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BASSANI TODAY
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The writings of Giorgio Bassani are recognized internationally for
their memorably elusive characters, the many ways in which they defy
stereotypes, and their uncanny portrayal of the Italian society between
the end of Fascism and the post war period.
Lesser known to
the public at large are Bassani's contributions as editor and literary
critic. Through the journal Botteghe Oscure, which he edited from 1948
to 1960, Bassani brought to Italy for the first time such writers as T.
S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Ren� Char, Maurice Blanchot, Georges Bataille,
and Truman Capote.
Through the same pages he gave voice, both
nationally and internationally, to the generation of Italian writers
that was to represent Italy after the war: Mario Soldati, Italo
Calvino, Elsa Morante, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Bassani's literary instinct also brought to the press Tomasi di
Lampedusa's The Leopard, while his ambivalent but passionate relation
with the world of film occasioned some of the masterpieces that made
20th century Italian literature known worldwide.
Through the
legendary translations of William Weaver and particularly through his
anthology Open City, the American public came to appreciate Giorgio
Bassani and the writers of Botteghe Oscure, gaining a fuller
understanding of the nuances of Italian culture and society.
Nine
years after his death on April 13, 2000, the Italian Cultural
Institute, the Centro Primo Levi and New York University Casa Italiana
Zerilli Marim� and the Center for Jewish History will be honoring
different aspects of his work and personality with a series of special
events.
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A TRIBUTE TO GIORGIO BASSANI
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REDISCOVER A LEGENDARY WRITER THROUGH
TALKS, CONVERSATIONS, FILMS AND EXHIBITIONS
April 22, 2009 4:00-8:00 pm
A Day of Study
Casa Italiana Zerilli Marim� (24 West 12th Street )
Alain Elkann, Annamaria Andreoli, Paola Bassani, Giorgio Montefoschi, Nancy Harrowitz (Boston University), Sergio Parussa (Wellesley College), Valerio Cappozzo (Indiana University). Free admission
May 4, 2009 7:30-9:30 pm
Centro Primo Levi and CJH at the Center for Jewish History
15 West 16 Street, NY
Gli occhiali d'oro (The Gold Rimmed Glasses)
Dir. G. Montaldo (1976)
Post-screening discussion with
Prof. Lucienne Kroha (McGill University)
May 5, 2009 7:30-9:30 pm
Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis)
Dir. V. De Sica (1970)
Admission to films is $10 and $5 (students & seniors).
Box office: 212-868-4444 - www.smarttix.com
See full program
RESOURCES FOR THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC
PRESS
Media advisory
Press kit
Biography
REFERENCES
An obituary for Giorgio Bassani
The Garden of The Finzi-Continis
Dalia Sofer for NPR must-read list
Cinque Storie Ferraresi on Commentary Magazine
Bassani's Rejection of De Sica's Film: Il Giardino Tradito
Guido Fink: Growing Up Jewish in Ferrara
Twenty Century Italian Literature in English Translation
Click here to access these and more resources
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ARTICLE
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Growing Up Jewish in Ferrara
By Guido Fink
From: Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought, Tuesday, June 22 2004 (all rights reserved)
GIORGIO BASSANI'S FERRARA MAY BE, AS AN AMERICAN critic has called it, a "semiotic labyrinth," but it is no doubt a very faithful representation of this city, of its history and topography. Actually, the success of his works, especially of his Giardino dei Finzi Contini (The Garden of the Finzi Continis), a novel that remained for years at the top of the best-sellers list, and in this country the even bigger success of the Oscar winning movie adapted from that novel and directed by Vittorio De Sica--a movie Bassani was never happy with--did succeed in putting Ferrara on the map for thousands of international tourists, who happily flocked to Ferrara in order to look at the city's medieval walls, the Ghetto district, the wonderful seventeenth-century Jewish cemetery, but often regretted not finding, much to their disappointment, the luscious garden of the title, that Bassani had mentally transported there from Rome. It was based, as the hapless tourists did not know, on the garden of the Palazzo Torlonia. read more
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