How lovely to see several new responses since this discussion was opened! Thanks everyone for taking the time to write. Hope others will continue this thread.
A#minor asked more specifics on the
Screwtape Letters and
Inferno connection. I hadn't thought of using this comparison until I attended a C. S. Lewis Conference at Belmont College in Nashville last fall. I was so charged up with Lewis after that weekend that I came home determined to work him into classes, even if he wasn't included in the anthologies (he should be!).
Lewis read Dante's
Inferno (in the original Italian) while in his teens. He read the
Purgatory section while in the hospital after receiving wounds in WWI. Scholar Katherine Lindskoog noted, "There are traces of
The Divine Comedy throughout his writings [. . .]."
In my World Literature I college class, we read parts of Dante's
Inferno where he takes the reader on a journey through the circles of hell which include all the Deadly Sins like lust, gluttony, violence, etc.... The deeper you go, the worse the sin--and the worse the punishment. Dante hopes to keep the reader out of hell by showing him or her what it might be like to be separated from the warmth and love of God. I have my students select a circle of hell, and in groups, they do a PowerPoint presentation taking us on a guided tour of their level. They show relevant lines from Dante, who is in this circle, what is the punishment, why it is appropriate, and who they would include in this level since Dante's time (he put known persons of his day into the circles, so the students have a bit of fun with this part). The students have come in deathly make-up for the Wood of the Suicides, included skits, food, CGI created scenes, composed songs, and more to go along with their circles. It is my favorite part of the school year.
Then, I do a PowerPoint on Lewis'
Screwtape Letters which shows how the devil tries to keep humans out of heaven (which in reverse psychology shows us how to keep out of hell--just like Dante). I include parts of the preface where Lewis tells why he did this and its toll on him. We look at excerpts from letters which relate to the same sins that got people into Dante's
Inferno. Like in Letter 4, Screwtape talks about how humans forget "their bodies do affect their souls." Letter 9 includes the following: "An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula." and "[getting] a man's soul and [giving] him nothing in return [...]." We look at the Power of Nothing in Letter 10 and the "gluttony of Delight" in Letter 17. Sadly, the souls in Dante's
Inferno have nothing to show for their brief moments of earlthy abandon to their desires. We examine Letter 21 and the references to "chastity" and who really owns the body. I give the students a copy of the PowerPoint and ask them to compare the two works. It went so well last semester as a first attempt, I am making it a permanent part of the course!
Yes, the recent movie and continuation of the series will keep Lewis' name fresh on their minds and certainly add to the course. What a great time to be a literature teacher!