Monday, April 6th, 2015
Conrad J. Schmitt Hall 104
Light refreshments will be served between the two talks
1. In-class talk (11:30-12:45): Migrations, the South, and the Mediterranean in Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio
(Moderated by Teresa Fiore)
Linked to the Spring 2015 class ITAL381 (Contemporary Italian Cultural Studies), this talk will focus on Amara Lakhous’ bestselling book, Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (2006), as the starting point for a conversation driven by student questions. The exchange will revolve around topics such as: migrations (of Italians abroad, of foreigners into Italy, and of Southern Italians to the North of the country); the geo-cultural role of the Mediterranean; and the Southern Question/s. While centered around the specific context of Italy, in Lakhous’ book – now translated into five languages – these issues become trans-cultural. Thanks to his humor, language play, and agile use of the detective genre, Rome in his experimental novel becomes a new type of caput mundi to talk about the globalized world of yesterday and today.
Students interested in attending, who are not enrolled in ITAL381, can contact their professors for more information, and then write to inserra@montclair.edu to RSVP.
2. In-class talk (1-2:15pm): Divorce Islamic Style and the Tradition of Sicilian literature
(Moderated by Gina Miele)
Linked to the Spring 2015 class ITAL280 (20th-Century Italian Literature), this talk will focus on Amara Lakhous’ acclaimed book, Divorce Islamic Style (2010). The exchange will revolve around influences on his writing, specifically Sicilian literature (Leonardo Sciascia and Vitaliano Brancati) and film (Pietro Germi’s 1961 classic Divorce Italian Style). In a novel that like others by Lakhous is centered on the fluid and fleeting nature of personal identity, the transcultural context designed by the author offers a 21st-century take on Sciascia’s famous adage “Sicily as a metaphor for the world.”
Students interested in attending, who are not enrolled in ITAL280, can contact their professors for more information, and then write to inserra@montclair.edu to RSVP.
- Presented in collaboration with the French and Arabic Programs of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and the AMICI Italian Club on campus
- Spearheaded and sponsored by The Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies (Department of Spanish and Italian) at Montclair State University