The essays collected here join in, and contribute to, the current reflection on Dantes vitality today in a critical, multidisciplinary vein. Their intervention comes at a particularly sensitive juncture in the history of Dantes global reception and cultural reuse. Dante today is as alive as ever. A cultural icon no less than a cultural product, Dantes imaginative universe enjoys a pervasive presence in popular culture. The multiformity of approaches represented in the collection matches the variety of the material that is analyzed. The volume documents Dantes presence in genres as different as graphic novels and theater productions, childrens literature, advertisements and sci-fi narratives, rock and rap music, video- and boardgames, satirical vignettes and political speeches, school curricula and prison-teaching initiatives. Each chapter combines a focused attention to the specificity of the body of evidence it treats with best analytical practices. The volume invites collective reflection on the many different rules of engagement with Dantes text.
Dante Alive documents the pervasive presence of Dantes imaginary universe in popular culture today. These essays examines through a specific critical lens an area of Dantes continued influence on various spheres of life. Artistic creation, political imagination, and commercial enterprise emerged as all marked by Dantes seal
Table of Contents
Lists of figures
List of contributors
Acknowledgments
Editors Introduction (Francesco Ciabattoni & Simone Marchesi)
Part 1: Visuality.
Dorés Dante: Influence, Transformation and Reinvention in Illustrations
(Deborah Parker)
Dantes Comedy and Comics (Marco Arnaudo)
Dante and Contemporary African Art (Franziska Meier)
Reflections on Illustrating Dantes Comedy in the 21st Century (Mika
Provata-Carlone)
Part 2: Multimediality.
Hip-Hop, Rock, and Heavy Metal Dante (Francesco Ciabattoni)
Dante: Cinema and Television (Antonio Rossini)
Dante on Stage (Sara Fontana)
Dante in American Science Fiction (Arielle Saiber)
Part 3: Market Availability.
Dante and the Divine Comedy for Children and Young Adults: Medievalism and
the Young Reader (Filippo Fonio)
"De vulgari ludo-quentia": Dante, Games, and Pop Culture (Brandon Essary)
The Hell Franchise: Dantes Comedy in American Marketing (Elizabeth
Coggeshall)
Benignis Dante: From the Piazza to the Quirinale (Carmelo Galati)
Part 4: Versatility.
Sing Sing to Solliciano: Reimagining Dantes Justice Behind Bars (Ron
Jenkins)
Hell on Earth: Dante in Political Circles (Akash Kumar)
The Icon, the Exile: Dante and Contemporary Italian Street Art (Macs Smith)
Dante in Italian Secondary Schools (Natascia Tonelli)
Part 5: Liminality.
Stripping the Poem: Emilio Giannelli in the Corriere della Sera (Simone
Marchesi)
General Bibliography
Index
Francesco Ciabattoni is Full Professor of Italian at Georgetown University.
Simone Marchesi is an Associate Professor of French and Italian at Princeton University.