The Vittore Branca Course on Italian Culture
In recent years the initiative to create the International Center for the Study of Italian Culture named after Vittore Branca has been developed and finalised as part of the overall cultural project underlying all the Giorgio Cini Foundation’s activities.
With the aim of continuing the lessons of the eminent professor of Italian literature, the academic and teaching programme of the Center will be focused on the history of Italian culture, exploring the variety and complexity of its cultural and artistic manifestations, starting
from literature, but then going on to embrace all fields.
The new Center’s activities now also include the Vittore Branca Course on Italian Culture. In its first four years the course has been devoted to the study of relations between Venice and Italian culture in the three centuries of European Modernisation: the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Having dealt with the 18th century in 2007 and the 19th century in 2008, last year the subject was the fi rst half of the 20th century, explored in relation to the successful process of Modernisation and the drive to break definitively with tradition. A number of crucial events – such as the war, the rise of the avant-garde and revolutions – paved the way to the complete realisation of the Modern world.
This year, the series will end with the second half of the 20th century, again from the viewpoint of Venice, with a special eye on trends that will shape developments in the 21st century and the signs of a process transforming Modernity. On one hand, this process has consolidated some of its achievements but, on the other, announce its imminent end.
Directed by Cesare De Michelis, who studied under Vittore Branca and is professor of modern and contemporary Italian literature at the University of Padua, the course is intended for students studying for a master’s degree, postgrad students and Ph.D. graduates in humanistic subjects. Around twenty lectures and twenty tutorials on the core theme will be held by a group of teachers, including Pialuisa Bianco, Irene Bignardi, Stefano Boeri, Francesco Bonami, Maria Grazia Ciani, Simona Colarizi, Cesare De
Michelis, Giuseppe De Rita, Gian Arturo Ferrari, Maria Luisa Frisa, Filipppo La Porta, Stefano Micelli. The final lecture will be given by Massimo Cacciari.
The scholarships are awarded thanks to the support of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Marsilio Editori, Fondazione di Venezia, RCS Libri, Veneto Banca e Fondazione Giorgio Cini.
Venice, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore
20 June – 2 July 2010
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
