On 1 March, the Italian Cultural Institute of Berlin is organizing an event at the Literaturhaus Berlin to present the new German translation of Beppe Fenoglio’s ‘A Private Matter’. Fenoglio’s centenary is being celebrated this year. The book, which has been translated for the publishing house Verlag Klaus Wagenbach by Heinz Riedt, will be introduced by writer and screenwriter Francesca Melandri and professor of Italian literature Gabriele Pedullà.
‘A Private Matter’, published posthumously in 1963, is the book that, according to Italo Calvino, an entire generation of authors wished they had written. Through the tale of the partisan Milton, in which a relationship involving love and jealousy is intertwined with the struggle of the partisans against the fascists and Nazis in Northern Italy, Fenoglio shows how the private and the political are inextricably intertwined.
At the end of the event, the film ‘Una questione privata’ (2017) by the Taviani Brothers will be screened.
Moderation: Theresia Prammer
Reading of the text: Nils Rech
Francesca Melandri initially made her name as a screenwriter for film and television. Already known to the German public because of her first novel ‘Eva Sleeps’, the translation of ‘Sangueangue’ (Alle, außer mir) was on the SPIEGEL bestseller list for ten weeks. She is currently a fellow of the DAAD Künstlerprogramm in Berlin.
Gabriele Pedullà is Professor of Italian literature at the Roma Tre University, an expert among other things in the literature of the Resistance, and in Fenoglio in particular. Co-editor of the ‘Atlante della letteratura italiana’ (“Atlas of Italian Literature”, Einaudi), he is a contributor to the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore; he is also the author of two collections of short stories and a novel. He is currently a visiting professor at Princeton University
Theresia Prammer is an author, translator and essayist. Recently she edited and translated a volume of poems by Pier Paolo Pasolini for Suhrkamp Verlag (Späte Gedichte, 2021)
Nils Rech is an audiobook reader and works for television and radio. He lives in Berlin.
The event was organized with the support of the publishing houses Klaus Wagenbach and Einaudi.
More information at iicberlino.esteri.it
