7TH “ITALIAN LANGUAGE WEEK WORLDWIDE” THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE AND

La VII edizione della Lingua italiana nel mondo si svolgerà quest’anno dal 22 al 28 ottobre sotto l’egida del Minist

7^th “Italian Language Week Worldwide”

The Italian language and the sea

(22– 28 October 2007)

The “Italian Language Week Worldwide”, organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Directorate for Cultural Promotion and Cooperation, has been running for 6 years now. The “Week” consists of a wide range of events mounted by all of Italy’s Cultural Institutes, Embassies and Consulates. The theme changes each year but is always selected to enhance and promote the use and dissemination of our language abroad. In view of the vast response the event has attracted over the years in the Italian and international press and the calibre of the events organised worldwide, the “Week” is not just an opportunity to promote Italian but also a spur for reflection on the dissemination of our language as a key element of Italy’s image abroad.

Several other partners also provide input in organising the Week, each of them providing ideas and concrete initiatives for the Cultural Institutes. The key partner, and co-founder of the Week, is the Accademia della Crusca, an institution whose traditional task is to preserve and defend the Italian language. The next “Italian Language Week Worldwide” will be taking place from 22 to 28 October 2007. Its theme will be The Italian language and the Sea, an evocative leitmotif that touches on a wide range of subjects and disciplines. For millennia, the sea has been the great access route to Italy and has made our country the meeting place of three continents. Much of Italy’s history has been written on and around the sea, a sea that has inspired poets and artists from all over the world. It has inspired songs of joy and sadness, kindled the fire of courage in the hearts of explorers and prompted millions of Italians to seek their fortunes in far-off lands.

The programme for this year’s “Week” revisits the literary competition “Write with Me” for secondary school pupils. To take part, pupils are required to complete a story specially written, without the ending, for the competition. This year’s story, entitled “Il bambino del faro” (The Lighthouse Child), was written by Carlo Lucarelli and belongs, naturally, to the “noir” genre. Students in university Italian departments are required to write an essay with the help of lectors, as part of the “Italian Lectors’ Day”. The prize for the best piece of work will be awarded during the press conference.

This year, the Cassamarca Foundation in Treviso has proposed a “Students” section of the “Mediterranean Poetry Prize” to coincide with the Language Week. The idea behind the prize is to promote a dialogue between young people in the countries bordering the Mediterranean, or who have common roots there. The aim here is that, by getting to know each other through their poetry, these young people will play a part in achieving a constructive and fruitful co-existence.

Other important initiatives include “LibridAmare”, an exhibition of books with the sea as their theme being staged on board the Finance Police’s Giorgio Cini training ship. This event is being organised by the Ministry for Cultural Assets and Activities. The ship will set sail from Bari and head for Trieste, taking books and writers to a number of Mediterranean ports. At each port-of-call they will meet local readers and scholars, with local institutions and Italian cultural institutes also being involved.

Another important initiative is the exhibition “The Sea and Salgari. Oceans, ports, ships and heroes”, which is being mounted by the Civic Library in Verona. This show brings together the original covers of the works of this great author in an illustrated voyage through the world’s most exotic, far-off seas. The panels produced from the colourful original illustrations of Salgari’s books will be on show during the press conference being held on 8 October at the foreign ministry in Rome.

The Italian Geographical Society is mounting a photographic exhibition based on the smaller Italian islands and consisting of cartographic and documentary material. The exhibition will highlight key periods and episodes in the history of the Italian language as expressed through successive changes in place names and will also be featured at the press conference on 8 October.

We then have the show produced by the Florence-based Società Fratelli Alinari, with its precious historic photographs. And we should certainly not forget the great Italian explorers, with initiatives focusing on Pigafetta (Bertoliana Library in Vicenza), who wrote the ship’s log of the Magellan expedition, and on Agostino Codazzi, with an event staged by the explorer’s home region of Emilia Romagna.

The Week also sees very close collaboration with RAI, and especially with RAI International, which is following the event with special programmes on its foreign channels. RAI Educational is playing an equally important role by supplying videos and documentaries such as “Grand Tour”, “Atlante Veneziano” and “L’isola del Cinema”, which are widely used by Cultural Institutes and embassies.

Siena’s University for Foreign Students has designed and produced a virtual exhibition entitled “The Italian Language and the Sea”. As its name suggests, this show focuses on various aspects of language and culture as related to the sea. It will be sent to numerous Cultural Institutes and will also be featured through the Institute’s presence in “Second Life”.

The Directorate General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies has proposed three initiatives to a number of consulates in Europe. These come under the heading “Terre di mare” (Lands of the Sea), a project based mainly on music and the musical tradition of Genoa and Naples, two cities whose lives are intrinsically linked with the sea. The project consists of two musical events: one on Ligurian singer-songwriters and one on Mediterranean music, as well as an exhibition on “Corto Maltese and the Sea”, dedicated to the legendary adventure hero whose exploits are entertainingly recounted by Hugo Pratt.

Film director Folco Quilici has also contributed with a suggested focus on protected areas, on which there is an extensive body of literature. His suggestions include a number of DVDs on the subject of the sea and marine archaeology: “L’Italia infinita – Le coste” and “L’Italia infinita – Le isole”.

Other contributors to the initiative include the Movie-Movie production company, with “Fra il Danubio e il Mare” (Between the Danube and the Sea), a film conceived and directed by Francesco Conversano and Nenè Grignaffini. This documentary/portrait takes the form of an interview with Trieste-born writer Claudio Magris, and is dedicated to the writer himself and the places he explores in his works. Sub-titled in English, French, German and Spanish, the film will eventually be sent to all the Italian Cultural Institutes.

The Regions too have made a considerable input. The Marches Region has provided Gabrio Marinelli’s film “Una meravigliosa favola scritta con l’acqua”, which highlights the splendid and uniquely beautiful Frasassi caves. From Tuscany comes the book “Lontana Terra – Diari di toscani in viaggio”, based on the diaries of Tuscan migrants from 1829 to the present day. Emilia Romagna has provided material on the explorer Agostino Codazzi, as mentioned above.

Poggiomarino City Council, in the Province of Naples, has provided a CD-ROM with high definition images of the archaeological sites of Poggiomarino, which was the Venice of its day, 3500 years ago. The Po Delta Park has provided exhibits on “The Po Delta: from memory to future”, historic documents telling the story of this park where the land meets the sea.

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