"I Viaggiatori nella Penisola Sorrentina - Literature, Arts and Cinema"

full name / name of organization: 
Department of Modern Philology, University of Naples "Federico II"

The theme of the "journey to Sorrento" represents one of the main fields of investigation in order to analyze the different areas of the famous Peninsula and its peculiarities. Guides, descriptions, memoirs, visual arts, theatrical plays and films, have recorded, through the centuries, its iconic places and its immense cultural and artistic heritage.
Purpose of the International Conference «I viaggiatori nella Penisola Sorrentina» - Literature, Arts and Cinema (Sorrento, 25-27 October 2012) is to highlight the accounts of Italian and foreign travellers, writers and artists on Sorrento and its variegated aspects, as well as on its different regions and geographical areas, drawing in this way a comprehensive history of a territory and enhancing the vast literary, artistic and cultural heritage of Sorrento Peninsula.

The conference is the first event in wider program for the establishment of a Digital Archive and Research Centre on Sorrento in Literature, Arts and Cinema, in partnership with the Department of Modern Philology, University of Naples "Federico II".

Proposals for twenty minute papers are invited on one of the following areas of investigation. Proposals should be emailed, as an attachment, directly to sorrentoconference@gmail.com, by 30 June 2012. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words.
Successful applicants will be contacted by 30 July 2012.
The languages of the conference will be Italian, English and French.

Conference fees are € 100.
Accommodations and hotels in Sorrento at a corporate rate are available. For contacts, please ask at the conference organizers (sorrentoconference@gmail.com)

Areas of investigation include:

1. Classical Literature on Sorrento and its Peninsula
Among Italian sites, Sorrento coast has always had a particular charm on Italian and foreign travellers. From Tasso to Molegnano, the Sorrento Peninsula has always been a constant subject in the work of writers.

2. The Journey to Sorrento from the 19th to the 20th Century
In this area of the conference, speakers should focus their attention on the different accounts by foreign travellers, both European and extra-European, and Italian travellers who have looked at the Sorrento Peninsula in a comparative perspective, during the Grand Tour and beyond. Samples of writers who travelled to Sorrento, that had a strong influence on part of their production, are: Goethe, Byron, Dickens, Melville, Nietzche, Casanova and D'Annunzio.

3. Portraying Sorrento
Through the centuries, Sorrento has been several times subject for artists, who, through visual arts, have described and portrayed its beauty and landscape. Scholars of this area should focus their attention on those artists particularly in the Sorrento Peninsula landscape.

4. A Journey to Sorrento in Theatre and Cinema
Papers of this area should be particularly focused in theatre plays and films who has Sorrento and its peninsula as background for their stories. In this section are also welcome papers on that playwrights, actors, directors or musicians who have travelled to Sorrento. Sample of these are Enrico Caruso, Rudolf Nureyev or Henrik Ibsen, who wrote Ghosts during his stay in Sorrento.