Dante Today
Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary and Popular Culture
Written Word Archive
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Robert P. Baird, "Paradise Lost: Why Doesn't Anyone Read Dante's Paradise"
http://www.slate.com/id/2178371/pagenum/all/#page_start
Slate, Dec. 24, 2007
Jodi Picoult, "The Tenth Circle: A Novel"
"Bestselling author Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle is a metaphorical journey through Dante's Inferno, told through the eyes of a small Maine family whose hidden demons haunt every aspect of their seemingly peaceful existence."
http://www.amazon.com/Tenth-Circle-Novel-Jodi-Picoult/dp/074349671X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-3979928-0961426?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188773483&sr=8-1
film version:
http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/movies/tenth-circle
Contributed by Charlie Russell-Schlesinger (Bowdoin, '08)
Harriet Rubin, "Dante's Self-Help Book"
"There are monuments to Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) everywhere in Italy, where three years of study in Dante's "Divine Comedy" are required for young people to learn how to lead the best possible life. One cannot imagine Italy's culture without Dante's 14th-century work -- any more than one could imagine Britain's without Shakespeare or America's without the Declaration of Independence.
"Unlike most other world classics, The Divine Comedy is a self-help book. People read Shakespeare with no expectation that they will become Shakespeare. But many read Dante expecting to mimic his results and transform themselves from seekers, lost in their own questions, into poets, certain and transcendent."
Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118556860545880642.html?mod=todays_us_pursuits
Contributed by Jake Bourdeau
The End of Limbo?
"The Vatican announced on Friday the results of a papal investigation of the concept of limbo. Church doctrine now states that unbaptized babies can go to heaven instead of getting stuck somewhere between heaven and hell..." (Michelle Tsai)
Slate, April 23, 2007
http://www.slate.com/id/2164834/?nav=fix
Contributed by Zac Milner (Bowdoin, '07)
Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and Dante
"The city of Minas Tirith in Tolkien's middle earth could be viewed as symbolic of Mount Purgatory. It is described by Tolkien as a white city built on a mountain consisting of seven terraces. At the top is the white tree of Gondor which only bears leaves when a king sits upon the throne of Gondor. Therefore, it could be argued that Aragon's story in Lord of the Rings is a quest to reach the top of Mount Purgatory and redeem himself and all of mankind. Thus, at the end of Lord of the Rings, when Aragon assumes the role of King there is a transition from the age of the elves to the age of men. (This is only one of many references to the Divine Comedy found in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and the rest of his works on Middle Earth)." (Charlie Russell-Schlesinger)
Contributed by Charlie Russell-Schlesinger (Bowdoin, '08)
Dante's reconstructed face?
"Gruppioni told Reuters in a telephone interview that the multi-disciplinary project discovered that Dante probably did have a hooked nose but it was pudgy rather than pointy and crooked rather than straight, almost as if he had been punched." (Philip Pullella)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070111/sc_nm/italy_dante_dc
Reuters, January 11, 2007
Contributed by Kate Moon (Bowdoin, '09)
Rolando Perez, "The Electric Comedy" (2000)
"Confronting not the papacy but the postmodern world of the Internet and global economics, this collection of satirical poems inspired by Dante's Inferno explores the comic and tragic realities of contemporary life. At times graphic and abrasive, the language and style in this stirring collection mirrors the violence and social fragmentation that it describes. The imagined thoughts and interests of Dante as he composed the Inferno infuse this edgy, inventive collection that invites readers to participate in the creation of new mythologies that draw from the wisdom of the past."
"Foxtrot" by Bill Amend (Dec. 2006)
Contributed by Charlie Russell-Schlesinger (Bowdoin, '08)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Rappacini's Daughter" (1844)
The daughter of the protagonist (an Italian scientist) is thought to be modeled after Dante's Beatrice.
Dezso Magyar directed a film based on the short story (1980).
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000898/
Contributed by Kate Moon (Bowdoin, '09)
Beatrice in "A Series of Unfortunate Events"
"Beatrice is the name of a mysterious character in the children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Beatrice does not appear in the main series, though she is often mentioned by the narrator as a lost love and, according to Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, is the reason Snicket started writing the Baudelaires' story. A 2006 spin-off book, The Beatrice Letters, sheds light on her story.
She is thought by many to be named for Beatrice Portinari, the beloved of the poet Dante, who spurned him and then died young. He devoted his Divine Comedy to her, and in it she figures as his muse and personal saviour. She arranges for his journey through the afterlife and guides him through heaven."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_%28A_Series_of_Unfortunate_Events%29
Contributed by Kate Moon (Bowdoin, '09)
Background Image: Domenico di Michelino, Dante and His Comedy, 1465
