Humanities in the Village: Letting Southern Italy Speak for Itself with Audrey Fastuca

Description

Audrey Fastuca, who is finishing up her Ph.D. in Italian at Johns Hopkins University, will give a talk entitled "Letting Southern Italy Speak for Itself" as part of Humanities in the Village followed by a brief discussion.

With the popularity of the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novels, Southern Italy, as of late has been thrust into the literary forefront. However, Southern Italy has not always "spoken for itself," and has often been the object of travel literature, romanticizing its verdant hills and fertile volcano. Naples and Southern Italy are often considered Europe's "other," sensual playground for vacationers and defined both by la dolce vita and the mafia. Fastuca's presentation will chart the history of literary and filmic representation of Southern Italy, from the Grand Tour to Elena Ferrante, unpacking stereotypes and North/South prejudices along the way.

Audrey Fastuca's dissertation is titled "World Not Lost: Southern Rural Populations in 20th Century Literature and Cinema" and explores the representations of the rural South in Levi's "Cristo si è fermato a Eboli," the poetry of Rocco Scotellaro, the documentary films of Vittorio de Seta and other postwar documentaries, and the ethnographies of Southern ritual by anthropologist Ernesto de Martino. This semester, she is honored to teach an introductory course to Southern Italian Modern Literature. Before graduate school, Fastuca led study abroad programs in the Naples and Pompeii area for many U.S. universities and high schools for 10 years.

This event is hosted by the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute and The Ivy Bookshop.