Join us for the annual Patricia H. Labalme Friends of the Library lecture in New York, featuring Teodolinda Barolini (2012 Resident), the Lorenzo Da Ponte Professor of Italian at Columbia University and chair of the Department of Italian.

Barolini argues that Dante’s radical historicity may function as a prophylaxis against stereotyping and that in any case—whatever the cause—he possesses a nonstereotyping imagination. Immersing the Commedia in historical context allows us, with surprising frequency, to see the absence of a normative response on Dante’s part. Using contemporary images in order to allow the audience to gauge a normative response, Barolini looks at Dante’s treatment of both sexual and racial others in the Divine Comedy.