Hallowed ground

Abstract

Dante’s influence or appropriation into popular culture is not new to either the twentieth or twenty-first centuries. Research on the reception of Dante demonstrates how the Commedia has been appropriated into different mediums ever since its completion. Amilcare A. Iannucci’s work on Dante’s influence in cinema and television has been groundbreaking. It has presented readers and scholars with newer ways of reading and interpreting Dante by focusing on the poet’s impact on other mediums; extending it to the world of cinema and television throughout the twentieth century. While Iannucci focused on Dante’s influence in the history of cinema and television culture, I expand upon his work by demonstrating how today, Dante’s poem, because of its moralistic character, is a catalyst for discussing society’s current moral and political issues, such as the “War on Terror” and its results. Hallowed Ground: Dante’s Commedia in the New Millennium, centers on Dante’s posthumous fame, specifically his reception in the twenty-first century in both Italy and the United States. In my study, I not only analyze works of popular culture that have adapted the Commedia, but I demonstrate how the tragic events of September 11, 2001 have given rise to a new, contemporary Dante. Focusing on the Commedia’s adaptation in theatre, television, and the technological arts (such as interactive media and video games), I argue that the new hypertexts transform, modify, and extend the hypotext, creating original and newer texts, while showcasing different modes of reading and thinking about literature.

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