Abstract

Based on a decade of experience facilitating theater workshops in prisons in Italy, Indonesia, and the United States, this paper documents the responses of incarcerated men and women to Dante’s “Divine Comedy” with special attention to the ways in which they see Dante’s journey out of Hell, through Purgatory, and up to Heaven as parallel to their life journeys through the personal hells that brought them to prison and the heavens they hope to achieve after their release.

Presenters

Ron Jenkins
Professor/Visiting Professor, Theater/Institute of Sacred Music, Wesleyan University/Yale Divinity School, New York, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life

KEYWORDS

Prison, Dante, Theatre, Social Justice, Systemic Racism

Digital Media

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