Enrico PALANDRI

Qualifica
Docente a contratto
Telefono
041 234 7386
E-mail
ucljpal@unive.it
Fax
041 234 7250
Sito web
www.unive.it/persone/ucljpal (scheda personale)

Research summary

After his first novel Boccalone, Palandri developed as a novelist and a critic in a parallel way. His books dealt at first (Boccalone 1979, Le pietre e il sale 1986 translated into English as Ages Apart, 1989) with a partly biographical reflection on Italian political circumstances in the 1970s (years in which Italy was marked by violent political contrasts). After his third novel (Le vie del ritorno, 1990, translated in German, French and English as The way back, 1993), a more adventurous book both structurally and thematically, Palandri explored storytelling in an unrealistic, fantastic mode (Allegro fantastico, 93). The two subsequent novels have focussed on the themes of the crisis of historical perspective (Le colpevoli ambiguità di Herbert Markus, 1997), the existence/non-existence of time in physics and philosophy (Angela prende il volo, 2000). The main themes of the following two novels were discrimination both within small groups (family, friends) and in a broader social arena (L’altra sera 2003), I fratelli minori (2010).

With the title Le condizioni armosferiche (2020) the six novels between 1986 and 2020 were reworked in a single narrative.

Palandri has also published a new novel in 2017, L'inventore di se stesso.

In between novels Palandri wrote essays of a theoretical nature. A meditation on linguistics inspired the essay Le parole di Isacco, 1982, whereas Sul racconto 1988 was a study of the ways and means of short narratives. Over the last two decades, a more philosophical approach to the study of literature was developed in theoretical works (Appunti sulle metafore, 1996, Autogenerazione del testo, 1999), studies of indivudual authors (Morante 1995, Tondelli 1998, McEwan 2000, Calvino 2001, Celati 2001) and historical issues (L’individuo romantico, 2000).

This works were first gathered in a volume, La deriva romantica (2002). The main thesis in this book is that post-modernity, the condition of co-existing poetics and approaches to contemporary art and literature, is identifiable as surviving fragments of historical Romanticism.

In July 2005 Pier (Bari, Laterza) was published: this is a study on Pier Vittorio Tondelli, an Italian writer who died of Aids in 1992 and who has become a pivotal figure in the literary debate about contemporary Italian writing. The essay, warmly received in the Italian press, traces the development of the author through his novels against the background of Italy’s political and social transformations in the seventies and eighties.

In 2011 An anthology of Primo Levi is published by Le Monier. It contains a substantial introduction (17.000 words), plus a complete new apparatus (notes, bibliography and biography of the author).

In 2011 Flow (Siena, Barbera) was published, a full length monograph on writing.

In 2019 Verso l'infinito (Milan, Bompiani); a monograph on the most famous poem by the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi.

Teaching summary

Teaching in 1980 as a language assistant. At the time, Italian was a very small department (under the leadership of John Hale) and in the following ten years Palandri taught undergraduate courses and tutorials on almost all periods of our literary history. Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Poliziano, Tasso, Leopardi, Manzoni, Svevo, Verga. He has always run courses on contemporary Italian Fiction as well.

Taught three years in Cambridge: Paper 17, a course from late 18th c. to WW2.

Since 2003, when he was awarded a Grant from the Italian Ministry of Culture, he has taught courses in literary theory in Venice. This temporary appointment has been transformed into a professorship in November 2007 and he is presently on a Double Appointment between UCL and Venice (but a UCL 100% FTE)..

Good feed backs from students, in 2020 nominated by students for best delivery in lectures.

11. Knowledge transfer/Exchange activity

The centre for Italian studies, which he directed from 2001-2005 at UCL, expanded the influence of the Italian department and developed cooperation with other institutions in London such as the Italian Cultural Institute and the Warburg Institute. As well as Academic Lectures, mainly aimed at the UCL community, the Centre hosted some Theatre events, such as Adriano, in Italian, in cooperation with the Teatro Stabile di Torino. Unfortunately, when the main sponsor Whithers developed its own cultural programme, external sponsorship was withdrawn and activities were at first suspended and eventually absorbed into the IGRS activities and a Research Seminar for Post Graduate students.

Thanks to the support of Venice City Council Palandri established La casa delle parole. This is a public forum which offers monthly readings on a specific theme in different languages (Italian translations are always provided). The readings are at present hosted by the Pinault Foundation in Palazzo Grassi, Venice.

 

Education

Universita degli Studi di Bologna
, | 1979
Liceo Classico
, | 1975
Biography

3. Professional history

1980

Worked in Rome on a film script from my first novel Boccalone.1981-83

Part-time language assistant in the Italian Department at University College London

1982-85
Language coaching for several opera productions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the recordings of Rossini's Maometto II (Philips) and Verdi's I Masnadieri (Decca).

1983-93
Part-time lecturer at UCL.

1986
Diavolo in corpo, film script written with Marco Bellocchio
1986
Began regular collaboration with newspaper Il mattino, Naples (subsequently for Esquire, l'Indipendente, L'Unità, Il diario della settimana, Rolling Stone).

1988-89
Year spent in Italy (Milan) writing a third novel, translating, working for Radio Popolare. Together with Pier Vittorio Tondelli, Alain Elkann and Elisabetta Rasy, member of founding group of Panta, a literary magazine published in Milan by Bompiani.

1990
Appointed Writer in Residence at UCL.
Regular contributor to the Italian National Radio (RAI) and BBC world service (radio and TV).

1994
My post of Writer in Residence was given the status of Lecturer A

1995-98
Lecture course on Italian literature in Cambridge University, Faculty of Modern and Mediaeval Languages. Paper 17, 18th-century to the present day. Various tutorials for different colleges.

1999
My post of Writer in Residence was given the status of Lecturer B
2000
For the Italian Cultural Institute of London, Chair of Italia fantastica six public debates between Italian and English contemporary authors: Dacia Maraini and Richard Mason; Andrea De Carlo and Michelle Roberts; Daniele Del Giudice and Ian MacEwan; Simona Vinci and Mavis Cheek; Alessandro Baricco and Hanif Kureishi; Susanna Tamaro and Ken Loach. Full transcripts published by Panta.

2001-02
Sabbatical in Italy writing La deriva romantica and L’altra sera.

2002-03
Director of the Centre for Italian Studies, Affiliate Tutor.
Italia Fantastica at the Italian Cultural Institute (Alan Sillitoe and Cristina Comencini; Marco Lodoli and Nick Hornby; Enrico Palandri and Tim Parks).
Reader in Italian Literature. Year Abroad Tutor. Italian/Business and Italian/Management Tutor.
Professore a contratto Ca’ Foscari, Venice

2007
Professore Associato Teoria della letteratura, Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy
Admission Tutor (UCL)
2016. Professor of Modern European Literature
2017. President of the School for International Education, Venice.
Director of the Double Degree UCL-Venice programme.