623 Williams Hall

This talk begins with a review of ground covered in Freedom Readers, specifically of African American authors from the 19th century to more recent times, including Jesmyn Ward, who amplified Dante’s voice that speaks truth to power, before examining several white authors from the Deep South–Richard Henry Wilde, Augusta Evans Wilson, Robert Penn Warren–who read Dante in the context of the “peculiar American institution,” slavery, with attention to the ongoing problems that derive from it–racism, segregation, and systemic inequality. Lorna Goodison’s Caribbean version of a Southern Dante has the last word.

This Della Valle Lecture in Dante Studies is sponsored by the Center for Italian Studies.