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Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

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Cinema Dante, Asmara, Eritrea

November 15, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

cinema-dante-asmara-eritrea-image-credit-clay-gilliland“Cinema Dante is Asmara’s oldest cinema and has recently been renovated. It stands as testament to the size and scale of the cinemas in Asmara before the boom in the late 1930s, when the larger cinemas were constructed.” [. . .]     —Shabait, August 27, 2020

“During the last quarter of the last Century, the Italian colonial masters’ plan was to build a little Roma at the very heart of Midri Bahri. Following are the main schools, stadium, cinemas and opera houses called after the names of their artists, statesmen and poets: [. . .]

“Dante Alighieri, the Florentin was one of canonized men-of-letters who refined the Italian language to majestic height. The Cinema Dante, like Odeon and Cinema Asmara, were originally opera houses or reading and symphony arenas where the upper-class Italians used to entertain in their exclusive social world located at Campo Restrittivo (restricted camp or the later corrupted word Kombishtato).” [. . .]    –Haile Bokure, Eritrea Madote

Image credit Clay Gilliland

Contributed by Sephora Affa (Florida State University ’24)

Categories: Places
Tagged with: Africa, Art Deco, Asmara, Cinema, Colonialism, Eritrea, History, Monuments

Stefano Jossa, “Dante e Pinocchio, Fratelli d’Italia” (June 5, 2021)

June 19, 2021 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Quando una democrazia è debole ricorre ai simboli che unificano: simboli spossessati di qualsiasi rapporto con la realtà e funzionali alla rappresentazione di una comunità ideale. Servono, questi simboli, a eliminare i conflitti e favorire l’armonia: che è fittizia, naturalmente, perché una società moderna, democratica e funzionante si dovrebbe fondare sulla differenza anziché sull’omologazione, tranne nei casi in cui l’uniformità venga costruita a forza, com’è avvenuto storicamente, ahinoi, con i regimi totalitari. Nel caso italiano il simbolo unificante per eccellenza è Dante, cui è stato ora dedicato un giorno memoriale, il Dantedì, che si è celebrato il 25 marzo con grande clamore di iniziative, pagine giornalistiche, invenzioni figurative, riedizioni, letture e video: basta aprire i siti dei principali quotidiani italiani per trovare interviste ai discendenti di Dante, viaggi nell’Italia di Dante, sproloqui sul padre della patria e il padre della lingua, inviti alla coerenza e all’impegno, ecc. ecc.

“Dante onnipresente, vera e propria icona pop, che va dalle canzoni di Gianna Nannini su Pia de’ Tolomei e Caparezza su Filippo Argenti fino agli oli di Guy Denning e i graffiti di Kobra: un Dante dappertutto, sorprendentemente simile a quel Dante monumento che segnò la topografia italiana tra il Risorgimento e il Fascismo, quando sorsero piazze Dante, con monumenti a Dante, in tutta Italia, col culmine simbolico in quella piazza Dante a Napoli che segna l’identità tra Dante e l’Italia nelle parole di chi la promosse, spostandone definitivamente la ricezione dall’universo letterario a quello patriottico: se «Dante a Firenze è un grand’uomo», «Dante a Napoli raffigura l’ingegno, il sapere, le sventure, le glorie, le fatiche, le speranze e tutta la vita dell’intero Popolo Italiano».” [. . .]   –Stefano Jossa, “Dante e Pinocchio, fratelli d’Italia,” Doppio Zero (June 5, 2021)

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2021, 700th anniversary, Dantedì, Fascism, Italian Politics, Italy, Monuments, Nationalism, Padre della lingua, Pinocchio, Political Rhetoric, Politics

Dante’s Florence on the Apple App Store

November 11, 2019 By lsanchez

 

 

 

“Did you know that you can still find a famous rock, called Dante’s Stone, where nineteenth-century travelers, including Mark Twain and Wordsworth, once paid homage to the great poet? Have you seen the oldest fresco of Dante? It’s in a restaurant, but they’ll let you in to see it even if you don’t eat there.

 

[. . .]

 

“The user interface has been streamlined to be intuitive and responsive. You can select any of its approximately one hundred points of interest either from the menus or the two interactive maps. Each document was written by professional medievalists who put what you’re seeing into historical context. The fruit of our archival research and years of study is presented in a witty and fun style that teaches while it entertains.”    –Quod Manet, LLC, Apple App Store, 2018

 

Categories: Consumer Goods
Tagged with: 2018, Apps, Florence, Italy, Monuments, Plaques, Statues

Ettore Ximenes’ 1921 statue, Meridian Hill Park (Washington, D.C.)

July 9, 2014 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

Ettore-Ximenes-Dante-Alighieri-Washington-Meridian-HillDante Alighieri stands in Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C.  Commissioned by Carlo Barsotti as a gift on behalf of “the Italians in the United States,” Italian artist Ettore Ximenes sculpted the monument in 1921, the 600th anniversary of the poet’s death.

The statue was included in the Smithsonian’s Save Outdoor Sculpture D.C. survey in 1994, and was featured in a 2014 Washington Post editorial called “Monument Madness,” where it lost to a statue of Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog in the Elite 8.

Contributed by Aisha Woodward (Bowdoin, ’07)

XimenesMonumentMadness

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture
Tagged with: 1921, Monuments, Sculptures, Washington D.C.

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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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