Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
In 2014, the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise released a set of trading cards called “Duelist Alliance.” The set featured characters from The Divine Comedy, including Dante (“Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss“), Virgil (“Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss“), and Malebranche demons like Graff (“Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss“).
Contributed by Ramiro Castillo (University of Texas at Austin, ’17)
Virgilio is a widely used Italian website; it is a search engine and can provide email addresses. Its name, shared with Virgil, is fitting given that the site acts as a ‘guide’ for internet users.
Contributed by Stella Mattioli, University of Virginia ’15
Italian Telecom company TIM produced a series of television ads in 2012 featuring Dante, Virgil, Beatrice, and Lucifer as protagonists.
The trailer below gives a glimpse into the entire series:
For links to the full series of videos on Youtube, click here.
For more on the TIM series, see Delio De Martino, Dante & la pubblicità (Bari: Levante editori, 2013), 193-218.
On August 27, 2014, Grimes (Claire Boucher) released a music video for her single “Go” (feat. Blood Diamonds, aka Mike Tucker), providing the viewer with a glimpse into what Grimes perceives as Dante’s modern Hell. Though “abstract” in its composition, Grimes and her brother-turned-fellow-director strategically chose to set the video in various locations representing human carelessness and Hell on Earth. The video casts Grimes as the pilgrim and Blood Diamonds as Virgil, and begins with screenwriter David Hayter (X-Men, Watchmen) reading the opening verses of the poem: “Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.”
See Spin Magazine for Chris Martins’ post on the video, which he calls “a sci-fi homage to Dante’s Inferno.”
See the full video here.
Contributed by Ryan Alexander (George Mason University, 2016)
The main character, an escaped slave from another planet, meets a character who calls himself “Virgil,” a rastafarian who speaks in verse and helps guide The Brother through a dark moment.
