The careers of Italo Calvino and Leonardo Sciascia intertwined almost from their debuts as writers. Calvino, in his capacity of editor at Einaudi, was one of the first readers of Sciascia’s works, from Gli zii di Sicilia through the late 1970s. An important point of intersection was their divergent readings of the trickster Giufà, a folk hero imported into Sicily with the Arab conquest in the 800s. While Calvino, within the context of his studies of Italian fables, utilized Giufà as a means for honing his ‘realistic’ prose, particularly during the first half of his career, Sciascia saw in Giufà someone who spoke ‘the truth to power,’ to use Said’s phrase. This presentation will discuss Giufà, and analyze points of contact and divergence between Calvino and Sciascia.
Joseph Francese is University Outstanding Faculty and Professor of Italian at Michigan State University (USA). He is also Senior Editor of Italian Culture (the journal of the American Association for Italian Studies) and author of numerous articles on topics in Renaissance and contemporary literature. He has written books on Pasolini, postmodern narrative, Italian cultural politics in the 1950s, and the fictions of Eco, Consolo and Tabucchi. His most recent book, about Leonardo Sciascia, was published in 2012.
The event will be chaired by Enrica Maria Ferrara.
Event in English.
Reservation no longer available