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Bibliographic Citation
Title: Dante’s Divine Comedy
Author/Illustrator: Seymour Chwast
Year of Publication: 2010
Publisher City: New York
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 9781608190843
Author/Illustrator Website: http://www.pushpininc.com/
Media Used for Artwork: Black and white line drawings.
Fiction Graphic Novel
"The Classics Revisited" Group Project- Please visit our presentation here to learn more about how this graphic novel and others can be used in a high school curriculum.
Annotation
In this graphic novel adaptation of Dante's famous allegorical poem, take a tour Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise with Dante and his guide Virgil as they learn of the different pleasures and punishments that saints and sinners have been assigned.
Personal Reaction
(Provided by J. Medina)
This graphic novel is a great supplemental material to use when reading Dante's Divine Comedy. It really helps to illustrate some of the different punishments and pleasures that Dante describes in his poem. It also helps modernize some of the ideas in a way that is more familiar to today's students. For instance, the feud between the white and black guelphs is depicted as 1950s mobsters shooting at one another. The illustrations depict the punishments and people in a mostly funny way (a minotaur dressed in a wrestling costume) and dreamlike way befitting the journey Dante is taking.
Significant Potential for Challenge: The inclusion of this book in a public high school library media center or in the young adult graphic novel section of a public library has the potential to be challenged. One reason for this is because Dante's Divine Comedy talks about the Catholic/Christian beliefs of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. The inclusion of any type of religious material in the public school system is regularly challenged. Another reason why this book may be challenged is the inclusion of drawings of anatomically correct naked sinners that are being tortured for their sins. Books are often challenged because of the inclusion of "sexually explicit" or "violent" material. My reasoning for including this book in a public high school library media center would be based on whether or not Dante's Divine Comedy was being taught in one of the English classes as this would be primarily used as a supplemental material for that lesson plan. It would be hard to defend this book in a school library if this poem was not already being taught at the school. In a public library this book would be easier to defend as the poem is considered to be a classic and thus the poem and this supplemental material is an appropriate addition to a library's collection. A public library should have a plan already in place on how to deal with book challenges such as those suggested by the American Library Association.
Curriculum Connection: Grades 9 to 12 Reading Literary Response and Comprehension
California Standard: Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text - Relate the literary works of authors to the major themes and issues of their eras [Identify how the different politics and scandals of Dante's time are also depicted in his poem]. Structural Features of Literature - Identify several literary elements and techniques (e.g., figurative language, imagery, and symbolism); Read and identify ways in which poets use personification, figures of speech, imagery, and the "sound" of language; Identify the functions of dialogue, scene design, and asides in dramatic literature.
Significant Potential for Challenge: The inclusion of this book in a public high school library media center or in the young adult graphic novel section of a public library has the potential to be challenged. One reason for this is because Dante's Divine Comedy talks about the Catholic/Christian beliefs of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. The inclusion of any type of religious material in the public school system is regularly challenged. Another reason why this book may be challenged is the inclusion of drawings of anatomically correct naked sinners that are being tortured for their sins. Books are often challenged because of the inclusion of "sexually explicit" or "violent" material. My reasoning for including this book in a public high school library media center would be based on whether or not Dante's Divine Comedy was being taught in one of the English classes as this would be primarily used as a supplemental material for that lesson plan. It would be hard to defend this book in a school library if this poem was not already being taught at the school. In a public library this book would be easier to defend as the poem is considered to be a classic and thus the poem and this supplemental material is an appropriate addition to a library's collection. A public library should have a plan already in place on how to deal with book challenges such as those suggested by the American Library Association.
Curriculum Connection: Grades 9 to 12 Reading Literary Response and Comprehension
California Standard: Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text - Relate the literary works of authors to the major themes and issues of their eras [Identify how the different politics and scandals of Dante's time are also depicted in his poem]. Structural Features of Literature - Identify several literary elements and techniques (e.g., figurative language, imagery, and symbolism); Read and identify ways in which poets use personification, figures of speech, imagery, and the "sound" of language; Identify the functions of dialogue, scene design, and asides in dramatic literature.
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