Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

La Divina Avventura

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“La Divina Avventura è un libro illustrato, in versi, che potete trovare nella vostra libreria di fiducia in tutta Italia.

“La Divina Avventura è la Divina Commedia vista con gli occhi dei bambini e delle bambine, con gli occhi dei ragazzi e delle ragazze.

“Anzi, meglio ancora, ascoltata con le orecchie dei più piccoli perché il testo in versi è scritto per essere letto ad alta voce da mamme, papà, nonne, nonni, zii e da chiunque altro voglia tuffarsi nelle incredibili avventure vissute da Dante Alighieri attraverso i tre regni magici.” [. . .]    —La Divina Avventura website, 2019.

You can purchase a copy of La Divina Avventura by Enrico Cerni, Francesca Gambino, and Maria Distefano here.

Contributed by Enrico Cerni.

“La Divina Commedia”: ceramic artist Lee Yun Hee

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“Lee Yun Hee weaves Eastern and Western influences to offer a contemporary re-interpretation of both aesthetic and literary traditions, constructing a fantasy world that speaks of hope, strength and determination.

“Young ceramic artist Lee Yun Hee (b. 1986, South Korea) majored in Ceramics at both BFA and MFA levels at Seoul’s Hong Ik University. Lee calls herself a collector. What she collects are everyday stories of the common people, about their desires and wants, their fears and anxiety, and ultimately ‘the cure’ they seek to overcome the challenges and difficulties of life. There is much that she can relate to during her collections, for she is after all also human. Yet, it is not the hardships she clings to, but those ‘cures’ that each person resorts to. [. . .]

“Lee created her latest series entitled ‘La Divina Commedia‘ in 2013. Her inspiration came from Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), the renowned 14th century epic poem by Italian poet and writer Dante Alighieri. The literary work recounts Dante’s travels through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. In Lee’s contemporary take, the heroine of the story is a young girl who runs against all odds to overcome the trials and tribulations of life.” [. . .]   —Art Radar, August 11, 2015.

To view more of Lee’s ceramic artwork, you can visit her website.

Contributed by Anita Verna Crofts.

What Dante did with Loss by Jan Conn

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“What Dante Did With Loss is Jan Conn’s fourth book of poems. Central to this powerful new collection is a suite of poems charting the explosive emotions surrounding her mother’s suicide. Other poems range from meditations on South American flora and fauna to postmodern encounters with immortality.

“Jan Conn was brought up in Asbestos, Quebec. She now lives in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and works as a professor of Biomedical Sciences whose research is focused on mosquitoes, their evolution and ecology. She has published seven previous books of poetry.”    —Véhicule Press, 1998.

You can purchase Conn’s book of poetry through Véhicule Press or through Amazon.

Cheryl Sorg’s Nine Circles of Hell

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“Dante’s Inferno, cut apart line by line and assembled in readable order with clear tape onto a series of nine plexi circles approximately 20 inches in diameter and mounted onto a floor-to-ceiling height clear plexi road going through the centers of the discs.”    –Cheryl Sorg, from her website, 2019.

Cheryl Sorg is an artist from Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently based in Boston. She specializes in street art, collages, tape drawings, and photography, among other mediums.

To view more of Sorg’s artwork, you can visit her website.

“La Divina Commedia trova nuova vita nei cinguettii di Twitter”

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“La copertina sfondata, le pagine squarciate. Du-rante la Seconda Guer-ra Mondiale una copia della Divina Commedia frenò un proiettile vagante, evitando lamorte al proprietario che la custodiva in tasca. «È la provache Dante può salvarti la vi-ta», scherza Pablo Maurette,raccontando l’episodio. Questo 38enne argentino, professore di letteratura comparataa Chicago, è il protagonista di una rivoluzione culturale checorre su Twitter: la lettura, partecipata, del capolavoro di Dante ai tempi dei social.

“La formula è semplice: un canto al giorno, per centogiorni. Si legge, ognuno per conto proprio, poi si inizia a twittare per commentare leterzine e cercare spunti di analisi: i cinguettii si trasformano in note a piè di pagina. Il risultato? Un successo planetario. Dal Messico al Cile, dalla Francia all’Australia, migliaia di utenti di lingua spagnola (una bolgia, verrebbe da dire) hanno lasciato ogni speranza per unirsi al viaggio 3.0 guidato da Virgilio.” [. . .]    –Filippo Femia, La Stampa, February 2, 2018.

You can read the full article on La Stampa.

See other posts related to #Dante2018 here.

Contributed by Pablo Maurette (Florida State University)

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Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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