ANTHONY ESOLEN
"Dante: The Prison of Autonomy,
the Freedom of Obedience"

 
Our 2008-09 Distinguished Public Speaker Lecture series at the University of Virginia  continued on November 5, when Anthony Esolen, Professor of classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature in the Department of English at Providence College, visited Minor Hall. 
 
Like Virgil, Esolen skillfully--and with a good bit of humor, animation, poetry,and Italian erudition -- led the audience through a rich philosophical theological  treatise on human autonomy and the nature of freedom.But the journey traveled  was not framed by an arid logic; rather, it began with consideration of something close to all of us --a great tree on Jefferson's Lawn--before turning to  the classic literary terrain Esolen knows quite well, if not by heart: Dante's Divine Comedy.  Plunging quickly into -- as he put it -- the "sludge hole," Esolen directed his audience towards the most treacherous, icy and speechless scenes of Dante's Inferno, then past the condemned though admirable guardian Cato, across (with song and hope) to the Island-Mountain of the Purgatorio, where we met several individuals, including the great Italian poet Sordello who warmly welcomes Dante, a fellow compatriot from Mantua.  Ultimately, like all great guides, Esolen ended the journey at its promised ascent, a deeper admiration and gratitude for  the Beatific Vision of the Paradiso.
Tony Esolen is a widely read and respected author, translator of several classic works of literature, and an increasingly popular and anticipated Internet essay blogger. In addition to authoring numerous academic articles on the poetry of Spenser, Shakespeare and Dante, Esolen has translated the Modern Library edition of Dante's Divine Comedy (2003-2007), Torquato Tasso's 16th century epic poem of love and conquest Jerusalem Delivered (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), and Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).  Esolen is the author of two recent books, Ironies of Faith: The Laughter at the Heart of Christian Literature, (2008) and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (2008).



 
The Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the University was a cosponsor of this public lecture. 
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