Join Collegium Institute and Dappled Things for our online Global Catholic Literature Seminar on Dante’s Indiana by Randy Boyagoda. Boyagoda is one of a crop of new Catholic novelists who are both diversifying the canon and deepening our engagement with it. Dante’s Indiana does both as it depicts a Sri Lankan-Canadian former professor as he navigates the drug-ravaged world of central Indiana amidst closed factories and Dante-inspired theme parks. This brilliant satirical novel exposes the wounds at the soul of its main character and of the broader society as both seek to rise from the depths of hell to see again the love that moves the sun and stars.

In this seminar, we’ll explore Dante’s Indiana while reading select cantos from Dante’s Divine Comedy. We’ll discuss the novel as satire and spiritual guide in the ruins of the late modern world. Our own journey through the novel will end with Randy Boyagoda leading our final seminar himself.

Schedule and Presenters: We’ll gather on Zoom on Mondays in October from 7:00pm–8:30pm Eastern Time.

• October 3: Collegium Institute Staff - Pages 1-78/Chapters 1-8

• October 10: David Wallace (Judith Rodin Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania) - Pages 79-149/Chapters 9-16

• October 17: Jenn Frey (Associate Professor of Philosophy and a Peter and Bonnie McCausland Fellow, University of South Carolina) - Pages 150–221/Chapters 17-25

• October 24: Randy Boyagoda (Author of Dante's Indiana; Professor of English, University of Toronto) - Pages 222-273/Chapters 26-33

Registration Fees & Deadlines:

• Early Bird Registration (ends Wednesday, September 14 at 11:59pm): $65

• Regular Registration (ends Wednesday, September 28): $75

Collegium Institute will provide copies of the book to all participants in the United States. International participants are welcome to join, but please note that we can't guarantee that we will be able to send you a copy of the text if you live outside of the US.