It's increasingly common to not bring up all sorts of people that matter. ie: It's safe to safe that some or even all of the names you mention will remain largely unknown to a great many students out there as the curriculum they are taught does not include them. The average modern public school system, and university system fails it's students in quite large ways. This is sadly, and somewhat scarily, increasingly true, as many on the front lines (parents, teachers/professors, and even occasionally students themselves) will attest to.
Insofar as Dante's importance to western literature, of those you've mentioned a great many would say he's only second to Shakespeare (if even second at all) in regards to influence he's had on it.
Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Goethe are names one should know. They arguably more than anyone else have influenced western literature in the last ~1000 years or so, and consequently the culture at large.
Going back further: Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, and Virgil are names in literature one should know. The bolded of arguable extra-special import.
Then you have philosophers people should be familiar with if not at least aware of, but sadly a great many aren't: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Confucius, Aquinas, and Locke are all names one should know well.
There are certainly other names that could be mentioned, and there's also of course works that people should be familiar with that have no known author, ie: Beowulf.
I highly recommend reading all of the above. Not at least being familiar with all of the above indicates a sizable hole in one's knowledge of western civilization, and the world at large. Fill it if you have to.
I know of them, never really interested in them that much though - guess that is why I chose Engineering . But just went over the material we were taught. Only can do so much in English classes I guess, and we did a fair amount. Even subjected me to Joyce. Ick.