News and Events
Professor Giovanna Faleschini Lerner’s book, Carlo Levi Visual Poetics (New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) is out
“What does it mean for a painter to remain a visual artist even as a writer? Carlo Levi's Visual Poetics engages this question through a critical re-examination of one of the most influential Italian intellectuals of the twentieth century, the painter and writer Carlo Levi. Reading Levi's major texts through the lens of his philosophical and critical essays, Lerner explores the ways in which the productive dialogue between word and image inherent in his works becomes an instrument of literary and political subversion and contributes to the development of Levi's original humanistic cultural program.”
Gianluca Rizzo's collection "Like Doves summoned by desire"
“But how does one explain Dante’s enduring popularity, and that of his harsh eschatological masterpiece in particular? The answer, I believe, lies in the poem’s distinctive textual characteristics. The Comedy is neither an open nor a closed text (Eco, The Role of the Reader); it is neither writerly nor readerly (Barthes, S/Z). Rather it is more like what Fiske in Television Culture calls a ‘producerly’ text. A producerly text is polysemous and combines the easy accessibility of the readerly with the complex discursive strategies of the writerly. These peculiar textual qualities allow the poem to produce meaning and pleasure in audiences which run the gamut from the uneducated to the most sophisticated and discerning.
The Comedy’s uncanny ability to generate meaning derives not so much from its formal, hierarchical allegory as from the allusive density of its literal narrative. […] In saying this, I do not mean to imply that the Commedia's polysemy is boundless and structure-less: the poem defines the terrain within which meaning may be made. (Amilcare Iannucci)
‘Like Doves summoned by desire’: Dante’s New Life in Contemporary Literature and Film, ed. by M. Ciavolella and G. Rizzo (New York: Agincourt Press, 2012), collects a number of different articles, authored by leading scholars in Europe and the US, exploring Dante’s influence on the most disparate art forms across different languages.
Gina Mangravite ’12 published an article in the Kennesaw Tower
Gina Mangravite ’12 published an article in the Kennesaw Tower, an undergraduate research journal in the modern languages. Her contribution was titled, “La fusione tra la scrittura e l’arte visiva: Adriano Spatola e la poesia visiva. Here’s what Gina is saying about her work: “I decided to submit my article for publication in the Kennesaw Tower during my senior year at F&M under the suggestion and encouragement of Professor Gianluca Rizzo. My article originated as a final paper I wrote for an advanced Italian course on art in literature taught by Professor Giovanna Faleschini Lerner in Vicchio during the summer of 2011. The publication of this article is only one of the many positive outcomes I have had the privilege of experiencing as a result of working closely with the Italian professors at F&M.”
Gina is continuing her research at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is completing a Master’s in Italian. You can read Gina’s article here.
Women's Writing, Writing as Women
A lecture by Dacia Maraini
Monday, February 25, 2013
7:30 p.m.
"Gluttony is not a sin! The reinvention of Epicurus in the Italian Renaissance"
Sponsored by the Italian Department and the Ware College House
October 24th, 2011 6:30 pm, Great Room, Ware College House
"The Dark Side of the Renaissance: Unconventional Works by Improbable Characters"
A conversation with Professor Gianluca Rizzo.
November 29th, 2011 11:30 am, Great Room, Ware College House
Screening of Golden Door/Nuovomondo (2006) by Emanuele Crialese
October 27th, 2011 7:30 pm Lisa Bonchek Adams Auditorium in Kaufman Hall
"The Narrating Architecture of Modern Italy: the Popes, the Jews, and the State (1860-2010)"
A conversation with Professor Scott Lerner
November 8th, 2011 11:30 am, Great Room, Ware College House
