A study day to celebrate 100 years of "Fate and Character" the work by Walter Benjamin written in Lugano

USI Institute of Italian Studies will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the famous essay “Fate and Character” (Schicksal und Charakter) written in the shadows of Monte Brè in 1919 by Walter Benjamin, and published in Germany in 1921.

The work by Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is one of the most enriching philosophical legacy from the 20th Century. Many are the areas of humanities that are currently influenced by the profound reflections of the author: from literary criticism, to media theory, to the philosophy of history and politics.

The study day will be open to all interested parties, free of charge, and it will be held on March 21 from 09:00 in the Lugano Campus Auditorium. It will mainly focus on the connections between Benjamin and Italian culture, whose richness is a repository of intense physical and mental involvement: philosophical and literary productions, artwork, places, and encounters.  The theme will be tackled from different perspectives by USI Faculty members Corrado Bologna, Nicola Emery, Marco Maggi, Carla Mazzarelli, and by two leading experts on the author Roberto Gilodi and Sigrid Weigel.

With this encounter the Institute of Italian Studies also aims at opening a debate on cultural translations, through which, as mentioned by Charles Wright in a poem dedicated to Benjamin “…is as close as we can come to divinity” (The Ghost of Walter Benjamin Walks at Midnight, in his collection of poems Italia).