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Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

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Tina Turner: By the Book

July 25, 2019 By Gabriel Siwady '19

“What books do you find yourself returning to again and again?

‘In 2017, my kidneys were failing and I went through a prolonged period of dialysis. Every time I went to the clinic, I brought the same three books with me: The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra, The Divine Comedy, by Dante, and a book of photography by the extraordinary Horst P. Horst. I needed something for the spirit, something for the intellect and something for the senses, and the ritual of studying the same books while I was undergoing treatment was comforting to me because it imposed order on a situation I couldn’t otherwise control.’

“You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?

‘I like a dinner party to be a lively mixture of different kinds of people — young, old and everything in between. So my first choice would be Dante — after all my years of studying The Divine Comedy, I need to ask him a lot of questions! I could be his Beatrice! Since I can’t choose between Anne Rice and Stephen King, I’d set places for both of them. Their books have kept me awake for many a night because there’s nothing I enjoy more than a good scare! And I’d definitely serve Thai food, because I like things spicy.’ ” […]    –Jillian Tamaki, The New York Times, October 18, 2018

Categories: Music, Written Word
Tagged with: 2018, Divine Comedy, Literary Criticism, Literature, Musicians, New York, Tina Turner, United States

Galway 2020: Poet Rita Ann Higgins compares it to Dante’s Inferno

July 25, 2019 By Gabriel Siwady '19

“Galway poet Rita Ann Higgins has said her city has left it ‘too late’ to appoint a new artistic director for its controversial European capital of culture 2020 project, and should set up a team of artists to provide a creative lead instead.

“Ms Higgins, who is a member of Aosdána, has also called on the Galway 2020 board to ‘take the project by the scruff of the neck and come out fighting.’

“The poet has compared the project’s current state to the nine circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno in a new piece of work she has published this week.

“The poem, entitled ‘Capital of Cock-a-Leekie Inferno (9 circles of 2020 Hell)’, tracks the course of the project since Galway secured the European capital of culture designation in 2016, and focuses on recent funding cuts to artistic groups accepted for the bid book.” […]    –Lorna Siggins, Irish Times, October 17, 2018

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture, Written Word
Tagged with: 2018, Artists, Cultural Centers, Culture, Galway, Hell, Inferno, Ireland, Poetry

The Sin of Silence

July 25, 2019 By Gabriel Siwady '19

“In the Inferno, Dante Alighieri, a critic in his day of Church leadership, famously put the souls of at least three popes in hell, as well as countless other clerics who go nameless, their faces blackened beyond recognition. However, one cleric he does meet along the way is Ruggieri degli Ubaldini (d. 1295), the archbishop of Pisa, who notoriously arrested the city’s strongman, Ugolino della Gherardesca (1220-1289), along with several members of his family, and starved them to death in a tower.

“Dante’s fantastical encounter with Ruggieri and Ugolino in the Inferno takes place on a vast lake of ice near the bottom of hell. Here, frozen for eternity, are the souls of sinners condemned for treason: some for betraying their city or country, and others for betraying their kinsmen. Dante is not far from the bottom of the pit, where he will soon come face to face with Satan, a giant demon, frozen in ice to his waist, who eternally chews on the bodies of three of history’s most infamous traitors, Brutus and Cassius, who betrayed Julius Caesar, and Judas Iscariot. Three pairs of legs dangle from the demon’s mouth.

“As Dante pushes on across the lake, he sees two souls frozen in the same hole. They are encased in ice up to their necks. One of them is repeatedly sinking his teeth into the skull of the other, like a dog gnawing a bone. He is startled by Dante’s presence. He takes his mouth from his “savage meal” and wipes his lips on the other’s hair. He introduces himself as Count Ugolino. ‘And this,’ he says of the other, ‘is the Archbishop Ruggieri.’

“Ugolino and Ruggieri were Dante’s contemporaries. Both where partisans in a conflict between two armed factions that roiled much of Italy in the thirteenth century, and both were accused of treason, Ugolino, Pisa’s podestà or political leader, for switching sides in the conflict, and Ruggieri, a sometime ally of Ugolino’s, for rising up against him and for capturing him by deception. Dante knew the story, which, when passed through his poetic imagination, comes down to us as one the most disturbing passages in the Inferno.” […]    –James Soriano, Crisis Magazine, October 8, 2018

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2018, Canto 33, Hell, Ice, Inferno, Literary Criticism, Pisa, Ruggieri, Silence, Sins, The Church, Ugolino

Extracts from Alasdair Gray’s New Translation of Dante

July 25, 2019 By Gabriel Siwady '19

“DANTE writes that at the age of 35, exactly half way through the 70 years the Bible tells us is the span of human life, he found himself lost in a dark wood, and that his way out was barred by three fierce animals – a leopard, a lion and a wolf. The wood is a symbol for the state of sin in which Dante believed himself to have fallen, and the animals may be specific sins – lust, arrogance and avarice, although the meanings are disputed.

“As Dante flounders about, he is approached by a shadow who turns out to be Virgil, the great poet of ancient Rome, who tells him he has been dispatched by saints in heaven to aid him. Virgil will be Dante’s ‘Guide, Lord and Master,’ as Alasdair Gray puts it. The only passable route will take him through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, where he will end up before the throne of God.” […]    –Alasdair Gray and Joseph Farrell, The National, October 7, 2018

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2018, Divine Comedy, Gustave Doré, Hell, Scotland, Translations

This “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” Theory Has Fans Brushing Up On Dante’s Inferno

July 25, 2019 By Gabriel Siwady '19

“Fans of American Horror Story have theorized for years that each of the seasons corresponds to one of the circles of hell from Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem The Divine Comedy. But Season 8 has viewers reworking that idea to make it a bit more specific. This AHS: Apocalypse theory has fans brushing up on their Dante to see if it actually fits this season better than it does the show as a whole.

“In Inferno, Dante is guided through the nine circles of hell by the poet Virgil. Each circle is devoted to a specific sin: the first is Limbo, followed by lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. Since those are common themes throughout AHS, viewers began to suspect that each season was inspired by one circle. It became so popular that creator Ryan Murphy commented on it, telling TV Guide in 2017, ‘With AHS, I do like the Dante’s Inferno theory. I’ve read a lot about it. I know what the fans think. I have a theory about the show that I’ve never told anybody and probably won’t until it’s over, but that theory is a good one.’

“The theory has evolved in the wake of Season 8’s premiere. Now some viewers have started to wonder if every episode of Apocalypse represents one of the nine circles instead.” […]    –Megan Walsh, Romper, September 26, 2018

 

Categories: Performing Arts, Written Word
Tagged with: 2018, American Horror Story, Circles of Hell, Hell, Horror, Inferno, Television

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How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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