Reading Dante takes a degree of background information and some basic skills, but it also takes nerve, commitment, and support. The goal of this course is to introduce you to the pleasures of the Commedia across all three of its zones - hell, purgatory and heaven - and give you what you need to explore this journey with pleasure, instruction, and even inspiration. We will focus on specific cantos rather than on coverage, so that you will learn how to read Dante and how to understand how what he is up to can deeply shape your experience, both of the text and of what we might call - in terms he did not use but would have understood - your own self-awareness. Classes will consist of a brief lecture, small group discussion, and general debate and questioning. We will use a good prose translation - that of John Sinclair - with notes and background, drawing on other translations from time to time as supplements. The reading will not be long but it will have its challenges. By the end of the class, you should be able to launch your own boat on the sea of this great poem and navigate by finding your own aids.