A day to commemorate the cultural legacy of Mario Praz. This conference will be an occasion to celebrate the life and the works of one of the most influential Italian literary critics of the 20th century.
The event will host five internationally renowned Italian academics in the field of Comparative Studies: Emeritus Professor Piero Boitani (La Sapienza University, Rome), Full-Professor Mauro Pala (University of Cagliari), Full- Professor Mario Domenichelli (University of Florence), Assistant Professor Giuliana Adamo (Trinity College Dublin), Associate Professor Maria Serena Sapegno (La Sapienza University, Rome).
The event will take place in Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, D2.
Booking required at this link.
Organized by: Dr. Giuliana Adamo, PhD candidate Paola Orrù
In collaboration with:
Trinity Long Room Hub, Italian Institute of Culture, Italian Embassy, Fondazione Primoli
Programme of the day
9.30-11.30
Welcome and Introduction of the day
– Full-Professor Mauro Pala (University of Cagliari), The Remain of the Gothic: Praz Revisited from a Contemporary Critical Perspective: Professor Pala will examine the legacy of Praz from a contemporary literary perspective; this lecture aims to give the audience a sense of the influence that the studies made by the Italian critic still have on our culture.
– Full-Professor Mario Domenichelli (University of Florence), Praz, T.S. Eliot, Montale: Secentismo e Marinismo, The Metaphysical Poets, The Waste Land, ‘Arsenio’ and Cuttlefish Bones: Professor Domenichelli will use a comparative approach in order to show the relationship between Praz and the poetry of T.S. Eliot and Eugenio Montale. Mario Praz was the one that introduced Montale to the work of Eliot, as the Italian poet later admitted.
11.30-12 Coffee break in the Ideas Space
12-13
PhD candidate Paola Orrù (Trinity College Dublin), Praz Unknown: The Juvenile Production and Iphigenia: Paola Orrù, will give an overview of the unpublished juvenile production of Mario Praz. Paola’s speech will mostly focus on the text Iphigenia, a short poem set in the underworld and centered on two female figures: Iphigenia and Helen of Troy. The speech will be followed by a rehearsal reading of the text performed by professional actors.
13-14 Lunch break
14-16
– Dr. Marco Sonzogni (Reader in Translation Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand), “Call a Friend”: Translational Exchanges Between Praz and Montale: Dr. Sonzogni will give an overview of the prolific correspondence between Praz and Montale on the theme of literary translation. Marco Sonzogni, with his extensive background on translational studies, will show how much the relationship between the two renowned authors influenced their translations mostly from English into Italian.
– Associate Professor Maria Serena Sapegno (La Sapienza University, Rome), Daughters and Father in the Western Civilization: A Comparative Study: Professor Sapegno, will show how comparative literature can be apply to gender studies by focusing her attention on the study of the relationship between daughters and fathers in contemporary western culture.
16-16.30 Coffee break in the Ideas Space
16.30-17.30
– Key Note speaker: Full-Professor Piero Boitani (La Sapienza University, Rome)
Romantic Agony and The House of Life: Piero Boitani, as a Praz’s scholar, ideally represents the continuity of Praz’s approach to literature throughout the years. As the title of his presentation suggests, he will focus his attention on the two most famous Praz’s works: The Romantic Agony and The House of Life, the biography that Praz wrote in in 1964.