Dante Alive

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.