Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
“When Swofford is stuck on latrine duty, the words ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here’ are scrawled on the shit bucket. This is a well-known line from Inferno by the poet Dante Alighieri. In the poem, the words appeared scrawled upon the gates of hell.” —James Clark, “7 Things You Probably Never Knew About Jarhead,” Task & Purpose, April 6, 2017 (retrieved February 20, 2024)
Contributed by Alex Milanese
“Raúl Zurita Canessa (b.1950) is a prominent Chilean poet whose work Purgatory is the first of three works based on the poetry of Dante (the other two being Anteparadise [1982], and The New Life [1994]). The late poet C.D. Wright provided the foreword to this English translation from Spanish published by the University of California Press. Wright wrote, ‘Purgatorio is arguably the seminal literary text of Chile’s 9/11/1973, the date of the U.S.-backed military coup led by Augusto Pinochet which overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. With his first published collection, the young Chilean poet began his Dantean trilogy, his long, arduous pilgrimage toward earthly redemption.'” –Contributor Devin Shepherd
Contributed by Devin Shepherd (University of Arkansas, ’22)
“Mr. Boudreau’s book, Packing Inferno (Feral House, $16.95), is an uncompromising narrative of his experiences in Iraq and his struggle to deal with the human consequences, both in the Middle East and, later, at home. His writing is vivid, detailed and filled with emotion.
“The book’s title refers to his having discovered that, among other books, he had packed Dante’s Inferno when he was deployed to Iraq, in what appeared to be a prescient move as the months went by. Mr. Boudreau writes this about a few tense moments when he and his men had to decide what to do when a truck heading in the wrong direction barreled toward them on the shoulder of the road” [. . .] –Pamela H. Sacks, Telegram, March 1, 2009
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.
