Conference "Transalpine Invecitivity. Disparaging Communication in Italian and German Humanism"
Place and Time
Date: 10th-12th November 2025
Ort: DHI Rome, Via Aurelia Antica 391, 00165 Rome
Deadline CfP: 17.04.2025
Description of the Conference
The deployment of an disparaging communication, i. e. of "Invectivity“ in its largest meaning, plays a decisive role in processes of community building, whether in political or in cultural contexts: this can be easily explained, since every possible social, political or cultural group needs a shared enemy, a scapegoat, which helps shaping and maintaining over time a feeling of shared identity: such „asymmetrization“, or asymmetrical representation of the own´s group as well as of the group the „Others“ belong to, is a necessary and inevitable premise for the assertion of political and cultural interests and claims to agency.
These assumptions are valid at almost every moment in history, still they gain a special meaning in the context of the so-called „Renaissance-Humanism“; even without addressing the controversial issue of the exact definition of „Humanism“, one can easily notice the strikingly polemical and aggressive tone of much of the production of those individuals who viewed and self-proclaimed themselves as participants in the humanistic movement; in this, as in many other respects, Francesco Petrarca is an absolute trailblazer and plays a groundbreaking role, with his violent attacks against the cultural alternatives of contemporary culture. The spread and reception of his work, its “transalpine Diffusion” (J. Helmrath), is the premise for the development of derogatory and aggressive communication among Italian and German Humanists.
The aim of the conference is therefore to examine individual case studies of community building through derogatory communication (e. g. the internal division within Florence between the supporters of the aristocratic party and the members of the Medici circle, which provided the background to the exchange of invectives between Francesco Filelfo and Poggio Bracciolini), and at the same time to follow the comparative development of such communication form between Italy and the Holy Roman Empire (e. g. the reception of Petrarca´s notorious Book without a Name in the
German humanistic circles).
Call for Papers
Please find the Call for Papers for the conference on H/SOZ/KULT. The deadline is 17.04.2025.