[B900] Notizie/H - CfP: Elsa Morante and the Italian Arts

[Redazione di Bollettino '900]

**********************************************************

     BOLLETTINO '900 - Notizie / H, dicembre 2011

**********************************************************

SOMMARIO:

- CfP: The Davy Carozza International Conference
   "Elsa Morante and the Italian Arts"
   The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA
   25-27 October 2012
   Deadline: April 1, 2012

-------------------------------------

Academic Conference 25-27 October 2012
The Davy Carozza International Conference

“Elsa Morante and the Italian Arts”

Conference Organizer:
Stefania Lucamante, Professor of Italian, CUA
lucamante a cua.edu

Organizing Committee:
Stefania Lucamante, Anna Chiafele, Valeria Garino,
and Alberto Manai (Italian Cultural Institute
in Washington, D.C.)

Scientific Committee:
Stefania Lucamante; Manuele Gragnolati, Oxford
University; Gaetana Marrone, Princeton University;
Nadia Setti, Universite de Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis;
Giuliana Zagra, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio
Emanuele II, Rome.


Call for Papers
This conference aims to shed new light on Elsa Morante’s
influence during her time (eg. her collaborations
with Pier Paolo Pasolini) and on her artistic/literary
legacy in a celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary
of her birth. Morante’s contribution connects the Italian
novelistic tradition to international currents and trends
far beyond modernism and the influence of American writers
in postwar Italy. The Roman author pioneered many a
dramatic change in rhetoric and style later seen in the
work of Fabrizia Ramondino, Patrizia Cavalli, Carmelo
Samona', Simona Vinci, Elena Ferrante among many artists
of our time. While Morante’s influence does not define a
clear literary path that would define the elements of a
proper Morantian ‘school,’ it seems unquestionable that
her rich style suffuses the pages of many Italian
contemporary novels. Indeed, Morante’s works are often
quoted in films as a source of inspiration for the
characters, as Cristina Comencini’s filmic texts show.
Also Morante’s prophetic and critical sides still need
to be fully acknowledged and explored. In this light,
many of her prophecies need to be analyzed or rethought
against the backdrop of our times: the true meaning of
the atomic bomb (1965 Turin speech), the postwar rise of
an Italian lower-middle bourgeoisie unwittingly complacent
with capitalism, the fate of youth, and the idea of
intellectual and esthetic commitment seen as political
engagement. Morante touches upon many important issues
still prevalent in today’s Italian society: outcasts,
the disenfranchised, powerless creatures like the
ghettaroli (the Roman Jews) of the Roman Round-up of
1943, children and women.
In this respect, she is similar to her close friend
and artistic companion Pier Paolo Pasolini, with whom
she also a shares a position of eccentricity —and of
resistance. To this end, a part of the conference will
be dedicated to her original relationship with Pasolini
and their reflections on controversial concepts as
smagamento (disillusionment), barbarie (the barbaric),
irrealta' (unreality), grazia (grace), and the world of
ragazzini (youth) as objects of desire and carriers of
salvation.
In accordance with Morante’s beliefs, this conference
also aims at creating an intergenerational collaboration,
engaging established and emerging scholars in a
constructive dialogue.

Key speaker: Daniele Morante, “Elsa’s Epistolary”
Confirmed Speakers: Cristina Della Coletta, Marco Bardini,
Manuele Gragnolati, Gaetana Marrone, Hanna Serkowska,
Giuliana Zagra, Thomas Harrison.

We seek proposals for 20-minute papers on possibly (but
not necessarily limited to) the following topics:
- Narrative voice
- Jewishness or Hebraitude: the particolar fabric of
   Roman Jews
- Morante between Classicism and Postmodernism
- Relationship with other writings/writers (Ortese,
   Pasolini, Dante, Saba)
- Morante’s Marginality / Queer Morante
- Morante and Feminism: a troubled relation
- Morante and cinema
- Morante and Rome
- Morante and the classics
- Morante and the South
- Androgyny/Hybridity
- Untimeliness and eccentricity
- The corporeal/the animal
- Eco-criticism
- Smagamento (disillusionment) - barbarie (the barbaric) -
   irrealta' (unreality)
- La grace et la pesanteur
- Cinematic adaptations

Proposals (c. 300 words with preliminary bibliography)
are invited from both established and emerging scholars.
They should include institutional affiliation and full
contact information, and should be sent to
chiafele a cua.edu

The organizers are exploring publication options for a
volume of selected conference papers.

Deadline for proposals: April 1, 2012.
Reply by June 1, 2012.
Registration Fee:  100 dollars

**********************************************************

(c) Bollettino '900 - versione e-mail
Electronic Newsletter of '900 Italian Literature
Notizie/H, dicembre 2011. Anno XVII, 6.

Direttore: Federico Pellizzi
Redazione Newsletter: Michela Aveta, Daniele Borghi,
Eleonora Conti, Anna Frabetti, Monica Jansen, Giuseppe Nava,
Michele Righini, Saverio Voci.

Dipartimento di Filologia classica e Italianistica
dell'Universita' di Bologna,
Via Zamboni 32, 40126 Bologna, Italy,
Fax +39 051 2098595; tel. +39 051 20988378.
Reg. Trib. di Bologna n. 6436 del 19 aprile 1995.
ISSN 1124-1578

http://www3.unibo.it/boll900/