INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
“GIUSEPPE PONTIGGIA: ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH”
University College Dublin, 31 August – 1 September 2023
Organized by Dr Marco Bellardi and Dr Bianca Cataldi
Conference report
On the 31st of August and the 1st of September 2023, the conference “Giuseppe Pontiggia: On the 20th Anniversary of his Death”, organised by Dr. Marco Bellardi and Dr. Bianca Cataldi and sponsored by the Society for Italian Studies, took place in Dublin, at University College Dublin. The event, aimed at celebrating the work and intellectual figure of Pontiggia in the anniversary of his death and at promoting the reading and understanding of his work in Ireland, also benefited from the contributes of the UCD School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, the IIC – Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Dublin, and the UCD Foundation for Italian Studies. Giuseppe Pontiggia (1934-2003) was one of the most important Italian writers of the second half of the twentieth century. The author of five novels, several short stories and collections of essays, Pontiggia combined readability with the search for a ‘simple style’ in his literary writing, while developing a profound dialogue with Greek and Roman classics and the literary tradition of the modern novel. Pontiggia was one of the first Italian writers who acknowledged and promoted an idea of literary technique as a tool for opening up and developing the expressive possibilities of the author. The conference had two keynote speakers, Prof. Daniela Marcheschi and Prof. Giorgio Ficara, both experts in the field, together with ten speakers coming from international institutions, organised in four panels. The papers engaged with various topics, from the role of linguistic research and aesthetics in Pontiggia to his fictional works and collections of essays. On the second day of the conference, there were also an online discussion with film director Stefano Alpini on Il giocatore invisibile (2016), and a roundtable with Dr. Marco Bellardi, Dr. Igor Candido, Dr. Raffaello Palumbo Mosca and the two keynote speakers. At the end of the conference, a book presentation and a workshop with writer Guido Conti, author of La siccità (Bompiani 2023), took place at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. This conference brought together scholars of Pontiggia’s work from varied institutions, fostering new collaborations and opening new opportunities for publication and for the dissemination of Giuseppe Pontiggia’s production in the Anglophone world.