Digital Dante: Circles of Web Hell

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani should go to hell, say several students at Harlem's Frederick Douglass Academy. Or at least to Dante's interpretation of hell.

The students came to this conclusion after studying the great Italian author using a World Wide Web site called Digital Dante. To better their understanding of Dante's conception of paradise, purgatory and Inferno, the teen-agers placed contemporary figures in each level. Giuliani earned a place in the first circle of the Inferno, called limbo, because he doesn't care about "who or what he hurts," said junior Shaneeka Smith.

"He seems really selfish," Smith explained. Smith joined eight schoolmates in studying Dante in a special four-month program sponsored by the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Using the Website, created by doctoral student Jennifer Hogan, the teenagers were able to read the 14th century poem, look at artists' renditions of various scenes in the piece and search a large library containing several translations and commentaries of Dante's Divine Comedy. Hogan first conceived of the Digital Dante site five years ago. She felt the Internet was a great place to show readers the structure of the 900-page poem, as well as the many paintings which illustrate the work. Though she first tested the project at the private Collegiate School, Hogan always wanted to bring the site to students who don't usually have the chance to analyze classic literature.

"I wanted to interest them enough so that when I leave them, they will want to go back and pursue it further," said Hogan, who co-taught the course with Jennifer Grossman of the Institute.

And the teenagers were interested. They often dropped by Columbia to search the site or other resources on the Web. Though several hadn't even surfed the Web before taking the class, they all dived into their final projects, where they placed famous people in Dante's world in a Website complete with audio clips, animated pictures and links to articles. The students researched the people's backgrounds and accomplishments using the New York Times online archive and various search engines.

Web-novice Tanika Chase, a junior, turned to Yahoo and Excite to learn more about Donald Trump, whom she placed in the Inferno's circle 4, reserved for the avaricious and prodigal. She was disturbed that Trump uses his money to buy casinos in Atlantic City, rather than donating funds to the needy.

The students reserved the lowest levels of hell for mobster John Gotti, the parent-killing Menendez brothers and convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, whose punishment consisted of being trapped in the federal building he destroyed, surrounded by pictures of the victims yelling at him. Bombs would blow off McVeigh's legs whenever he took a step, the students decried.

Purgatory is a place for envious people like 1992 presidential candidate and billionaire Ross Perot, who isn't satisfied with having more power than the average person, and the slothful New York City Housing Authority, which was saved from hell because it is trying to improve, the students said.

In the students' paradise, you'll find civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and Gandhi, authors Zora Neale Hurston and Countee Cullen and activists Malcolm X and W.E.B. DuBois.

Along with the final project, the Digital Dante site itself helped the students understand the difficult text. Though all the teenagers also read the print version of the poem, they enjoyed being able to instantly click to a section of the work and to view the pictures. Several said they did not use the interactive features on the site, such as the discussion groups or the commentary search function.

"I liked the images best," said junior Njeri Olatunji. "It puts a picture with what you are reading so you can visualize it better."

Senior Antonio Torres, compared the different translations online. Some versions highlighted the religious aspects of the work, while others stressed its philosophical nature, he said.

"I just sat down and soaked up everything I saw," he said.

Hogan doesn't plan to return to the classroom next year. She will conduct a workshop for high school teachers on using Digital Dante over the summer, which she hopes will lead to its use in several schools next year. Hogan also will work on adding audio to the site and collaborating with the Metropolitan Museum of Art on creating an art history course on Dante.