Sodomy In Dante's Inferno

620 Words3 Pages
Balakian, Peter. "Poetry in Hell: Primo Levi and Dante at Auschwitz." American Poetry Review 37.1 (2008): 3-5. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 108. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Nov. 2015. Peter Balakian has written an article base on “Poetry in Hell.” He explains how an Auschwitz prisoner, Primo Levi, survives his imprisonment by immerging himself in the passage of Dante’s Inferno, Canto 26. One part of the story is when Levi compares the Inferno with the punishments being served in prision, and how it must correspond with the Hell in today’s world. Another part of the story translates how easy it is to escape reality within your own imaginative vision when reading the Inferno. In addition, Levi exercises his only hour in the Lager to educate his reader on the structure of Dante’s Inferno, along with breaking down the meaning behind each punishment. Balakian wants his audience to decipher the many ways “Poetry in Hell” helped Levi survive his time…show more content…
"Sodomy in Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio." Representations 36 (1991): 22-43. Rpt. in Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 142. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Nov. 2015. In the article “Sodomy in Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio” written by Joseph Pequigney, he describes how problematic the sodomites in Hell become. Pequigney provides two examples from the Inferno, and the Purgatorio, of how it was educed. He reveals Dante’s perspective on homosexuality and how it is a sin against nature. Also, he describes the change in homosexual sinners from the Inferno to the Purgatorio. The human law mentioned in this article compares these human desired acts to bestiality symbolism. Sodomy sinners are held to a higher punishment than that of the heterosexual sinners. Peterson, Thomas E. "Ovid and parody in Dante’s Inferno." Annali d’Italianistica 25 (2007): 203+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 21 Nov.
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