AY 20-21
LECTURE
3
F-MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY – PPT AND GENERAL LECTURE
LITERATURE
I.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE INTELLECTUAL/ ACADEMIC TRADITION
OR THE CANONICAL
TEXTS………………………………...………. 1
A. ORAL TRADITION .………….…...…. 1
B. EPIC…………………….…………..…..1
C. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ……1
D. DANTE ALIGHIERI ………………….. 1
E. LA VITA NUOVA …………………….. 2
F. DIVINE COMEDY ……………………. 2
G. INFERNO ……………………………... 2
H. ADDITIONAL NOTES ……………….. 4
THE INTELLECTUAL/ ACADEMIC TRADITION OR THE
CANONICAL TEXTS
ORAL TRADITION
 The first and still most widespread mode of human
communication.
 It refers to a dynamic and highly diverse oral-aural
medium for evolving, storing, and transmitting
knowledge, art, and ideas.
 Before the invention of writing, Oral Tradition was the
way different societies preserved their cultural
information. One person was normally assigned to
become the recorder of that tribe’s beliefs and
experiences. That person eventually trains their
offspring, who will eventually carry the tradition forward
for the succeeding generations.
 An orally composed poem is remembered not as a fixed
text, but as a set of patterns. There are large-scale story
patterns, smaller set-pieces, or type-scenes, and much
smaller metrical formulas that a poet can use to fill out
a line. These different patterns allow singers to
compose gigantic epics, thousands of lines long,
without ever memorizing all the exact words of the epic.
 We see the beginning of poetry and fiction in oral
tradition. Before those stories and verses were written
down, they were passed down from generation to
generation through word of mouth.
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EPIC
It is a long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds,
although the term has also been loosely used to
describe novels and motion pictures. In literary usage,
the term encompasses both oral and written
compositions.
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
Epics normally have a special significance to the
society that made them because these works embody
or validate the belief, customs, ideals or values of the
people.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT DANTE’S
INFERNO
SIGNIFICANT CULTURAL CHANGES DURING THE
MEDIEVAL PERIOD (4TH-14TH CENTURY)
● After the fall of Rome in 410, various groups of people
competed for power and territory in the former
northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire.
● Cultural leadership moved north from the Mediterranean
to France, Germany, and the British Isles.
● Pagan
imagery
were
replaced
by Christian
representations.
13TH AND 14TH CENTURY

Italy consisted of small kingdoms and city-states. The
political and military strife during that period was caused
by the quarrelling among these territories.
The Italian city-states in 1494
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DANTE ALIGHIERI
A politician, writer, and philosopher, Durante degli
Alighieri (known as Dante) was born in Florence, Italy,
in 1265 to a wealthy family with a long history of
involvement in Florentine politics.
Two major factions, The Guelph and the Ghibellines,
controlled Florence in the 13th Century. Dante was a
member of the Guelph, which supported the pope; the
Ghibellines supported the emperor.
By 1300, the Guelphs had control of Florence.
Internal struggles developed among the Guelphs, and
the party split into two factions, the Whites and the
Blacks. Dante was a member of the Whites.
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Pope Boniface VIII supported the Blacks, and he sent
his troops to expel the Whites, which resulted in the
exile of Dante.
Initially, Dante plotted to restore the Whites back to
power. When that possibility faded, he devoted himself
to writing, reading, and contemplative study.
From 1313 to 1321, Dante wrote the Divine Comedy
(the collective term to the works Inferno, Purgatorio,
and Paradiso).
The Divine Comedy the study of exile: it inspects the
personal impact of exile; and it examines the larger
political issues that forced Dante out of Florence.
LA VITA NUOVA (THE NEW LIFE), 1294
This work described his deep, lasting, yet platonic, love
for Beatrice, a woman he first met when he was 9 years
old. This collection of verse is composed of 28 short
poems and 3 canzone (song) combined with his own
prose commentary.
It contains Dante’s ideas on romantic love and how it
can enhance our experience of divine love.
Beatrice Portinari becomes Dante’s guide in Purgatorio.
5. esta selva
selvaggia e aspra e
forte
6. che nel pensier
rinova la paura!
7. Tant' è amara che
poco è più morte;
8. ma per trattar del
ben ch'i' vi trovai,
C
5. If yet that terrored
night I think or say,
B
9. dirò de l'altre cose
ch'i' v'ho scorte.
C
6. As death's cold hands
its fears resuming are.
7. Gladly the dreads I
felt, too dire to tell,
8. The hopeless,
pathless, lightless hours
forgot,
9. I turn my tale to that
which next befell
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It is structured in thirds, reflecting the significance of the
number three in Christian theology.
 The journey comprises three books (”Hell,” ”Purgatory,”
and “Heaven”), each with 33 cantos, or chapters, plus
one introductory chapter, to make 100 cantos in total.
 It is written in a verse style called terza rima, an
interlocking threeline rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc.
 Example:
A
1. Nel mezzo del
1. One night, when half
cammin di nostra vita
my life behind me lay,
B
2. mi ritrovai per una
2. I wandered from the
selva oscura,
straight lost path afar.
A
3. ché la diritta via
3. Through the great dark
era smarrita.
was no releasing way;
B
4. Ahi quanto a dir
4. Above that dark was
qual era è cosa dura
no relieving star.
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D
DIAGRAM OF DANTE’S HELL
LIMBO
Sins of Wantonness/
Incontinence
2. Lust
3. Gluttony
4. Greed
5. Wrath
DIVINE COMEDY
It fits into the postclassical epic tradition—it is long,
heroic, allegorical, and often nationalistic.
It is also innovative in a variety of ways: Dante sets the
narrator within the text; the book uses Tuscan (Italian)
vernacular language rather than traditional Latin.
Stories that ends with a happy ending are called
Comedia. Because of the positive outcome, it has
created mass appeal, and reached a wider audience.
STRUCTURE OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
C
Sins of Violence
6. Heresy
7. Violence
Sins of Malice
8. Fraud
9. Treachery
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SUMMARY OF INFERNO
Dante wakes up and finds himself in the middle of the
Dark Forest. He tries to escape, but his path has been
blocked by three beasts.
Dante is rescued by Virgil. Virgil was sent by Beatrice
to serve as Dante’s guide in the journey to Hell.
VIRGIL (70 BCE-19 BCE)
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Virgil was regarded by the Romans as their greatest
poet, an estimation that subsequent generations have
upheld. His fame rests chiefly upon the Aeneid, which
tells the story of Rome’s legendary founder and
proclaims the Roman mission to civilize the world under
divine guidance.
CANTO III
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Before me there were no created things,
Only eterne, and I eternal last.
“All hope abandon, ye who enter in!”
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These words in sombre colour I beheld
Written upon the summit of a gate;
Whence I: “Their sense is, Master, hard to me!”
SEVENTH CIRCLE
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VESTIBULE OF HELL
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The souls that are here belongs to people who in life
took no sides; the opportunists who were for neither
good nor evil, but instead were merely concerned with
themselves.
Charon ferries Dante and Virgil across the river
Acheron.
The Seventh Circle of Hell is divided into three rings.
o The Outer Ring houses murderers and others
who were violent to other people and property.
o In the Middle Ring, the poet sees suicides
who have been turned into trees and bushes
which are fed upon by harpies.
o In the Inner Ring are blasphemers and
sodomites, residing in a desert of burning
sand and burning rain falling from the sky.
FIRST CIRCLE: LIMBO
EIGHTH CIRCLE
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It is resided by virtuous non-Christians and unbaptized
pagans who are punished with eternity in an inferior
form of Heaven.
SECOND CIRCLE: THE CARNAL
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The souls imprisoned here were overcome by lust.
They are punished by being blown violently back and
forth by strong winds, preventing them from finding
peace and rest. Strong winds symbolize the
restlessness of a person who is led by the desire for
fleshly pleasures.
THIRD CIRCLE: THE GLUTTONOUS
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The souls here are overlooked by Cerberus. Sinners in
this circle of Hell are punished by being forced to lie in
a vile slush that is produced by never-ending icy rain.
The vile slush symbolizes personal degradation of one
who overindulges in food, drink, and other worldly
pleasures, while the inability to see others lying nearby
represents the gluttons’ selfishness and coldness.
NINTH CIRCLE
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FOURTH CIRCLE: THE GREEDY
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The souls here are divided into two groups – those who
hoarded possessions and those who lavishly spent it –
jousting. They use great weights as a weapon, pushing
it with their chests which symbolizes their selfish drive
for fortune during their lifetime.
FIFTH CIRCLE: THE WRATHFUL
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This is where the wrathful and sullen are punished for
their sins. Transported on a boat by Phlegyas, Dante
and Virgil see the furious fighting each other on the
surface of the river Styx and the sullen gurgling beneath
the surface of the water.
SIXTH CIRCLE: THE HERETICAL
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The Eight Circle of Hell is resided by the fraudulent. This
circle of Hell is divided into 10 Bolgias or stony ditches
with bridges between them.
o Bolgia 1, Dante sees panderers and seducer.
o Bolgia 2 he finds flatterers.
o Bolgia 3, he and Virgil see those who are
guilty of simony.
o Bolgia 4, they find sorcerers and false
prophets.
o Bolgia 5 are housed corrupt politicians
o Bolgia 6 are hypocrites
o Bolgia 7: Thieves
o Bolgia 8: Evil counselors and advisers
o Bolgia 9: Divisive individuals
o Bolgia 10: Various falsifiers such as
alchemists, perjurers, and counterfeits.
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The last Ninth Circle of Hell is divided into 4 Rounds
according to the seriousness of the sin. Though all
residents are frozen in an icy lake. Those who
committed more severe sin are deeper within the ice.
o Round 1 – Caïna: this round is named after
Cain, who killed his own brother in the first act
of murder.
o Round 2 – Antenora: the second round is
named after Antenor, a Trojan soldier who
betrayed his city to the Greeks.
o Round 3 – Ptolomaea: the third region of
Cocytus is named after Ptolemy, who invited
his father-in-law Simon Maccabaeus and his
sons to a banquet and then killed them.
o Round 4 – Judecca: the fourth division of
Cocytus, named for Judas Iscariot.
Initially, Dante and Virgil were descending. However,
the moment they reached the lower half of the Devil,
they began ascending to the other half of the earth.
The heretics are condemned to eternity in flaming
tombs.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES
Dante needed to go through hell in order to understand
the nature of sin from the unrepentant.
Dante learns that all sinners attempt to justify their sin
(Francesca, for example).
This illustrates the distorted view of sin from the sinner’s
perspective because instead of taking responsibility for
their actions and repenting, they defend their behavior
instead.
The author has made Inferno as an allegory: an
extended metaphor in which everything in the poem is
equated with something outside it.
Allegory needs a literal level, which is one reason why
the work is very detailed so that the reader can see,
hear, feel, touch, and smell the places he visits, and
also why he populates Hell with historical characters
like Paolo and Francesca. The use of concrete
physicality and historical figures grounds the poem,
giving it a literal level like that of the historical city of
Jerusalem.
Medieval theologians had become very adept at
reading the Bible allegorically, so that any mention of
Jerusalem could refer to the literal city, the Church, the
heavenly city of Zion, or the believing soul.
Dante’s poem functions similarly, so that the literal level
(the state of souls after death) suggests other
meanings, including what sin does to the sinner in this
life.
There are also complicated political allegories which
involve Virgil as a representative of the Roman Empire.
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