Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
Selection from “Summer Triptych” by Linda Pastan:
“Swathed from head to toe
in seeming veils of muslin,
the figure in the Nantucket fog
poles along the shoreline on a flat barge.
It could be Charon transporting souls
across the River Styx, or just
another fisherman in a hoodie,
trolling for bluefish
on the outgoing tide.”
Published on Poem-a-Day (June 12, 2015)
Season 4, Episode 5 of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time is set in the hellish “Nightosphere.” It alludes to Dante’s Inferno: its protagonists, Finn and Jake, find themselves there not knowing how they got there; they pass through an imposing gate to meet with the ruler of the Nightosphere; they meet a character rowing a boat over condemned souls.
Watch the full episode here.
Contributed by Allison Kim, University of Texas at Austin
Italian Telecom company TIM produced a series of television ads in 2012 featuring Dante, Virgil, Beatrice, and Lucifer as protagonists.
The trailer below gives a glimpse into the entire series:
For links to the full series of videos on Youtube, click here.
For more on the TIM series, see Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità (Bari: Levante editori, 2013), 193-218.
“SERVING HADES AND THE SURROUNDING AREA
127 Fields of Punishment Ave.
[…]
“✩ ✩ ✩
KAREN T.
He arrived on time, so three stars for that. But he was not very fun. I said, ‘Hey, Charon,’ and he got offended, saying, ‘It’s pronounced “Karen.” ‘ So I was, like, ‘Oh, my God! Shut up! My name is Karen!,’ and then he rolled his burning fire-eyes and melted into the ether and left me there in the middle of the River Styx. Rude.
“✩
LISA M.
Big surprise. Yet another service that won’t take me to Brooklyn.” –Cirocco Dunlap, The New Yorker
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.
