Conversations on Dante 13: Guy Raffa on Dante's Bones

Conversations on Dante is a series of podcast episodes from the Leeds Centre for Dante Studies at the University of Leeds. In each episode, we sit down with researchers from a range of disciplines to discuss some of the work which is helping to shape our understanding of Dante, his context and works, and his place in the cultures of the world. In this episode, hosted by Matthew Treherne, Guy Raffa discusses his recent book, Dante's Bones: How a Poet Invented Italy (Harvard University Press, 2020). Guy talks about some of the high points of writing and researching the book, and what the story of Dante's dead body can tell us about Dante's place in Italian cultural, social and political life. We also discuss Guy's award-winning DanteWorlds website (http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/), and his current Public Scholars Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities - including what it means to be a public scholar. Guy Raffa is Associate Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/frenchitalian/faculty/guyr).  The episode was edited by Esme Sayal.