Twenty-second International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Dante’s “Inferno,” “Purgatory”, and “Paradise” are transformed from medieval fiction to contemporary reality when seen through the eyes of currently and formerly incarcerated readers who compare Dante’s journey out of hell to their own life journeys out of prison. This paper is based on an ongoing project in which students from Wesleyan University and the Yale Divinity School collaborate with currently and formerly incarcerated men and women re-imagine Dante’s “Divine Comedy” in performances that use Gospel music and rap poetry to reveal the poem’s relevance to social justice and its absence in the twenty-first century.