Keynote Speakers

Daniela Marcheschi 

Daniela Marcheschi is Professor of Literature and Hypermedia at Universidade Aberta in Lisbon, Portugal. As a literary critic and friend, she engaged in regular conversations with Giuseppe Pontiggia for 25 years and has written dozens of articles and essays on him (e.g., ‘Destino e sorpresa. Per Giuseppe Pontiggia con i suoi primi scritti sul "Verri"’, ETS, 2000; ‘Giuseppe Pontiggia e la traduzione’, in «Doppiozero», 27th June 2023). She also promoted the celebrations and exhibitions on the occasions of the 10th and 20th anniversaries of his death in Italy and abroad. Professor Marcheschi introduced and edited the Meridiani Mondadori edition of Pontiggia’s work in 2004, a task to which she was designated by the writer himself. Recently, she also edited the Meridiani edition of Gianni Rodari’s work (Mondadori 2020) and ‘Letteratura e Giornalismo. Volume IV,  Giuseppe Baretti e il giornalismo dei secoli XVIII-XIX’ (Marsilio-Fondazione Dino Terra 2021).

Giorgio Ficara

Giorgio Ficara was Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Turin until 2022, and is now Emeritus Professor in the same institution. He was Distinguished Professor at Columbia University (New York), Stanford University and University California Los Angeles (UCLA). He lectured and held seminars at Sorbonne University, Penn University, John Hopkins University, British Columbia University (Vancouver), among others.

As an essayist, a historian of ideas, and a literary critic, he has focused on Italian literature (e.g., Petrarch, Leopardi, Montale) and its manifold philosophical implications from a European perspective (his new book ‘Solitudes: Italian Poetry at the Root of European Literature’ is being published by De Gruyter). Some of his books, such as ‘Stile novecento’ and ‘Il punto di vista sulla natura’, have become points of reference for generations of students.

Professor Ficara was awarded several prizes, such as the Premio per la Saggistica dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (2011) and the Cardarelli Award for Literary Criticism (2010). He serves as the director of the De Sanctis Foundation in Rome and Chair of the De Sanctis Literature Award. In 2022, forty writers and critics wrote about him in the book ‘Letteratura permanente’ (Milan: La Nave di Teseo).