?). Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore one of the most b...
The Kings Who Dodged What They Should Have Done, Part Two: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, Lines 82 - 136
October 29, 2023 14:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBIn the last episode of this podcast, we glossed (or explained) the long list of rulers who are in the darkening dale ahead of us, as well as Dante, Virgil, and Sordello. In this episode, let's ask interpretive questions of this long, difficult passage at the end of PURGATORIO, Canto VII. Some of these questions have answers; some, tentative answers; and some, mere speculation. But that's the intellectual fun of the walk with Dante! Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I ask ten questions of this t...
The Kings Who Dodged What They Should Have Done, Part One: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, Lines 82 - 136
October 25, 2023 14:00 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBPlease help support this podcast. I have a great many hosting, streaming, licensing, journal, and royalty fees associated with this work. Anything you can give helps! Use this PayPal link here to make a contribution. We finally get to see who is down in that beautiful dale in front of us on the lower slopes of Mount Purgatory--and it turns out to be a roster of rulers from the mid- to late-1200s. These kings have mucked up the European landscape and left it in the mess that Dante finds it....
Problems In The Poetry Of The Elysian Fields: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, Lines 64 - 81
October 22, 2023 14:00 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBHelp keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free by donating to help me cover its licensing, hosting, streaming, and royalty fees. You can use this PayPal link here to make a contribution. Sordello leads Virgil (and Dante the pilgrim, whom Sordello has hardly noticed) on to the beautiful dale on the lower slopes of Mount Purgatory. This passage is one of the first where the poet has to write about beauty. And in doing so, he has to renegotiate his position toward Virgil's great poem, THE AENEID. ...
Virgil, Sordello, And The Limits Of The Will: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, Lines 37 - 63
October 18, 2023 14:00 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBHelp keep WALKING WITH DANTE sponsor-free. Your donation at this PayPal link helps cover streaming, hosting, website, and licensing fees for this podcast. Donate here. Virgil has turned the journey into his own--but now confronts not only his limits but perhaps everyone's as Sordello warns him (and Dante the pilgrim) that night is falling on Mount Purgatory. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this very strange passage from PURGATORIO in which we find out for the first time that the El...
Virgil Redefines Limbo And The Journey Across The Known Universe: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, Lines 16 - 36
October 15, 2023 14:00 - 26 minutes - 24.7 MBIf you'd like to donate to WALKING WITH DANTE to keep it afloat without sponsors, you can give some a little in any currency using this PayPal link. Sordello stands amazed in the presence of the great poet Virgil. The pilgrim Dante? Seemingly forgotten. Sordello wants to know how this classical poet got into Purgatory. So Virgil offers an explanation that reiterates what we know about Limbo but also redefines Limbo and perhaps causes Dante the poet to trip across the wires of his own think...
Virgil Returns To Center Stage: PURGATORIO, Canto VII, Lines 1 - 15
October 11, 2023 14:00 - 22 minutes - 21 MBPlease help support WALKING WITH DANTE to keep it sponsor-free. You can make a donation in any currency using this PayPal link. We've come out of the invective against Italian strife and returned to the plot of COMEDY--and Dante the poet clearly wants to return Virgil to the center of the narrative's stage. But can he? How is Virgil's position negotiated and renegotiated as the damned Virgil walks on into the redeemed landscape. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I explore our return to storyte...
The Rage Comes To Rest (Sort Of): PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Lines 127 - 151
October 08, 2023 14:00 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBDonate to help keep WALKING WITH DANTE on its path by using this PayPal link here. Dante's invective against political strife reaches its height by turning its rhetoric toward Dante's own experience--and maybe even his experience in writing COMEDY. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch Dante's poetic craft fall apart a bit and then turn back to the poet's own experience, all to find his stance as the prophet-poet he wants to be. Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:...
The Poet Dante Finally Loses Control: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Lines 106 - 126
October 04, 2023 14:00 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBRage knows no bounds--even in a poem as controlled as Dante's COMEDY. The poet has been offering up an invective about Italian strife and the war-torn landscape that has ruined his home. But in the middle passage of his invective, he may have finally lost all control and committed outright blasphemy. Or maybe really complex irony. It's hard to tell. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the middle of the invective in PURGATORIO, Canto VI. Here are the segments for this episode of the pod...
Dante The Pilgrim Versus Dante The Poet
October 01, 2023 14:00 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBWe've danced around the notion of Dante as the pilgrim and Dante as the poet and their competing voices in COMEDY for so many episodes--quite literally, years now. But does this split in Dante hold up? Why do we allow something to occur in interpretation which never occurs in the poem? Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this interpolated episode of WALKING WITH DANTE. I want to engage in some rather high-level narrative theory to talk about why we need to make the split between pilgrim and poet,...
You Don't Always Get The Poem You Want: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Lines 76 - 105
September 27, 2023 14:00 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MBPlease consider supporting this work in WALKING WITH DANTE by donating to help me cover hosting, streaming, website, and licensing fees for this podcast by visiting this Paypal link here. The story (or narrative) of PURGATORIO comes to a halt in Canto VI and the poem turns into a political invective. There are interesting problems here: with metaphors, with history, with poetics, and with (perhaps) our own expectations. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I have to face my own expectations about...
Sordello, Dante's Second Guide Across The Known Universe: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Lines 49 - 75
September 24, 2023 14:00 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBHelp support WALKING WITH DANTE by donating to cover hosting, licensing, streaming, and podcast fees at the PayPal link here. Virgil has come in for a bit of a whipping. But no worries! All is forgiven. Dante still sees Virgil as his liege in a feudal context, his ultimate guide. And together, they find a solitary soul on the slopes of Mount Purgatory: Sordello, a troubadour poet and Dante's second guide across the known universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this intriguing fi...
The Garbled Logic Of A Classical Poet In A Christian Poem: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Lines 25 - 48
September 20, 2023 14:00 - 20 minutes - 18.6 MBHelp support WALKING WITH DANTE by covering the hosting, editing, and licensing fees. You can donate through PayPal here. The pilgrim Dante and Virgil pass on from the crowd. And now Virgil really becomes the loser. Dante inquires about a passage in THE AENEID. And Virgil answers like a prof who is caught with a question he can't answer. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the second time in COMEDY that Virgil is forced to correct his masterpiece in front of Dante. Here are the segme...
Winners, Losers, And Beggars: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Lines 1 - 24
September 17, 2023 14:00 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBHelp support WALKING WITH DANTE to keep it sponsor-free. Click here for a PayPal link to donate and help me cover licensing, hosting, streaming, and research fees. Having heard three stories of those who died violent deaths unshriven, Dante the pilgrim is besieged by requests from others. A crowd forms around him, all begging for prayer, including six individuals singled out from the crowd. But something's amiss. Someone has won at a game of dice--and someone has lost. Who's the winner and...