In conversation with Eleonora Lima, the Italian writer Gabriele Dadati presents his latest work “The Last Night of Antonio Canova”.
The novel, set in Venice, narrates Canova’s last moments, lying on his deathbed, at Palazzo Francesconi in Venice (October 1822). The sculptor has a long conversation with his half-brother Sartori and he reminisces about1810 when he was in Napoleon’s court to portray Maria Luisa – or Luigia, as she would later be called.
As his end approaches, Canova wishes to confess to something, so as to relieve himself of a weight and pass on in peace.
Gabriele Dadati (Piacenza, 1982) has published several titles, including the debut with the stories of “Guarded by the ghosts” (peQuod, 2006, Barbera, 2008) candidate as the Book of the Year for “Fahrenheit” by Radio 3 Rai , and the novel “Piccolo testamento” (Laurana Editore, 2012, presented at the 2012 Strega Prize by Gherardo Colombo and Romano Montroni). In 2009 he represented Italy in the “Scritture Giovani” a project of Festivaletteratura di Mantova. This year he published, with Baldini & Castoldi, the historical novel “The Last Night of Antonio Canova”.
Eleonora Lima is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Italian at the University of Toronto, where she is conducting research on the impact of cybernetics and information science on Italian literature from the mid-1950s to end of the 1970s. She holds a PhD in Italian and Media Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she wrote a dissertation – currently under review for publication – dedicated to the process of remediation consequent to the advent of new media and technologies in the work of Italo Calvino and Paolo Volponi. Her interest in the study of the interconnections between literature and mass media dates back to her Masters in Modern Philology at the University of Florence, where she edited and analyzed the correspondence between Carlo Betocchi and Giuseppe Ungaretti, who played a crucial role in the multimedia project of ‘L’Approdo,’ a radio column, literary journal, and TV program.
A presentation that will end with a visit to the SuperDesign exhibition