The next Studium Generale lecture, which will focus on the works of Dante Alighieri and an introduction to the *Divine Comedy*, will take place on Thursday 21 May at 6 pm at the Kleve campus of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Marie-Curie-Str. 1, Room 01 02 005. Attendance is free of charge.
Kleve/Kamp-Lintfort, 11 May 2015: Dante’s Divine Comedy is regarded as a masterpiece of world literature. Seven hundred years separate today’s reader from the more than 14,000 verses that describe a journey through the afterlife, taking in Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Three sets of 33 cantos, supplemented by an introductory canto, form the formally coherent external structure. Human existence, death and the salvation of the soul, politics and history, pagan antiquity and the Christian Middle Ages, faith and the quest for knowledge, realism and mysticism, and literature as both a model and a force for renewal are the themes of this multifaceted work.
As in all great literature, the beginning of the work is of particular significance, as it sets out the initial situation and foreshadows what is to come. The introduction is significant not only for the ‘new reader’: the wealth of references and allusions can also shed new light on the work for those already familiar with the *Commedia*. The focus is therefore on a close, annotated reading of the opening canto. An overview of the opening cantos of *Inferno*, *Purgatorio* and *Paradiso* rounds off the picture. Bilingual copies of *Inferno I* will be made available to all attendees of the lecture.
The lecture forms part of the Studium Generale programme. The lecture series is aimed at members of the general public as well as students, lecturers and staff at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, and presents current topics in a way that is relevant to everyday life and informative. The series also offers the opportunity to engage with current issues. “We invite everyone, regardless of age, to attend these fascinating lectures,” says Christin Hasken, the university’s press officer. She also sees the programme as an opportunity to visit the university’s two campuses and the new buildings on the new campuses.
The Studium Generale lectures at Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences are free of charge for members of the public. Further information on the Studium Generale is available online at www.hochschule-rhein-waal.de.
