Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
Decay of Humanity is a 2012 album by metal band Mechanical Hydra. The art for the album cover features a colored version of Gustave Doré’s illustration, The Schismatics – Mahomet. The illustration is of Canto 18 of the Inferno.
Find Decay of Humanity here.
Find The Schismatics – Mahomet by Gustave Doré here.
Contributed by Gianluca Giuseffi Grippa
“[T]he title of the painting above, Amor che move il sole l’altre stelle, comes from the Italian poet and father of the Italian language, Dante Alighieri. The painting is instead by British surrealist, Leonora Carrington.
“According to one interpretation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, love is the driving force behind everything. The universe and our planet. God was, without a doubt, Dante’s — and maybe Carrington’s — meaning of ultimate love. Thus, love is as powerful as a god, and love (as God) is the most powerful source of energy and everything else (and the other stars…). [. . .] –Jess the Avocado, “Love will Move the Sun and Other Stars,” Medium, May 24
View Amor che move and other paintings by Leonora Carrington here.
Read more about Carrington’s biography and how she “feminized surrealism” in The New Yorker.
“Y tú, quién sabe por dónde andarás, quién sabe qué aventuras tendrás, qué lejos estás de mí.” –Eduardo González Viaña, Dante’s Ballad, 2007
“‘Remember that we’re in the U.S.,’ Dante Celestino is told when his daughter Emmita runs away. Friends and neighbors warn him that in the United States it’s not considered so unusual for a fifteen-year-old girl to run away. But Dante had counseled Emmita to date only Spanish-speaking Hispanic boys, and never anyone who joins gangs or deals drugs. Yet she ignores her father’s advice and—right in the middle of her quinceañera—runs away with a tattooed Latino who doesn’t speak Spanish and rides a lowrider motorcycle. And to complicate matters, Dante is in the U.S. illegally, making it difficult to report the girl’s disappearance to the police.
“So begins Dante’s odyssey. Accompanied by a lame donkey named Virgilio and the voice of his dead wife, he sets out for Las Vegas, where Emmita’s boyfriend—or abductor, as Dante considers him—supposedly lives.
[. . .]
“In this bittersweet tour de force originally published in Spanish as El Corrido de Dante, the First and Third Worlds join hands, and Mexican pueblo life and Internet post-modernity dance together in one of the most memorable fables to shed light on issues such as immigration, cultural assimilation, and the future of the United States with its ever-increasing Latino population.” –Arte Público Press
Learn more about Dante’s Ballad by Eduardo González Viaña at the publisher’s website here.
“Reyes’ provocative essay film re-imagines the Mexico/U.S. border as a mythical place comparable to Dante’s purgatory. Leaving politics aside, he takes a fresh look at the brutal beauty of the border and the people caught in its spell. By capturing a stunning mosaic of compelling characters and broken landscapes that live on the US/Mexico border, the filmmaker reflects on the flaws of human nature and the powerful absurdities of the modern world. An unusual border film, in the auteur tradition of camerastylo, Purgatorio ultimately becomes a fable of humanity, an epic and visceral experience with powerful and lingering images.” –description on Kino Lorber (retrieved January 12, 2022)
Watch a trailer for Purgatorio on Vimeo here.
“Mexican death metal band Transmetal released El Infierno de Dante in 1993. It was also released as Dante’s Inferno in an English version of the album.” —Wikipedia
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.
