Italian Studies Program and Division of Languages and Literature Present
Against Redemption: REVISED TIME
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Olin Humanities, Room 205
4:45 pm – 5:45 pm EST/GMT-5
4:45 pm – 5:45 pm EST/GMT-5
Literary Responses to the Transition from Fascism to Democracy in Italy
Franco Baldasso, Bard CollegeThe transition from the fall of the Fascist regime in 1943 to the establishment of a new political order in 1948 is still today a most controversial period in Italian culture and history. Against Redemption sheds light on the range and fluidity of opinion in years before the ideological struggle fossilized into Cold War oppositions.
The talk focuses on heterodox literary voices such as Carlo Levi and Curzio Malaparte that, during the transition, stressed cultural and political continuity between the new democracy and the previous regime, and denounced the lack of the alleged moral regeneration of Italy. The rejection of any political finalism––of any political theology––was for these intellectuals the standpoint for a wealth of compelling inquiries into the debris of prewar ideas and the anxieties of early postwar society. With their writing, they ventured well beyond the borders of Italy into the crisis of European civilization that led up to WWII and the Holocaust.
For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 4:45 pm – 5:45 pm EST/GMT-5
Location: Olin Humanities, Room 205