Pinocchio from Italian to Global
Prof. Stefano Jossa
Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Italian Studies
Northwestern University
Wednesday, May 29 | 6:30PM
Istituto Italiano di Cultura
496 Huron St | Toronto ON
FREE EVENT | REGISTRATION REQUIRED
The Adventures of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi’s timeless classic for children and adults, has been translated into more than 140 languages. Yet the history of Pinocchio translations is not unproblematic. How was its intrinsic Italianness adapted to other cultures and transformed into a universal symbol? Who are its first mysterious translators into English and French? Was it highbrow or middlebrow literature? Why does the story continue to inspire directors and artists of all sorts?
A conversation will follow with Prof. Luca Somigli, Chair of the Department of Italian Studies at UofT.
Presented by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto and the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto.
ABOUT PROF. JOSSA
Professor Stefano Jossa is an engaging and acclaimed literary historian and critic. Currently at Northwestern University, where he is Distinguished Fulbright Chair in Italian Studies, he has lectured at various universities in Europe and the US. His research focuses on the Italian Renaissance and the formation of national identity through literature, examining issues such as the hero’s rhetoric (“Un paese senza eroi. L’Italia da Jacopo Ortis a Montalbano”), chivalric Renaissance poems (“Ariosto”; “La fondazione di un genere”; “La fantasia e la memoria”) and late 20th-century Italian literature (“Scritture di Resistenza. Sguardi politici dalla narrativa italiana contemporanea”). His most recent books are dedicated to the beauty of Italian language (“La più bella del mondo: Perché amare la lingua italiana”) and Italian literary icons (“In balìa di Dante e Pinocchio. Per una critica della cultura italiana”). He’s currently working towards an Oxford Handbook of Italian Literature.
ABOUT PROF. SOMIGLI
Born and raised in Florence, Luca Somigli holds a Laurea from the Università degli Studi di Firenze and a PhD in Comparative Literature from SUNY – Stony Brook. He has published extensively on various aspects of Italian and European modernism and avant-garde, including the volumes Legitimizing the Artist. Manifesto Writing and European Modernism, 1885-1915 (2003) and Italian Modernism: Italian Culture between Decadentism and Avant-Garde, edited with Mario Moroni (2004), and essays on various authors of the period such as Marinetti, Pirandello, Savinio, Bontempelli, and Primo Conti. His research on contemporary narrative, and genre fiction in particular, includes numerous essays on Italian detective fiction, a monograph on Valerio Evangelisti, and the edited volume Negli archivi e per le strade. Il ritorno alla realtà nella narrativa di inizio millennio (2013). His latest publications are the co-edited volumes Futurism: A Microhistory (2017) and Oltre il canone: problemi, autori, opere del modernismo italiano (2019).