Dante’s Date at Catholic Chaplaincy

28 January 2009

Poetry marathon packs out chaplaincy bar as Catholic Chaplain to the University of Bristol, Father Robert King reports.

Dr George Ferzoco, a research fellow in medieval religious culture at the University of Bristol, put his conviction that Dante’s ‘Inferno’ should be read out loud into practice. George called on those taking his ‘Inferno’ seminar to sign up for a marathon reading of the great poem in all its parts over six hours.

Quite a challenge! But one made possible and even fun by staying for as little or as long as people wanted, in the relaxed setting of the Catholic Chaplaincy’s bar.

Dante’s great poem is based on a journey. And the marathon read made that clear. Rather than scanning words on a page with reference to text books and various interpretations the students embarked on a joint journey to read and hear the poem as should be proclaimed.

The event drew quite a crowd.  I spoke with Dr George Ferzoco and some of the participants in the busy chaplaincy bar where the readings took place.  You can listen to our podcast in the multimedia panel on the right.

Take a look at our image gallery on the right for pictures of the reading.

Father Robert King