Organised by

Dr Adele Bardazzi (Trinity College Dublin)

Roberto Binetti (St Anne’s College, Oxford)

Professor Nicola Gardini (Keble College, Oxford)

Keynote Speakers

Prof Gian Maria Annovi (University of Southern California)
Prof Stefano Dal Bianco (University of Siena)
Prof Nicola Gardini (University of Oxford)
Prof John P. Welle (University of Notre Dame)

About

Andrea Zanzotto’s poetry (1921, Pieve di Soligo – 2011, Conegliano) stands out both in Italy and internationally for its intellectual rigour and stylistic inventiveness. According to Zanzotto, poetry is a very peculiar alphabet whereby poets can question the world well beyond the limits of writing.

While celebrating the centenary of the poet’s birth, this two-day conference seeks to elicit discussion on the multi-faceted importance of Zanzotto’s writing and thought, and on the numerous strands of its legacy, both within and beyond the intellectual European canon. Not only is ‘Conglomerati’ the title of his last published collection, but it also represents a central and recurring metaphor in his work. In geological terminology, ‘conglomerate’ refers to composed fragments of pre-existing rocks that have cemented together. For Zanzotto, it designates a mixture of various elements clustered in one single linguistic entity without making a coherent whole. Such elements derive from various disciplines, languages, and traditions. Each element remains individual while also gaining a new metaphorical significance within the all-encompassing structure. The ensuing spectrum of gnoseological options is encyclopaedic, bringing forward a never-ending idea of modernity.

Zanzotto’s vast production reveals a unique connection with the present. According to his interpretation, poetry is not only a linguistic medium but must also be read as an ‘event’. On the one hand, this characteristic of Zanzotto’s poetic thought has a deep connection with the past and the roots of modern thought; on the other hand, it provides an instrument for exploring the future, propelling the reader to investigate seemingly unpoetic fields, such as ecology, psychology, and sociology. Poetry, in this sense, is able to live anchored with solid roots in the past while it also aspires to act as an instrument apt for the investigation of the future. Therefore, this conference offers an unprecedented chance not only to re-assess one of the most interesting voices of Italian literature, but also to re-think the role of poetry within the present times.

Organizers

Adele Bardazzi works on issues of form and interpretation, poetry and poetics, lyric theory, gender and women’s studies, verbal-visual glitches. She joined the University of Utrecht as Assistant Professor in September 2023 and is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford since September 2021. Prior to this, she held an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin (2021-2023), an Extraordinary Junior Research Fellowship (2020-2021) and a Laming Junior Research Fellowship (2018-2020) at The Queen’s College, Oxford, and a Lectureship at Christ Church (2019) and the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford (2018). She completed her DPhil in Medieval and Modern Languages from Christ Church, Oxford, in 2018 and holds a BA in English and Italian from Royal Holloway, University of London. She has also been awarded various visiting fellowships, among which at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University of Groningen, University of Southern California, New York University, University of Toronto, and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3.

At present, she is working on A Textile Poetics of Entanglements, her second monograph expanding questions of poetic theory raised in her first book, Eugenio Montale: A Poetics of Mourning (Peter Lang, 2022). Among her recent and forthcoming publications are: the edited volumes The Contemporary Elegy in World Literature (Brill, forthcoming 2023), Non solo muse: panorama della poesia italiana contemporanea, with Roberto Binetti (Perrone, forthcoming 2023), Conglomerates: Andrea Zanzotto’s Poetic Clusters (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2023), A Gaping Wound: Mourning in Italian Poetry with Francesco Giusti and Emanuela Tandello (Legenda, 2022), Gender and Authority Across Disciplines, Space and Time with Alberica Bazzoni (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020); the special issues Weaving Media in Italian Poetry (Italica, 2023) and Elegy Today: Rejections, Re-mappings, Rewritings with Jonathan Culler and Roberto Binetti (Journal of World Literature, 2023); and the co-authored monograph Anne Carson. Letteratura liquida, with Roberto Binetti (Mimesis, forthcoming 2024)

She is the co-founder of «Non solo muse» (www.nonsolomuse.com), «Italian Poetry Today» (www.italianpoetrytoday.com) and the «Gender & Authority» Network (https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/gender-and-authority).

Roberto Binetti is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, where he is working on his fourth monograph Italian Poetry in the Age of Nuclear Anxiety. He earned his DPhil in Medieval and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford in 2022 with a thesis on representations of gender, history, and politics in Italian lyric poetry. Building on and extending Gilles Deleuze’s work, he developed a methodological approach that adopts a ‘minoritarian’ perspective to problematize questions of canonicity and representation in Italian women’s poetry. During his time at Oxford, he was awarded the Graduate Development Scholarship at St Anne’s College and served as a Tutor in Italian and Graduate Lecturer.

His area of expertise is modern and contemporary poetry, with an emphasis on lyric poetry. Binetti’s interests span a diverse range of fields and result from his commitment to interdisciplinary and comparative approaches, including literary theory, gender and women’s studies, psychoanalysis, cultural history, ecology, and eco-criticism. His work explores the interconnections between literature, cultural history, and the environment, showcasing the cross-fertilization and interplay within these realms.

Binetti’s research has been featured in leading journals such as Italica, Studi Novecenteschi, Ticontre, and the Journal of World Literature. His publications include the monographs Poetics of Becoming: On Italian Women’s Poetry (Peter Lang, 2023), La domanda dell’inconscio: Linguaggio e vita interiore nella poesia di Andrea Zanzotto e Amelia Rosselli (Mimesis, 2024), and Anne Carson. Letteratura liquida (Mimesis, 2024). In addition, he co-edited the edited volumes Non solo muse: panorama della poesia italiana contemporanea (Perrone, forthcoming 2023), Conglomerates: Andrea Zanzotto’s Poetic Clusters (Peter Lang, forthcoming 2024), the special issue Elegy Today: Rejections, Re-mappings, Rewritings (Journal of World Literature, 2023) alongside Jonathan Culler and Adele Bardazzi, as well as the volume The Contemporary Elegy in World Literature (Brill, 2024).

Binetti’s scholarly contributions and active involvement in fostering a broader cultural engagement make him a dedicated scholar shaping the field of Italian Studies and contributing to the understanding of poetry and literary theory. His commitment to promoting Italian poetry outside its national borders as well as disseminating research beyond academia led him to co-found “Non solo muse” (www.nonsolomuse.com) and “Italian Poetry Today” (www.italianpoetrytoday.com), platforms that promote and engage the broader public with Italian culture and literature.

Nicola Gardini is Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford (Keble College). His research interests lie mainly in the Renaissance, the classical tradition, and modern poetry. He is very active as a promoter of classical culture. His book Long Live Latin (which originally appeared in Italian in 2016) has become an international best-seller. He is the author of numerous books: literary essays, novels, memoirs, poetry collections, and translations from Latin and English. He is involved in the Italian public debate by contributing articles to the main newspapers. Painting and drawing are part and parcel of his professional identity, which proudly bridges all separation between scholarly and creative work.