Barbara Faedda and the Italian Academy, the Precious Gem of Columbia University

Arts

“The Ovum Government”, a New Book that Offers a Solution to Prevent Wars

“It took me 83 years to publish my first book,” said Vito De Simone. And now indeed, he has. In The Ovum Government: A Way to Preserve National Sovereignty and Limit Governments from Waging Wars of Aggression, De Simone proposes...

Arts

Penguin’s New Translation of Pinocchio Aims to Recapture Collodi’s Original

byLucy Gordan

Disney distorted the personality of the central character, replaced the message at the heart of the fable, and changed the setting…but Pinocchio is a story with many, many, levels of cultural, social, political, culinary and religious (particularly the “prodigal son”...

Arts

“Distant Fathers”: Ann Goldstein’s Translation Introduces Jarre to Anglophones

byLa Voce di New York

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. Maya Angelou’s words seem to encapsulate much of Marina Jarre’s (1925-2016) complex and conflicted life in...

Arts

Ann Goldstein: “Star Translator” Who Has Emerged from the Shadow of the Author

byGrace Russo Bullaro

“There are those who say that every generation needs a new translation: why a work itself doesn’t age whereas a translation does, is in some way mysterious. But translations seem more closely tied to their time, and the style of...

Vengono da Manzoni le nuove sindromi psico-caratteriali da Coronavirus

Arts

The New Coronavirus Psycho-Character Syndromes Come from Manzoni

byStefano Albertini

This literary amusement distracted me from the tragic daily chronicle of an ever closer siege, made me reread some of the most beautiful pages of the novel and convinced me more and more of Manzoni's greatness not only in producing...

Prima gli italiani? La storia di Tibor Wlassics, con cui studiai Dante in America

People

Italians First? The Story of Tibor Wlassics, with Whom I Studied Dante in America

byStefano Albertini

I learned to know and love Italian literature mostly thanks to four people named John, Tibor, Zygmunt e Jeffrey. Names that are far from being Italian -- someone will rightfully state – but four extraordinary scholars, due to their knowledge,...

News

The NY Public Library Honors Primo Levi’s Centenary with Day-Long Reading

byLa Voce di New York

If This Is a Man (also known as Survival in Auschwitz) was published in 1947, only three years after Levi’s liberation. At first the book faced modest sales, yet ten years later, when it was re-published, his first-hand account of survival was embraced...

Gli scrittori allargano l’Italia: la letteratura contemporanea abbatte le frontiere

Arts

Writers Broaden Italy: Contemporary Literature Breaks Down Borders

byStefano Albertini

Let’s begin with a little test: which of these authors are NOT Italian writers? Pay attention to appearances that could lead you to make a mistake. Barolini, Janeczek, De Lillo, Lahiri, Lakhous, Scego, Talese, Tusiani. The answer can be found...

Arts

Richard Gere Reads Italo Calvino with the “Baron’s Daughter”

bySara Fruner

The launch of the new translation of Calvino's novel “The Baron in the Trees” gives NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò the chance to bring Giovanna Calvino and Richard Gere together. “‘The Baron in the Trees’ is the world of dreams I...