Dante’s Nuclear Underworld: The Semiotics of Danger in Hell

This article uses the postmodern field of nuclear semiotics to examine the semiotics of danger in Dante’s Inferno. Via a close reading of Inferno III, it analyses the similarities between the inscription to the Gate of Hell and several so-called ‘markers’ for permanent nuclear waste storage repositories. It then situates this analysis within the scholarly debate surrounding Dante’s believability, exploring how nuclear semioticians confront the changing relationship between fact and fiction across time alongside Dante’s endeavour to secure the longevity of his own poem.