Maratona di Letteratura: Italo Calvino

On March 2, the Maratona di Letteratura: Italo Calvino took place at the Potsdam City and State Library. The event is organized annually by Freundeskreis Potsdam-Perugia e.V. in cooperation with the Potsdam City and State Library. It is based on the initiative of the VDIG - Vereinigung Deutsch-Italienischer Kultur-Gesellschaften e.V. and is under the patronage of the Embassy of the Italian Republic in Berlin.
Since 2015, the Reading Marathon has been showcasing writers who are of great importance to the Italian language and literature and invites people to re-discover them. The ninth edition of the Reading Marathon focused on Italo Calvino's work on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The selection of texts was intended to paint a comprehensive picture of Calvino as an author, essayist and (politically) committed intellectual. He is internationally regarded as one of the most innovative and important Italian post-war authors. This classic of Italian literature was read by Christian Ballhaus, Mathias Iffert, Brigitte Reimers, Karen Schneeweiß and Carsten Wist. Dr. Luisa Pla-Lang (Zessko - Italian language department) performed the reading in the original language.
It is always very interesting to observe at such events how reading aloud in the original language, in this case excerpts from the works Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno, 1947 (Engl. The Path to the Spiders’ Nests) and Palomar, 1983 (Engl. Mr. Palomar), brings the musicality and beauty of the language of the Bel Paese closer to the enthusiastic audience, even without prior knowledge.
 

Text: Dr. Luisa Pla-Lang

Published on March 20, 2023