Lecture by Dr Annamaria Pagliaro (Monash University, Melbourne)
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Alessandro Manzoni’s death
2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni, the undisputed giant of Italian literature who died in his hometown Milan on 22 May 1873. Numerous events dedicated to this important commemoration have been and will be organized throughout Italy, starting with a tribute that the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, offered on the day of the writer’s death by placing a wreath on his tomb, located in the Monumental Cemetery of Milan. For the occasion, the Italian Cultural Institute has decided to hold a conference dedicated to the author of the Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) and to the language of the unification of Italy. The conference will be held on Thursday 14 September at the Institute by Dr Annamaria Pagliaro, Senior Research Fellow and former Senior Lecturer at the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics of Monash University (Melbourne).
Alessandro Manzoni, a most prominent figure of Italian literature, is acclaimed as one of the fathers of Italian language. Particularly with his I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), he contributed to the consolidation of the modern Italian language and, once the kingdom of Italy was established, he became involved in the task of achieving linguistic unity throughout Italy. This paper will briefly introduce his seminal novel and reflect on the depth and complexity of his thought vis-à-vis its discordant critical fortune. It will then focus on the importance of Manzoni in forging the modern Italian language and on the long standing and enduring influence his novel has had in the Italian cultural identity.
Annamaria Pagliaro is Senior Research Fellow and former Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University (Melbourne). She has been head of Italian at Monash University and is a founding member of the Monash Centre in Prato where she served as Director from 2005 to 2009. She completed her Masters and PhD at the University of Melbourne and taught at La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne before joining Monash University in 1991. Her research interest and area of supervision for postgraduate degrees are in nineteenth and early twentieth century Italian literature, literary theory and Italian theatre. She has published a number of chapters in books and articles in international journals in the area of the development of the nineteenth century novel, Italian Verismo and its relationship to French Naturalism and in the late nineteenth century development from Positivism to Modernism. She is the author of The Novels of Federico De Roberto. From Naturalism to Modernism (Toubador, 2011) and co-author of Luigi Capuana. Experimental Fiction and Cultural Mediation in Post-Risorgimento Italy (Firenze University Press, 2019). She has edited several volumes of the Melbourne-based academic journal Spunti e ricerche, such as Naturalism and Beyond. Fragmentation and Transformation of the Real (2006) with Antonio Di Grado; Studies in Modern Italian Theatre (2011); Dario Fo and Franca Rame Beyond the Rules (2017) with Luciana d’Arcangeli. She is a member of the advisory board of several Italian presses Annali della Fondazione Verga, Bonanno editore, Firenze University Press.
The lecture will be in ENGLISH.
Free entry. Limited seats.
Booking essential: www.eventbrite.com.au