‘I'm not responsible for the man you are! Crusading and Masculinities in Dante's Inferno’

Katherine J. Lewis, University of Huddersfield. @drkjlewis https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1279065161068949504

1 #MAMG20 I work on depictions of crusading masculinities in narratives medieval & modern, examining the sociocultural contexts in which they’re produced & the ideological purposes which they serve. Hence my interest in Dante’s Inferno (2010) & its place within this discourse. 2 #MAMG20 There’s been analysis of Dante’s masculinity in relation to the game’s use of the original poem Inferno & of broader medieval motifs. But not of the role of D’s Third Crusade backstory, nor how this setting informs the representation & evolution of his gender identity.

3 #MAMG20 DI fits into established convention whereby crusading is not the main focus but an experiential backdrop suffusing the protagonist’s subsequent character & actions; affecting those to whom he returns. This aligns the game with Robin Hood who has become a Third Crusader.

4 #MAMG20 As in Robin & Marian (1976) & Robin Hood (2010) in DI the Massacre at Acre is shorthand for the essentially brutal, immoral & hypocritical nature of crusading; thus reflecting wider popular opinions & highlighting the cultural currency of this notorious event.

5 #MAMG20 The Massacre is pivotal: instigated by D’s anger, the culmination of his surrender to bodily passions, hypocritically indulged under papal indulgence. The game hinges on D’s status as a man; his passage through Hell becomes a recuperation of his vitiated masculinity.

6 #MAMG20 We witness D’s past via the cloth cross he stitches to his chest (a great narrative ploy, I wish I could say more about it!) He relives his sinful & essentially unmanly conduct & its terrible consequences for those he loves, especially Beatrice & her brother Francesco.

7 #MAMG20 D’s actions on crusade rebound on him: B is killed because of his lust (& Lucifer enslaves her), F takes the blame for the Massacre & is hanged while D cravenly flees. D has violated virtuous norms & is incapable of exercising self-mastery, thus he goes to Hell.

8 #MAMG20 Initially D abnegates responsibility: he had absolution for his sins so was licensed to indulge them. Francesco repeatedly questions this view (& is a principled foil to D), but only in Hell does D comprehend the Church’s innate fraudulence & his own gullibility. 9 #MAMG20 D also blames nurture: brought up by a dissolute father who drove his mother to suicide, thus doomed to become his father. But his father is also in Hell & points out the fallacy of this: D had free will & could have behaved honourably. The fault is D’s alone. 10 #MAMG20 D finally takes responsibility for his debased manhood, accepting damnation. B is released; D is empowered to defeat Lucifer & escapes Hell. Redemption strips D of his crusader apparel; his sins & gendered transgressions expunged he emerges naked into Purgatory.

11 #MAMG20 DI is a compelling expression of certain perceptions both of crusading & masculinity & their interrelationship, dramatizing the destructive effects of rampant masculinity on victims & perpetrator. D learns that true manhood lies in surmounting not indulging passions.

12 #MAMG20 But progressive readings are problematic: D is an avatar of unabashedly violent medieval manhood. Does playing D really invite reflection on the patriarchal hierarchies which enabled his atrocities, or just reinforce their pernicious ideological & socio-cultural sway?