The book Italian Literature and Culture of the Baroque, Enlightenment and Neoclassicism, written by Prof. Dr. Eva Gjorgjievska and Prof. Dr. Jovana Karanikikj-Josimovska and published by Ars Lamina, has won the prestigious international Flaiano Award.
The award, in the “Luca Attanasio” category for Italian Studies, was presented to the authors at a ceremony held on 23 October as part of the 53rd edition of this major cultural event, supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
“The Flaiano Award has been presented to Macedonian female authors for the first time in an international competition. This recognition confirms the significance of our scholarly and research contributions, while also marking an important step towards promoting Macedonian-Italian cultural cooperation and increasing the international visibility of Macedonian literary and scholarly work,” the authors said.
The International Flaiano Award is a prestigious cultural distinction established in 1973 by Edoardo Tiboni in honour of the Italian writer and screenwriter Ennio Flaiano and his work. It is presented annually in Pescara across several fields, including theatre, film, television, journalism and literature. Among its distinctions, the International Flaiano Award for Italian Studies, “Flaiano – Luca Attanasio,” established in 2001, holds a particularly prominent position. It occupies an important place in Italian culture and is one of the most relevant distinctions for the study of Italian literature, language and culture worldwide. Its particular significance lies in the fact that, alongside scholarly works and translations published outside Italy, it also promotes new digital forms of cultural communication.
For 25 years, the International Flaiano Award for Italian Studies, the only award of its kind, has been supported and funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, with the aim of encouraging the study and promotion of the Italian language and culture around the world. Over the past five years, the award has borne the name of Ambassador Luca Attanasio, who tragically lost his life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo while carrying out his duties.
The award is organised by the Ennio Flaiano Cultural Association in cooperation with the Ministry and Italian cultural institutes abroad. The four winners of the jubilee 25th edition were selected from a large number of submitted works by an expert jury chaired by Isabella Camera d’Afflitto, Honorary Professor at Sapienza University of Rome.
This year, the award ceremony formed part of the programme of the Week of the Italian Language in the World. On this occasion, in his message to the ceremony’s participants, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, emphasised the importance of promoting the Italian language and culture in strengthening ties with Italian communities around the world and building new international connections.
The book Italian Literature and Culture, published by Ars Lamina last year, was conceived in response to the need to enrich the teaching of Italian literature with a publication bringing together, in one volume, the most significant authors, works and cultural achievements in Italy from the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century. Through this book, the authors, professors at the Faculty of Philology of Goce Delchev University in Shtip, provide a comprehensive overview of three important periods in European cultural history: the Baroque, the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism.
The book presents the literary, philosophical and scientific contributions of prominent Italian creators and thinkers whose ideas have left a lasting mark on the development of European and world culture. These include Giambattista Marino’s poetic inventiveness, Carlo Goldoni’s reform of theatre, Giambattista Vico’s philosophy of history, Giuseppe Parini’s socially engaged poetry, Vittorio Alfieri’s moral dramas, Galileo Galilei’s scientific research and empirical method, and Giordano Bruno and his cosmological ideas.
This recognition of the work by Gjorgjievska and Karanikikj-Josimovska is significant not only for the authors and the publisher, but also for the Macedonian academic community. It confirms the importance of scholarly publications in building cultural bridges between countries and presenting Macedonian authors on the international stage.
The book Italian Literature and Culture of the Baroque, Enlightenment and Neoclassicism is available at Literatura.mk bookstores and online at www.literatura.mk.
