Dante’s Commedia, or How to Escape a Modern Inferno

Dante Alighieri is considered a “Dead White European Male” of dubious relevancy by certain modern academic circles. However, Dante is alive and well, as are so many contemporary examples of the souls inhabiting his Inferno. After all, many of works of our own contemporary age can’t help but leave us feeling empty and soul-wary, or as if we were reading the missives written by one among the Inferno’s very own inhabitants. Considering the deluge of angst and despair which flows from the pages of our contemporary literary world, Dante and his Commedia may be more alive and relevant than many might be willing to admit.

As in Dante’s time, the relevant question in our age continues to be: what ideas will define the course of history in the next 100 years, in the next 1000 years? Will the world sink into another Dark Age such as the one Dante foresaw and ultimately depicted in his Inferno, or will citizens increasingly develop their faculties such that they won’t become the latest “contempor…