The Vittore Branca Course on Italian Civilisation

The initiative to create a school named after Vittore Branca has been honed and developed in recent years as part of the new overall cultural project underlying all the Giorgio Cini Foundation activities. With the aim of continuing the lessons of the eminent professor of Italian literature, it was decided to focus the School’s interests on the history of Italian civilisation, exploring all the variety and complexity of its cultural and artistic manifestations, starting naturally from literature, but then going on to embrace all fields.

The Vittore Branca Course on Italian Civilisation is devoted to studying the relationship between Venice and Italian civilisation during the three centuries of European modernisation. Following on from the courses on the 18th and 19th century in the last two years, the 2009 edition focuses on the first half of the 20th century. The aim is to examine the impact of the modernisation process on the still fragile Italian national identity, which had only been established for a few decades and was immediately tested by a radical deep crisis. In fact modernisation re-opened the debate on a whole system of cultural values handed down by tradition.

After a pistol shot killing the Italian king at Monza had ushered in the new century, there had been an almost uninterrupted series of wars and revolutions, changes and innovations, with attendant proclamations and debates. Several whole generations of artists struggled to fi nd a way out of the various situations, and indeed a turning point for them only appeared possible after the catastrophe of the Second World War and what was acknowledged as being the “death of the homeland.” In this context Venice provides both an ideal place for the decline of all humanistic civilisation, to the point of becoming an emblematic metaphor for “death”, and a special case of the all-pervasive reach of modernisation processes, which nothing or no-one seems able to stop.

Specifically intended for honours degree undergraduates, PhD students and post-grads in humanistic subjects, the course of lectures and seminars brings together round this theme a group of teachers including: Alberto Abruzzese, Luigi Ballerini, Alfonso Berardinelli, Cesare De Michelis, Franco Fiorentino, Sergio Givone, Silvio Lanaro, Franco Monteleone, Lorenzo Ornaghi, Silvio Ramat, Giorgio Tinazzi and Claudio Vicentini. The concluding lecture will be given by Ernesto Galli della Loggia.

The scholarships are awarded thanks to the support of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Marsilio Editori, Fondazione di Venezia, RCS Libri, «Il Sole 24 Ore», Veneto Banca e Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
21 June 2009 – 03 July 2009

Subscription fee: € 120

Information
Vittore Branca Course on Italian Civilisation
Giorgio Cini Foundation
Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
30124 Venice
tel. +39 041 2710227 – Fax +39 041 5223563
e-mail scuola.branca@cini.it
www.cini.it