Dante 'Lands' in the New World

The charm of the Divine crosses national borders

Dante resonated and quickly spread within and throughout Europe, as well as within the Italian colonies abroad. Switzerland (Geneva, 1894; Zurich, 1895) , Belgium (Liege, 1894) and France (Marseille, 1895), where many Italians emigrated in search of work. It was here where the first translation of the Divine Comedy were developed, triggering the process of conquering foreign shores by our Poet .

But how can we explain the migration of Dante in America? England was the connecting link between the Old and the New World as Elizabethan Britain had developed a growing interest in Italian language and literature.

The Divine Comedy found a fertile land in the United States of America and a large number of interested readers, who were already enthusiasts after its first translation into British - American by the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1867. Wodsworth had not worked alone to perform the arduous burden of translation but was assisted by other illustrious compatriots such as the poet James Russell Lowell , Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the historian George Washington Greene , publisher James Fields, and professor of art history Charles Norton. The group had formed two years earlier at the home of Logfellow in Cambridge , Massachusetts, to undertake the enterprise circle that in 1881 it officially became "The Dante Society of America " ( http://www.dantesociety.org / ).

A copy of the first translation of the Divine Comedy by H.W. Longfellow

Of course, Dante had to wait a while before winning acclaim and the taste of the people overseas. The image of America, extrovert and electrifying, where film and burlesque were the masters, might seem as far removed from linearity and depth of the literature of Dante. However, it is not as light-hearted and lustful behind the facade of the New World; there are hidden factors, ethical and religious complexes and relief that determine the structure, what the Puritan scholar Perry Miller (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Miller) called "undercurrent".

Puritanism embraces Dante

The Puritans, persecuted in England, crossed the Atlantic in 1620 and settled near the colony of Cape Cod Plymouth. Puritanism, exasperated the Puritan principle of free consciences, is the direct and personal relationship between man and God, as well as having a congeniality and openness. It inherited from medieval culture the symbols and allegories that are associated with Puritanism. The theologian John Cotton (1584-1652) had also listed Dante among those who had been called upon directly by God himself; so that brewed spirit of Protestant Christianity in favor of the "first rebirth" which would be followed by a complete "resurrection" of Christianity based on the "mystery of the Gospel".It is certain that in the Puritan culture, characterized by an obsessive analysis of sin and salvation, The Divine Comedy played a starring role in the Puritan handbook.


The Romantic period

In the second half of the eighteenth century Puritanism was met the pre-Romantic tensions and anxieties, whose taste for the sublime found an echo in the Divine Comedy. It can seem surprising because one of the first translations appeared in America in 1791, which concerns the famous episode of Count Ugolino in which the pathos and the ravine are essential. The author William Dunlap (1766-1839), writer, painter, director and skillful cultural guide http://www.williamdunlap.com/ , translated into iambic pentameter (towards urgent action to punctuate the rhythm of dark and abominable scene ) the vv.46 -75 of If. XXXIII.
Dating back to 1843, the translation of the first ten cantos of the Divine Comedy by Thomas W. Parsons (1814-1873), was published in Boston. To an extent, one can say that Dantism was an important step on the scale for the cultural talents of Harvard and Boston, a scale in which word of mouth and surveys were the focal point. It was from this cultural background that led to the idea of giving a capacity of Longfellow English on American soil, to Dante's poem.

The Twentieth Century

In the twentieth century Dante’s studies have reached full maturity with the original and significant contributions, while still reflecting the European style.

The universities of Harvard and Cornell possess the richest collections of literature of Dante outside Italy.

 A copy of the Divine Comedy as translated by Seymour Chwast.

A copy of the Divine Comedy as translated by Clive James.

Twelve English versions have appeared since 1945, nine were American, also publications and events that took place on the occasion of the seventh centenary of the birth of Dante reconfirmed the great strides made ​​by Dante studies in the United States .
Isabel Morellato.
For more information cf . http://www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_10476_l1.htm