American Dantes provides fresh perspectives on Dante’s reception and cultural impact in the United States over the past two hundred years.

American Dantes investigates the depth and breadth of Dante’s American legacy from the early nineteenth century to the present. Showcasing an impressive array of approaches from renowned literary and Dante scholars, this book explores how Dante has influenced American poetry, fiction, memoir, painting, film, television, and political and religious discourse. This collection offers an extensive look at the vibrant and ongoing scholarly traditions of research, editing, translation, and creative adaptation that have established Dante’s Divine Comedy as a classic in American literary culture, influencing cultural movements from transcendentalism to jazz to the Black radical tradition and more.

Contributors: David Wallace, Laura Dassow Walls, Joshua Matthews, Dennis Looney, Kathleen Boyle, Kathleen Verduin, Christian Y. Dupont, Kristina M. Olson, Henry Weinfield, Stephen Fredman, Joseph Elkanah Rosenberg, Arielle Saiber, and Peter S. Hawkins