Speaker: Metello Mugnai, West Chester University
Learn about Italian singer and songwriter Fabrizio De André. This event pays a tribute to a great artist in the twentieth anniversary of his death (1999). De André's memory is still alive among Italian young people who were born after his death. A refined poet and a powerful story teller (to simplify we can call him the Italian Bob Dylan), De André's special focus on the marginalized and the rebellious has made his art an evergreen that continues to speak to us. Through a musical journey, we will discover the outcasts that populate De André’s songs, understand the reasons why he chose to focus on alienated figures in his works, and explore the connections to Italian history, in particular to the ‘68 riots and the economic boom. In addition, this talk will explore the influence of Edgar Lee Master on De André, De André's motivation to translate the Spoon River Anthology and De André's album Non al denaro non all'amore né al cielo, which is considered his own Spoon River.
Metello Mugnai is Assistant Professor of Italian and Spanish at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Romance Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Laurea in Italian Literature from the University of Florence. Specialized in Italian cinema, Italian music, and contemporary Italian literature, in his recent articles and conference presentations Dr. Mugnai has focused on marginalized people, adaptations of stories and hypotexts, and trash studies. His research interests also include second language acquisition, and scholarship of teaching and learning.