Affaritaliani.it – Puglia has also decided to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, dedicating this space every weekend to the publication of works by Apulian Dante artists or authors, whose articles are inspired by the influence of the Somma Poeta on the Apulian reality in particular or the Italian one in general.
Coupled debut with Mina, then spotlight on Netflix with the hit fiction with Sabrina, and forays into Lars von Trier’s “Jack’s House”; then the encounter with Harry Potter in the saga of Joaanne K. Rowling; the adventure among the fulminating tweets of Dante’s triplets and the exploration of the influence of the Supreme Poet in contemporary prose.
And after Dante’s foray into the world of mystery and his arrival in Sicily in the intrigues of Nino Motta, the journey unfolded between the pages of the books of Eraldo Affinati and Giulio Ferroni, with the subsequent literary controversy ignited by Arno Widmann. Then to touch the function of “Compass” of The Divine Comedy for a novel by Marco Balzano, the exam on Nick Tosches and “Dante’s hand”; continuing the editorial success of Dan Brown in the pages of “Inferno”; up to sneaking among those who committed violence to themselves (suicides). Then we go into the suggestive labyrinth of mathematics, of the didactic-scientific front and on the reflective side with the book by Marco Santagata; or in the research with the “Luce de la gran Costanza”: the Norman bride of Carla Maria Russo.
Up to involving the musical creativity of Vinicio Capossela, to cross the historical figure of Manente degli Uberti – ‘Farinata’ or to confront the double bet of Laura Pariani, with Chiara Ingrao’s Bildungsroman or with the anomalous implication of Dante’s “selfies” . And still to continue with “Charun the demon and Dante’s mythological imagery”, at the MANU – National Archaeological Museum of Umbria – in Perugia, and with the figure, the site and the greatness of Dante’s Inferno according to Galileo Galilei. And again with the charisma of the Saint of Mira (Anatolia), for all San Nicola di Bari, and the event / lesson in Acquaviva delle Fonti (Ba) with Dante and the Divine Comedy in an “Ecological” perspective; as well as the announcement of the university seminar (open to all), entitled “Dante … di corsa”. But also with the one and trine appointment with Antonio V, Gelormini and Franco Leone of the three Dante evenings in Troia (Fg) “Words of Stone and Verses of Light” and the many references to the element of water, within the Divine Comedy.
It continues with the tribute to Gianni Rodari, and the examination of the film by Gabriele Salvatores “All my crazy love”, to continue with the intervention at the Festival ‘Parole in walk’ in Florence and with the performance of the “dancing words” with Elisa Barucchieri and the ResExtensa corps de ballet. To then advance like a climb with the memory of Alfonsina Strada (1891-1959): the runner who in 1924, first (and only) woman, took part in the Giro d’Italia. So she approaches Holy Christmas with multiple references to the Christian holiday in Coomedia. Then she confronts the students of Cerignola (Fg) and the figure of Nicola Zingarelli. Or again with the confrontation Divina Mimesis and Pier Paolo Pasolini and with the tribute in Umbria to the “Augusta” Municipal Library in Perugia.
The review by Trifone Gargano (Pugliese, Teacher of Italian Language and Computer Science for Literature, as well as Dante and literary popularizer) continues with the declination of the Comedy in the collection of comics by Alan Ford. (ag)
by Trifone Gargano
For real, the ways of the Classic (and those of Pop) are endless. I received (as a gift) from a refined collector who wishes to remain anonymous (LS), a copy of a comic from the nineties dedicated, among others, to Dante Alighieri.
First published in 1995 issue 312 of the Alan Ford comic; then, reprinted in 1997, in the special edition «The stories of the Number One», in which each chapter is introduced by a historical file, accompanied by essential biographical information on the character who is the subject of the story. The style of the narrative is parodic, with Dante hiring a scribe, on the street, rather shabby and looking for a job. The dictation does not concern only the poem, but also the Vita nova and the book of Rhymes:
In the comic, there are also digressions on Florentine (and Dante’s) political life, such as, for example, the poet’s participation in the war against (the hated) Pisa:
Great irony characterize the cartoons dedicated to the stables of Pope Boniface VIII, who cultivates expansionist aims on Florence, and who, in the very early years of the fourteenth century, during the priory of Dante, will move to get his hands on the city. In the comic, however, we read that the pope, in reality, was moved not by greed or a thirst for power, but by very noble reasons, namely by the desire to return Dante Alighieri to full-time poetry, so that he would not allow himself to be distracted. by active political commitment. The whole of humanity, therefore, should not hate Pope Boniface VIII, for his wickedness and for his embezzlement; rather, she should be grateful to him, since by accusing and imprisoning Dante, and thus removing him forever from Florence, he put him in a position to write the poem. In fact, if Dante had remained prior of Florence and had continued with his political commitment, he would never, ever have found the time and inspiration to write his Comedy.
Messing around a bit about the times, some comic strips tell of the first time Dante saw Beatrice, and saw her beautiful eyes:
The inaccuracies (or oversights) present in the comic, of a historical-political (and biographical) nature, are many. In particular, the position of the Donati, the very powerful Florentine family at the head of the black Guelphs, with which Dante’s wife, Gemma Donati, was related, was related, among the white families. Corso Donati, in fact, was the very powerful (and ruthless) leader of the Black party, an ally of Pope Boniface VIII, and a grim opponent of Dante Alighieri. The poet, banned, like other exponents of the White party, by the will of Corso Donati, knew the way of exile, from which he would never return, for the direct responsibility of Corso, whose violent death, in Purgatory XXIV, will be prophesied to Dante by Forese Donati, brother of Corso, and friend of Dante’s youth. To this family also belongs Piccarda, sister of the two, whom Dante places in Paradise, among the blessed in the sky of the Moon.
In the comic, it is said that, following the political misfortunes (and exile), Dante made the decision to devote himself to writing the poem of the poems:
With the scribe who, behind him, makes agreements with the relatives of the deceased, negotiating rich rewards with them, to suggest to the unsuspecting poet the appropriate placement of those souls between Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, sometimes even replacing Dante (victim of his recurrent narcolepsy) in the writing of the individual songs, and, therefore, personally arranging for the damned, the purgative and the blessed, according to a very rigid economic algorithm, which he applies scrupulously, not at all ethical or spiritual:
Once the poem is finished, all that remains is the question of the title, judged by the copyist to be rather feeble, if not provided with an appropriate adjective, which, of course, he suggests to the poet:
The fortune of Dante and his work, in the following centuries and among the various peoples of the Italian peninsula, is expressed in the comic with the cartoon that portrays the poet at the top of a monumental pedestal, a tangible and unequivocal sign of that monumentalization on a vast scale. staircase which Dante Alighieri, especially starting from the nineteenth century, went to meet:
Today, 700 years after Dante Alighieri’s death, we should monumentalize it less and read it more. That is, we should go back to Dante “with” Dante. Go back to reading it, without exploitation and without monumentalization.
#Trifone #Gargano #Dante #Alan #Ford