Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
“As parents there are a lot of things we smile our way through for the love of little John and Jane when, if we’re honest, we’d rather be getting a root canal. If Dante
lived today and wrote his famous literary tome Inferno from the perspective of a parent, the eternal punishments doled out in his nine circles of hell might look something like this…” — This Michigan Life, October 8, 2013
Find out Dante’s Nine Circles of Parenting Hell by reading the full article here.
“For someone who was writing mainly in the early part of the 14th century, Dante’s shadow is long. He was a major influence on the modernists and their followers, especially TS Eliot – ‘The Waste Land’ is stuffed full of references to the Inferno – and Samuel Beckett, whose entire oeuvre could be said to be a reworking of themes and images from Dante. When asked what he wanted to do with his life, Beckett replied: ‘All I want to do is sit on my arse and fart and think about Dante,’ but luckily for us he also did a bit of writing as well. Meanwhile, a new translation of the Inferno comes out pretty much every year.” [ . . . ]
1. He might well be the greatest poet who ever lived.
2. He didn’t just write the Inferno, you know
3. Dante is still incredibly influential
4. He was still very much a product of his time
5. He more or less invented the Italian language
6. It’s not all doom and eternal punishment
7. More on love
8. He’s not easy to translate, but that hasn’t stopped people trying
9. He’s surprisingly comforting
10. He’s not that hard
–Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian, May 9, 2013
“HUNT EMERSON’S INFERNO delights on many levels: as an ingenious translation of classic verse into knockabout farce; as an effortlessly readable introduction to the poem for those too busy or too intimidated to tackle it without a guide; as a delicious crib for anxious Dante students with an essay crisis heaving into view; and as a warm tribute from the master of one art form to the grand master of another. Hunt’s cartoon is followed by Kevin Jack-son’s essay on Dante, which explains how the comic has been developed from the original, points out some of the more complicated jokes, and invites readers to go back to tackle Dante for them-selves.” [ . . . ] —Last Gasp Books, September 6, 2012
To see a live demo of Emerson drawing one of the sketches, click here.
In 2006, Umberto Eco published a short collection of playful literary experiments, including rewritings of some of the most famous passages of the Divine Comedy. In these rewritings, Eco reverses the meaning of each word, rendering an entirely new meaning to the whole. Here is one example, taken from the first verses of the Comedy:
“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.”
Eco’s version:
“Al margin del ristar di vostra morte
mi persi in un deserto illuminato,
ritrovando le piazze più distorte.”
For more examples, see Cinzia Rosati’s review.
Considered one of the most important authors of Japanese manga, Go Nagai is creator of a Dante-inspired comic series called Mao Dante (also known as Demon Lord Dante in English). Nagai published the first series in 1971, and he has revisited these Dantesque themes, characters, and images in several series since (among them his 1972 anime series Devilman). Nagai’s illustrations were originally inspired by the dramatic 19th century lithographs Gustave Doré produced for the Divine Comedy. In 2017, it was announced that J-Pop would re-release Mao Dante (see here).
See also Dante Today‘s posts on Nagai’s Dante Shinkyoku and Devilman Lady.
Click here for a discussion of Go Nagai’s work in relation to three other Dante-inspired graphic novelists (article in Italian).
Contributed by Andrea Sartori
All submissions will be considered for posting. Bibliographic references and scholarly essays are also welcome for consideration.
Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.
