- "Dante for today's kids? The relationship is conflicting. For some, it is an obstacle to overcome in view of a vote. Others do not explain so much attention to what they call a Simp: English acronym to define a lover 'doormat 'running after the beloved woman ".
Fans will roll their eyes.
But to tell the ANSA is Patrick Cherif, PhD in Philological and Literary Studies, author of essays and books on contemporary poetry, now Professor of Italian Literature and Research Methodologies at the University of Sfax, Tunisia, and Associate Researcher of the ReSo Laboratory of the University of Montpellier, France.
Above all, for the boys, the "prof."
"I don't think the medium is important, but what you say", smiles Cherif, a very Italian from Cagliari in spite of his surname, who together with rappers Murubutu and Claver Gold wrote "Dante in rap time".
"For centuries - says the professor - poets, writers, artists have referred to the figure of Dante and his work to better communicate with the generations of their time. In this perspective, even a film like Pupi Avati's Dante, for example (from 29 September in cinemas for 01 ed) could help young people to get closer to his figure ".
But what is the obstacle that stands between Generation Z and the Supreme Poet, who, as Avati's film also tells us, was like their boy with great passions and daring?
"Reading is a tiring act when it comes to a novel of the twentieth century, let alone a poet of the fourteenth century - replies Cherif - The Divine Comedy, then, is a text rich in multilingualism, with a high rhetoric. It requires commitment and the will to be understood. .
Cherif: 'The boys have a conflictual relationship with Dante'
If we add to this that today children live immersed in a world full of distractions, fast, immediate, there is a real risk that his work will remain confined to the school world.
Although, without the obligation to school, perhaps they would not even know it. "
For the teacher, however, we must begin to understand that young people are different from those of 20 years ago as well as their values and concepts of love, strength, courage . Dante for some is a Simp because he runs after a woman who has barely granted him a greeting.
When I explain, I concentrate rather on the conflict that Dante lives: to love his beloved or his Creator? Which is quite similar to the conflict that any boy can live today, for example between what he wants to be and what the family wants.
Understanding that Dante also experienced a similar torment to ours, at least from a poetic point of view, brings him closer ".
So, what is the great relevance of his work?" Having touched with beautiful images and allegories, of great impact, a universal theme that everyone, sooner or later, will have to deal with: death and the urge to seek one's own meaning in life.
Here - he concludes - Dante also reminds a young man that pleasure is not eternal and can disappear from one day to the next ".
