CALL FOR PAPERS
"Guglielmo Giannini: Entertainment and Political Activism"
International Conference
Guglielmo Giannini (1891–1960) was an Italian journalist, playwright, scriptwriter, theatre director, film director, and politician. Emerging as a young playwright in the 1920s, he went on to establish himself as an important figure in the development of the crime, noir and romance genres in Italian theatre in the 1930s and 1940s.
The founder and director of the film journal «Kines», Giannini was also an important figure in the silent film industry, providing summaries and intertitles for foreign films for the national audience. In the 1930s and 1940s, some of his better known theatrical works were adapted to the screen. Anonima Fratelli Roylott, adapted by Raffaello Matarazzo in 1936 and Grattacieli (directed by Giannini in 1943) are perhaps the best known example of this.
Establishing the weekly broadsheet «L'uomo qualunque» in 1944, Giannini went on to found and develop ‘qualunquismo’ as a populist political movement. Gaining 5.3% of the popular vote in 1946, Giannini became a founding member of the Italian Constituent Assembly that was tasked to write the constitution of the newly formed Italian Republic.
Subsequently involved again in both radio and television as a writer, performer, and political protagonist, Giannini remained a champion of interdisciplinary and transmedia production until his death in 1960.
In 2014 the Giannini family kindly made a range of Giannini materials available to Dr. Victoria Duckett (Deakin University). An online archive of over 10 000 pages of playscripts, cinematic treatments, political papers, and personal ephemera was built using these materials (See Guglielmo Giannini: A digital archive of theatre, film, entertainment and political activism at http://giannini.deakin.edu.au/exhibits/show/guglielmo-giannini-a-brief-int, request access authorization to Victoria Duckett, victoria.duckett@deakin.edu.au).
Joining the Keynote Speakers listed above, confirmed panels and panelists include:
• Guglielmo Giannini: the politician (Irene Piazzoni)
• Guglielmo Giannini: a man of the theatre (Mariagabriella Cambiaghi, Stefano Locatelli, Maria Pia Pagani)
• Guglielmo Giannini: working in the film industry (Raffaele De Berti, Cristina Formenti, Elena Mosconi)
In addition to the panels above, this conference will also examine the circulation and appreciation of Giannini and his works abroad. Paying particular attention to Giannini’s circulation across Europe and America we welcome contributions that consider:
• Giannini and international political populism in history
• The legacy of Italian populism
• Questions of translation (particularly the circulation of Giannini’s plays in the UK and France )
• Giannini and the giallo in transnational contexts
• The post-war legacy of Giannini abroad
• Giannini’s cinema and international aesthetics
• Giannini and audiences abroad
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Please send a 300-words abstract, brief bibliography, and bio (with institutional affiliation, if applicable) in one document as an email attachment to gianninig2020@gmail.com by 30th November, 2019. Papers will be 20 minutes in length. Proposals can be written and presented in English or Italian.
All participants will be given access to the "Guglielmo Giannini: A digital archive of theatre, film, entertainment and political activism".
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Scientific Committee :
Mariagabriella Cambiaghi (Università degli Studi di Milano), Raffaele De Berti (Università degli Studi di Milano), Victoria Duckett (Director of Guglielmo Giannini's archive, Deakin University), Stefano Locatelli (Università di Roma, La Sapienza), Elena Mosconi (Università degli Studi di Pavia), Irene Piazzoni (Università degli Studi di Milano)