“What Dante Means to Me” is the title of an essay by T.S. Eliot published in his To Criticize the Critic, originally given as a lecture. 2016 recipient of the prestigious Balzan Prize Boitani has adopted Eliot’s title to indicate that he, too, will reconstruct the story of his own relationship with Dante. The lecture will organize his remembrance of the past following the sequence of Dante’s own addresses to the reader in the Comedy––“because Dante knew what being a reader of his poem might entail, and skillfully maneuvered his audience into listening to it despite it being difficult or uncanny or at times even unbearable to ordinary people.”
A reception will follow the lecture.
Learn more about the speaker: Piero Boitani, Sapienza Università di Roma
The Center for Renaissance Studies Dante Lectures have been held each year since 2001, bringing Dante scholars from throughout the United States and Europe to the Newberry to present cutting-edge research. From 1983 to 1997, multiple lectures were held each year under the series title Lectura Dantis Newberrania.
Cosponsored with the Department of Theology, Loyola University Chicago and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago.
Faculty and graduate students of Center for Renaissance Studies consortium institutions may be eligible to apply for travel funds to attend CRS programs or to do research at the Newberry. Each member university sets its own policies and deadlines; contact your Representative Council member in advance for details.
Boitani's lecture at the Newberry Library is one of a series of lectures. Please find here information about his lecture at Loyola University, Monday, April 3 and at the Italian Cultural Center of Chicago on Wednesday, April 5.
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