This research project aims to collect evidence about the work of scholars dealing with Central and Eastern European subjects, in the field of the Humanities, during the XXth century. It adopts therefore an interdisciplinary and international approach.
During the XXth century historians, philologists and other literati often worked in highly complex contexts, determined by wars, revolutions, regimes. Investigation on this often overlooked aspect is needed: in most cases they couldn't choose their subjects freely, without experiencing restrictions or psychological pressure, were in fact exposed to extra-literary conditions. In order to collect and interpret documents on the concrete conditions in which they could operate, the research team shall work not only in libraries, as rich and commented bibliographies are already available, but mainly in archives, both run by public institutions and private ones.
An already running research project about the first steps of the Italian scholar A. M. Ripellino in the field of Bohemistics after the end of World War II shows evidence of the close relation between literary work and politics. The present research will focus on A. M. Ripellino's work in the field of Czech and Russian literatures, dealing also with his colleagues and continuators; on the central position of Polish Studies in the field of Italian Slavic studies and of the Roman school of Slavic philology; on the work of specialists of Romanian literature and culture Rosa Del Conte and Marian Papahagi; on the tracks of continuity before and after 1945 in German studies, strongly endorsed by Giovanni Gentile during Fascism; on the role of mediator played by Giacomo Prampolini, a polyglot translator and personal friend of Dutch and Nordic authors (and a connoisseur of Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Romanian literatures).
The results of the research will be discussed in an international conference and published as a special issue of the Classe A journal Romània orientale.
Networks among the academic world, mediators and translators, the literary field and book market along the XXth century have hardly ever been studied in a systematic way, especially as the image of Central and Eastern European cultures in Italy is concerned. The activity of several more or less prominent figures in the field, such as Bonaventura Tecchi, who became a germanist during World War I; the cultivate translator Delio Cantimori, close to Fascism at the beginning of his career; founding personalities in Italian Slavic studies as Giovanni Maver, Angelo Maria Ripellino, Ettore Lo Gatto, Riccardo Picchio; Giacomo Prampolini, who contributed to introducing Dutch and Nordic cultures and their authors, often the more innovative and controversial ones, in Italy; Barbara Allason and Lavinia Mazzucchetti, women working between academic and editorial, translational field: all of them and many others, holding personal relationships with authors, publishers and colleagues in and outside Italy offer material for a transnational mapping of literary encounters with Italy as an active partner notwithstanding the unfavorable historical and political contexts.
Papers about the chosen subject will be first presented in an international conference in Rome and in partial workshops held at the partner institutions, then collected in a Classe A monograph. More importantly, unknown and unpublished documents will be edited and commented from private archives (such as Ripellino's personal archive at Sapienza, del Conte's archive at Toniolo Fundation in Milan, Popovici - Petrescu archive in Cluj), the Archivio Storico Diplomatico at Italian ministry of Foreign Affairs, public and private archives in all concerned countries.
Ths is a demanding programme, still feasible throughout the three years planned team work.