UCC academic heads international conference on Sicilian writer
19.11.2010
On November 19th-20th, in the unique setting of the Castello Utveggio, perched on Monte Pellegrino overlooking the city of Palermo, an international conference headed by Dr Mark Chu, Head of Italian at UCC, will examine the relationship between ethics and power in the life and works of the Sicilian writer, Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989).
The writer, a leading Italian maître
á penser from the 1960s to the 1980s, was outspoken in his denunciation of
the abuse of power in whatever form it took. In 1961, two years before the
establishment of a parliamentary commission on the mafia, Sciascia published
his novel, The Day of the Owl, which
not only illustrated the involvement of the mafia in the construction industry
in Sicily, but also pointed to complicity at the time between organized crime
and political power in Italy. Sciascia’s subsequent novels and essays, which
moved beyond a specifically Sicilian setting, and his direct involvement in
politics—as an elected representative on the city council of Palermo, and in the
Italian and European parliaments—were characterised by his uncompromising
commitment to the critique of what he referred to as the fictions of those in
power.
The Palermo conference is organised by Dr
Chu and Professor Renato Albiero of the Centro
di Ricerche e Studi Direzionali (CERISDI) of Palermo on behalf of the Associazione degli Amici di Leonardo
Sciascia and hosted by CERISDI, with sponsorship from Banca Nuova, the
Sicilian Regional Government and the Province of Palermo, and with the
collaboration of the University of Palermo and Radio Radicale.
At the conference an international panel of
academics, journalists and political figures will address Sciascia’s writings
and political activities in relation to three themes: literature and power, the
practice of politics, and the relationship between the intellectual and power.
Speakers include Professor Claude Ambroise, editor of the first edition of the
author’s complete works, former Communist Party Senator, Emanuele Macaluso,
author of a recent book on Sciascia’s relationship with the Italian Communist
Party, and Adriano Sofri, a left-wing journalist and activist. The Proceedings of the conference will appear in
2011 in the first issue of a new journal dedicated to Sciascia studies, to be
published by the major Italian publishers Leo S. Olschki, and edited by Dr Chu.
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