Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Succession Season 1, Episode 8 – “Prague” (2018)

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“Succession is an HBO series created by Jesse Armstrong which showcases a fictional battle between four adult siblings to succeed their father, Logan Roy, as CEO of Waystar/Royco, a multibillion-dollar media conglomerate.

“In Season 1, Episode 8, entitled ‘Prague,’ Roman Roy, one of Logan Roy’s four adult children, recites a line from Canto 3 of Dante’s Inferno: ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter.’ This is a variation of line 9 of this canto as translated into English by John Ciardi in 1954, the full line being ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.'”    –Contributor Cesca Craig

See also the related post on HBO’s Succession here.

Photo and citing contributed by Cesca Craig (University of Arkansas, ’23)

Dante Songs (October 2021)

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The 9:46 long composition by Darko Domitrović is made up of three songs. The first is “Inferno,” followed by “Purgatorio,” ending with “Paradiso.” Martina Zadro sings Dante’s poetry while accompanied by Domitrović on piano.

Find the recording on your favorite streaming service here, or listen on YouTube.

The complete score is available for free download here.

Contributed by Darko Domitrović

Zone Blanche Netflix Series (2017)

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zone-blanche-netflix-series-posterZone Blanche (“Black Spot” in English) is a French-Belgian series directed by Matthieu Missoffe. Two seasons are currently available on Netflix, with future seasons expected.

“The entire first season of Black Spot contains so many Dante references that any aficionado of Inferno can spot them: the deathlike forest impenetrable by sunlight; the suicide victims suspended from the trees, horribly disfigured by attacking birds; a teenage girl who cuts off her own fingers to escape a hellish coming-of-age ritual; a descent into a treacherous network of caverns to locate a missing person, assumed dead; encounters with beings who may be either alive or dead; a legendary monster called the Wendigo; a reservoir of waste guaranteed to kill what little life remains in the dying village. The careful viewer will spot yet more parallels to Dante, some of which are very subtle.

“With a vision as true as it is dark, Missoffe’s Black Spot not only recasts the evils of Dante’s Florence, but of our entire Western world.”    –Contributor Jane Wineland

Contributed by Jane Wineland (University of Arkansas Ph.D. ’26)

 

“Dante in Greece” Conference (Athens, 2021)

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Dante-700-greece-conference“The ‘Dante and Greece‘ International Conference is part of the vast programme of Dante celebrations put in place to mark the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of the Supreme Poet. This initiative is also inspired by the bicentenary of Greek independence (1821-2021) and promoted by the Italian Philhellenic Society and by other Italian, Greek and Cypriot institutions.

“One of the stages of the conference will be at the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens on 30 September. The conference will discuss the extraordinary influence that Dante has exerted and indeed still continues to exert on Greek and Cypriot literature, from Kavafis to Kazantzakis, from Sikelianòs to Prevelakis. Italian and international scholars will be taking part.

“At 8 pm Dante Night will begin, with a screening of ‘L’inferno di Dante‘, a silent film by Bertolini, de Liguori and Padovan (1911). The film will be accompanied by a musical performance featuring saxophone and live electronics by Marco Castelli, who composed the arrangements.

“The preview of the exhibition ‘Dante: l’immaginazione delle immagini‘ (Dante: The Imagination of Images) will follow. The Divine Comedy today: an artistic dialogue between Greek and Italian painters 700 years after the Poet’s death. The exhibition is curated by Konstantinos Moussas.    —Italiana

For more information on the Convegno: Dante e la Grecia, see here.

“In cammino con Dante”: Istituto italiano di cultura di Istanbul

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“L’Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Istanbul ha organizzato il ciclo di incontri online ‘In cammino con Dante,’ una serie di 8 di letture drammatizzate e critiche di canti scelti dalla Divina Commedia, con il patrocinio dell’Ambasciata d’Italia in Turchia e la collaborazione del Dipartimento di Lingue e Letteratura Italiana dell’Università di Ankara.

“L’iniziativa realizzata nel corso dell’anno, con cadenza mensile da aprile a dicembre 2021, fa parte del ricco programma di eventi per il 700 anniversario della morte di Dante Alighieri.”   –Institute of Italian Culture, Istanbul

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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