https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/12/opinion/columbus-day-italian-american-racism.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

How Italians Became ‘White’

LECTURES 8-9-10 

DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE of your assignment.

You can start from the questions and go over the lectures to find the diagrams or explanations that can help with your answers. Ideally it should be the other way around, but technology is changing the way our brains operate, thus the deductive method is becoming less relevant than the inductive.

I ASSUME YOU READ AND UNDERSTOOD THE MATERIAL. IN YOUR ANSWERS, DON'T WASTE TIME REPEATING INFORMATION. I AM INTERESTED IN YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING AND YOUR OWN REASONING. That's why I emphasize explaining the reasons for your answers.

1) BLOG POST n. 12  COPY THE TEXT OF YOUR COMMENT AND REPLY HERE. Indicate the name of the person you replied to.

2) Analyze the diagrams of Inferno and Purgatory: in Dante's vision, what are the worst sins? And the least grave? How does that compare to the vision WE (our society) have about the worst offenses against our fellow human beings and -- for those who believe -- god?  Explain your reasons for your answer.

You don't have to disclose your own beliefs or non-belief. However, you probably have an idea about believers and their beliefs (sorry for the atrocious syntax - I couldn't come up with anything better.)

3) Explain the LIMBO. Who ends up there? Who would you put there among famous people in history or the arts, and even among contemporary famous figures?  Explain your reasons for your answer.

4) The "indifferent," everybody's least favorite people. Why did Dante place them outside Hell. Does the punishment fit the crime? WHAT IS in our society the KIND OF SIN (against society) that would earn people a place in the Vestibule? Explain your reasons for your answer.

5) Who was Guido Cavalcanti? What kind of relationship did he have with Dante? Why does he end up in Inferno? Do you agree with Dante? Explain your reasons for your answer.

6) The Canto di Ulisse (Canto XXVI) is considered by many one of the fundamental moments of the entire poem because it does not address theological questions, but the most profound yearning of humans for absolute knowledge, at the cost of losing one's life. This aspect is absorbed in one of the most striking pages of Primo Levi's memoirs of his detention in Auschwitz.  http://www.dantepoliglotta.it/en/the-canto-of-ulysses-narrated-by-primo-levi/
In a more modest form, it is also the meaning of Lucio Dalla's song, from a very different point of view.
Focus on Levi and Dalla. What is your personal understanding of the two messages? This is a difficult question. Don't rush, think it over.