Dr Wissia Fiorucci and Luca Di Gregorio from the Department of Italian are organising a conference for the Centre for Modern European Literature, entitled ‘What Commitment? Reshaping Impegno in Contemporary Italy’.
The aim of the conference is to outline the development of impegno [promises or commitments] in Italy from the post-war years to present-day, tracing its genealogy for a better understanding of the present condition of the Italian intellectual production. The subject will be tackled from a variety of standpoints by encouraging critical approaches from different disciplines, such as literary criticism, philosophy, cinema and visual studies, but also architecture and history of science to name but a few. It aims to explore the issue of cultural production and its relationship with various forms of commitment, in what many have referred to as a post-ideological age.
The conference will be held over two days, 5-6 June, in Grimond Lecture Theatre 3 at the University of Kent. Confirmed speakers include: Dr Pierpaolo Antonello (University of Cambridge) who specialises in contemporary Italian literature, culture, and intellectual history, and has written extensively on the relationship between literature and science; Massimo Recalcati (University of Pavia) a renowned Lacanian psychoanalyst and scholar; and Dr Alvise Sforza Tarabochia from the Department of Italian (University of Kent).
Abstracts are now being acepted for the conference on theoretical considerations on impegno (e.g. genre, realism vs postmodernism, etc.), and they would particularly welcome contributions discussing the role and function of the intellectual as a public figure, and comparisons between Italian impegno with other Western countries.
Submitted abstracts should not exceed 350 words. The deadline for submission is 19 January 2015. Full details of the conference and submission guidelines can be found at: italianimpegno.wordpress.com
To submit your abstract, please email italianimpegno@gmail.com