Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
On June 9, 2021, the University of Edinburgh’s History and Games Lab YouTube channel posted a video entitled “Gaming the Divine Comedy: A History”. The talk, given by game designer Andrea Angiolino, “explores how the Divine Comedy has been gamified and will compare it to other literary works.”
Watch the full, recorded lecture here.
“‘Lucca Comics & Games is a unique cross-media event dedicated to pop culture, cosplay, and comics held in a medieval Tuscan town,’ said Emanuele Vietina, Director of Lucca Comics & Games.
“This year Italy is honouring poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri by celebrating the 700th anniversary of his death and Dante’s Divine Comedy sets the tone for the returning festival with this year’s theme being ‘rebehold the stars: light’.
“‘The theme of Light will visually accompany the Festival experience with contemporary Italian illustrator Paolo Barbieri creating the image of Lucca Comics & Games poster (above). In the year of Dante’s celebrations, he creates a link between Lucca Comics & Games to Dante’s journey with Virgil through the darkness of Hell.” [. . .] —SciFiNow, September 24, 2021 (retrieved March 8, 2022)
The festival took place, in-person, from October 29 – November 1, 2021.
“Rumors have been surfacing regarding the potential return of an old franchise that is expected to be announced during next month’s EA Play.
“Dante’s Inferno is a fantastic game that received a lot of marketing and heavy support from EA at the time, even having a Super Bowl ad. It also received generally positive reviews and was impressive-looking for its time. Even though it has some graphic elements, it caused little controversy and went on to inspire a comic, an animated short, and a planned film adaptation.
“Dante’s Inferno was fantastic, but it didn’t get a chance to blossom. Instead of resurrecting games and franchises everyone knows and already loves, it’s time for the industry to pay attention to some underrated gems, giving life to titles that could have flourished if given the chance. Dante’s Inferno is a prime candidate for such treatment — after all, dark beat ’em ups certainly haven’t gone out of style.” [. . .] –Gina Roberts, Comic Book Resources, June 22, 2021 (retrieved January 12, 2022)
“‘Stai fermo un girone’ è un gioco concepito sul modello del tradizionale ‘gioco dell’oca,’ dedicato all’Inferno di Dante Alighieri e alle discipline della ricerca umanistica coinvolte nello studio del Medioevo.
“Per avanzare e vincere non occorrono soltanto conoscenze sui canti, i personaggi e i temi infernali, ma ci si dovrà anche confrontare con diversi metodi di indagine applicati ai testi negli studi universitari: questa, anzi, sarà la porta d’accesso per guardare all’opera dantesca sullo sfondo dell’intero Medioevo, con la sua storia, le sue idee, la sua cultura, i problemi che si è posto e le risposte che ha provato a dare. Il gioco potrà servire a stimolare e consolidare l’apprendimento in studenti delle superiori che incontrino per la prima volta i versi danteschi, o essere occasione per tutti gli appassionati per rivivere e ricordare – in maniera più disimpegnata – letture del passato. Grazie ai suoi tre livelli di difficoltà, infatti, si adatta a tutti i giocatori, dai principianti agli esperti.
“Il formato stampabile e ritagliabile permette a ciascuno di costruirsi il suo set di carte, segnalini e tavola da gioco e di immergersi nell’Inferno e nel mondo di Dante.” —Milano University Press website
The game—created by Guglielmo Barucci, Paolo Borsa, Rossana Guglielmetti, Luca Sacchi, and Roberto Tagliani—is available for download here (online since December 2021; last accessed January 9, 2022).
Contributed by Osvaldo Varieschi (MA, Florida State University ’23)
“Katherine Powlesland’s new book Narrative Strategies for Participation in Dante’s Divine Comedy, which will be Italian Perspectives 53, brings an entirely new angle to Dante studies. This is a bold claim, given that Dante studies is enjoying its 700th anniversary this year, but Katherine is bringing to bear theories from cognitive neuroscience and from the critical study of videogames, so I think we can be fairly sure that the medieval scholiasts did not get there before her. But there is a certain affinity between the desire of modern game writers, and the desire of 13th-century epic poets, to enmesh their readers in a participatory experience.
“An immersive game today, or a text like the Divine Comedy or the Roman de la Rose, very much want the reader to experience for herself: to be in that wood, to find her way around that wall, to look into that mirror-like pool with her own eyes. Katherine sees both media as governed by mechanics of narrative participation.” [. . .] –“Bringing Video Game Theory to Dante,” Modern Humanities Research Association, June 27, 2021
The book will be released in 2022. See more information about it, in particular a discussion of its cover art, here.
