Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
The 1999 album, Symphonies of Infernality, by Thyrane features figures from Gustave Doré’s illustration, Alichino and Calcabrina. This illustration is from Canto 22 of the Inferno.
Find Symphonies of Infernality here.
Find Alichino and Calcabrina by Gustave Doré here.
Contributed by Gianluca Giuseffi Grippa
“A poetic journey through contemporary mindscapes, A Beastly Comedy is a modern, independent sequel to Dante’s epic. From visions of despair to scientific pursuits and sensual pleasures, the story is a quest for morals and meaning in a world of doubt.
“The modern day pilgrim is guided from ignorance to understanding by Dante, himself disillusioned to not have reached paradise, while images of hell torment and corrupt any seeker of wisdom who must ask when punishments deemed just are just another evil.
“By turns dark and ecstatic, visceral and romantic, the distinct parts of the poem – The Underworld, The Sea of Science, and The Mountain of Arts – chart the wide range of approaches used in seeking knowledge, purpose, and happiness. While suffering is common and numbness seems like salvation, the poem is a testament to human curiosity, resilience, and capacity for love.” —Amazon.com
A Beastly Comedy is envisioned as a modern sequel to Dante’s work. An epic poem in English, it imitates the structure of Dante’s original poem, comprised of 100 cantos composed in terza rima, resulting in 14,500 verses in modified iambic heptameter.
“L’artiste turinois Enrico Mazzone a réalisé une œuvre, Rubedo, en hommage à Dante Alighieri. Il ne s’agit pas d’une œuvre au format traditionnel, mais de l’illustration de l’intégralité de La Divine Comédie, simulant la technique de la gravure lithographique, sur une feuille de papier de 97 mètres de long et de quatre mètres de haut. Une œuvre colossale, qui a débuté en 2015 en Finlande et s’est achevée à Ravenne, cinq années après, sur la mezzanine du Mercato Coperto (le marché couvert).
“Mais bientôt il sera possible de voir cet ouvrage depuis son propre ordinateur, des quatre coins du monde. Le Département du tourisme de la municipalité de Ravenne et le Laboratorio Aperto en ont en effet commandé la numérisation, qui a commencé le 6 février et se poursuivra jusqu’au 22 février 2021.” [. . .] –Federica Malinverno, ActuaLitte, February 15, 2021.
Octobriana is a public domain Russian super-heroine, who first appeared in a comic strip in 1971. In the new Octobriana book, titled Octobriana: The Exotic Time Domina, there is a comic spoof of Dante’s Inferno titled “The Tenth Circle of Hell.”
In his review for Kult Creations, John A. Short writes:
“Firstly we have reprints of Reima’s two rare, out-of-print Octo strips from the early nineties… ‘Mission in the North’ (with artist Petri Tolppanen) and ‘The Tenth Circle of Hell’ (with artist Timo Niemi.) It is ‘The Tenth Circle of Hell’ that is the backbone of this book, since it runs to 37 pages and is by far the longest strip in the collection. The story sees the Spirit of the October Revolution flying her time travelling Wonder Machine to Hell to take on everyone from Cerberus, Pluto (the God not the dog), Medusa, the Devil and her own evil sister (Decabriana!) This spoof of Dante’s Divine Comedy has some great humour and cracking action all in artist Niemi’s macabre woodcut-style.” [. . .] –John A. Short, Kult Creations, October 9, 2015.
In addition to “Mission in the North” and “The Tenth Circle of Hell”, the new Octobriana book includes the comic strips “Origins”, “Wasted Time”, and “From Cuba with Love.”
This book was written and illustrated by Reima Mäkinen, Petri Tolppanen, Timo Niemi, Vesa Vitikainen and Sauli Jokinen.
You can pick up a copy of Octobriana: The Exotica Time Domina online at Turun Sarjakuvakauppa for 12,00 €.
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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.
