Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

  • Submit a Citing
  • Map
  • Links
  • Bibliography
  • User’s Guide
  • Teaching Resources
  • About

Mommy’s Inferno, from Scary Mommy

May 12, 2022 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

scary-mommys-inferno

“In his poem Inferno, Dante travels through nine separate circles of human suffering on his journey towards spiritual salvation. Now I’m no major Italian poet, nor am I on a quest to save my soul, allegorically or spiritually. In fact, I haven’t even read Inferno, which is part of the epic poem the Divine Comedy, since the first time I trudged through (parts of) it in college, but I am a Mommy of three little kids. I have learned that motherhood is both divine and, often, a comedy….and yes, there is suffering. Hoo-boy is there suffering. I think, had Dante been a Mommy, his Nine Circles of Hell may have looked a bit different…but no less dreadful.

[. . .]

“Dante had to figuratively travel through hell and back before enjoying the peace that came at the end of his journey. I guess that’s the point of Mommy’s Inferno….that the inescapable moments of suffering we endure as mommies makes us stronger, better equipped to handle the challenges that come next, and more ready to enjoy the light of the good days that always follow the darkest nights of motherhood.

“So don’t ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter’ motherhood; for, though the hours and days of motherhood be long, the years are short…or so I hear.”   –Sarah Harris, “Mommy’s Inferno,” Scary Mommy (published May 21, 2010; updated December 2, 2020)

Read the nine circles of Scary Mommy’s Inferno here.

Categories: Digital Media, Written Word
Tagged with: 2010, 2020, Abandon All Hope, Blogs, Circles of Hell, Hell, Inferno, Moms, Motherhood, Parenting, Suffering

The real scandal of Dante’s Beatrice Blog Article, Oxford University Press (2021)

April 10, 2022 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

martin_eisner_blog_article_screenshotIn honor of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, the Oxford University Press asked authors with Dante-related writings to submit articles to the OUPblog. The following was written by Duke University’s Associate Professor of Italian Studies, Martin Eisner:

“For over 700 years, Dante’s description of his first encounter with Beatrice has scandalized readers. Medieval commentators debate Dante’s possible blasphemy in glorifying a mortal woman. Counter-reformation editors censor it. Some modern interpreters see it as a theological or political allegory without biographical foundation, while others consider it an idealized modern reciprocal romance. In Dante’s New Life of the Book, I examine how these various responses from Giovanni Boccaccio to Orhan Pamuk bring into focus the novelty of Dante’s Beatrice, who creates a connection to the divine that includes not only Beatrice, but all humans. Beatrice embodies Dante’s optimistic sense of human potentiality that provides the philosophical ground for the rewards and punishments of the Divine Comedy.

“Beatrice is not the singular, exclusive child of God. She represents all humans, whose souls God breathes directly into them (Purgatory, canto 25) . . . Joining his love of a mortal woman with his love of God, Dante expands his vision to encompass other individuals as well. You may worry that Dante has put too much on the shoulders of an eight-year-old girl, but the real scandal of Dante’s Beatrice is that Dante thinks you can be Beatrice, too.” [. . .]    –Martin Eisner, OUPblog, September 9, 2021 (retrieved April 10, 2022)

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2021, 700th anniversary, Articles, Beatrice, Blogs, Dante Studies, Oxford

Darby’s Inferno Blog Post by Wrestling Fan Molly Belle (2021)

November 26, 2021 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

darbys-inferno-blog-post-image

“Of all I have found fascinating about the journeys within All Elite Wrestling since its inception, one has piqued my interest more than any other. It’s one that has been a masterful work of art since the beginning, both in storytelling and in execution. Highlighted by subtle, emotional cues and incredibly beautiful black and white independent film work, Darby Allin has become this enigmatic darkness while simultaneously existing as AEW’s light.

“He doesn’t shy away from challenges – even in the face of certain destruction. His body, merely a vessel for a drive unmatched in professional wrestling; Darby walks alone. The obstacles he has had to overcome – both in his life and in his career – have been immense. Yet, he hasn’t strayed when many would have. He stays true to himself and grinds through the blackness to walk out the other side a changed man, but not in the way many would change. No, Darby emerges from hell as determined as ever and ready to fight another day.

“But that doesn’t mean his journey isn’t a perilous one. He will have lost pieces of himself along the way. Defining moments in one’s life require such sacrifice. Not only does Darby enter such hazardous conditions willingly, but he does so with the understanding that one day one journey will be his last. Until then, he walks on – half of his face painted to remind us and to remind himself that many years ago, part of his soul already entered into the unknown. He walks, still with honor to distinguish himself among monsters who may do him harm. He walks, still determined to walk through hell and climb out not unscathed but instead unburnt. He walks, still…

“This is Darby’s Inferno.” [. . .]     –Molly Belle, Wrestle Inn, March 3, 2021

Belle makes further connections between Darby Allin’s journey within wrestling and Dante’s Inferno including references to various sins (namely, violence). Read more here.

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2021, AEW, Blogs, Inferno, Journeys, Sports, United States, Wrestling

“San Francisco: The 9th Circle of Hell”

November 21, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

dark-painting-of-dante-frozen-hell

“Dante learns a great many things about the metaphysical world, but this blog post is mostly concerned with the temperature of the 9th circle of hell. For those who haven’t read it, this circle is not a fire pit with little devils poking bare-bummed sinners with pitch forks. It’s frozen solid, and at the very epicenter, Satan is frozen mid-waist, eternally munching on Brutus, Cassius, and Judas in his three mouths. It’s pretty gruesome but not unlike what’s going on in San Francisco this winter.” [. . .]    —Snotting Black, January 15, 2013

Categories: Odds & Ends, Places
Tagged with: 2013, Blogposts, Blogs, Brutus, California, Frozen, Hell, Judas, Ninth Circle, San Francisco, Satan, Travel Writing, Weather

Imago Dantis

November 16, 2021 By Hannah Raisner, FSU '25

screenshot-of-images-from-site

“I have a vast collection of publications related to the illustrations of Divine Comedy that extends to the most varied artistic expressions from the 18th C to date and beyond, along the latitudes of the poet’s visionary grip in the the world and its various
geographic-cultural areas.

The work that I present here is the figurative result of my visual study of the iconographic themes of the first part of Dante’s poem, Hell, through the aforementioned tradition and illustrative plurality. The 34 songs of Hell are represented with a mixed technique: manual, marker + coloured ink, and digital, with insertions of manipulated images. An original version of collaging then. This blog is together [a] presentation of the illustrations and understanding of their creative process.

Hence, in each canto-cover you will find the following in-sight information:

My illustration of each canto/song

A choice of the main verses from the poem in ‘cloud’ format

My interpretative notes of the main figurative themes

A very small selection of the many sources that inspired me.”    –Contributor Maurizio Coglia

The digital collages can be viewed at Coglia’s website imagodantisinferno.com

 

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture
Tagged with: Blogs, Cantos, Collages, Hell, Visual Arts

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 10
  • Next Page »

Categories

  • Consumer Goods (194)
  • Digital Media (126)
  • Dining & Leisure (107)
  • Music (190)
  • Odds & Ends (91)
  • Performing Arts (361)
  • Places (132)
  • Visual Art & Architecture (416)
  • Written Word (845)

Random Post

  • “Dante to Dead Man Walking: One Reader’s Journey Through the Christian Classics” (2002)

Frequent Tags

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 700th anniversary Abandon All Hope America American Politics Art Artists Beatrice Blogs Books California Circles of Hell Comics Dark Wood Divine Comedy England Fiction Films Florence France Games Gates of Hell Hell History Humor Illustrations Inferno Internet Italian Italy Journalism Journeys Literary Criticism Literature Love Music New York City Non-Fiction Novels Paintings Paolo and Francesca Paradise Paradiso Performance Art Poetry Politics Purgatorio Purgatory Religion Restaurants Reviews Rock Science Fiction Sculptures Social Media Technology Television Tenth Circle Theater Translations United Kingdom United States Universities Video Games Virgil

ALL TAGS »

Image Mosaic

How to Cite

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

Creative

 





© 2006-2023 Dante Today
research.bowdoin.edu