Massimiliano Canzanella and Lady Rita Rae will discuss the currently vulnerable state of the Neapolitan language and present the first two novels written entirely in Neapolitan.
Despite the frequent and widespread use by artists the world over, Neapolitan remains vulnerable to extinction due to a fast-declining intergenerational transmission. It has been estimated that less than a third of young people will speak Neapolitan by the end of the century, and that will probably evolve into an increasingly Italianised form (Colluzzi, 2008).
L’î ’a vulé (Set Your Soul To It)
What happens in the very delicate mind of a child? What happens in the minds of the people in a neighbourhood or community, when a society denies their right to express themselves in the way they have always done? And what happens to democracy once these same people are unable to simply speak their minds?
Nun me dìcere niente (You Don’t Say)
Three daughters try to protect their elderly mother, Giuseppina, from the mortal shock of truth. Hearing of the tragic demise of their younger brother Luigi, killed in battle after being blasted by a grenade, his three sisters Vincenza, Patrizia and Emilia persuade one of his comrades to corroborate their fabricated version of events: with minor shrapnel wounds, Luigi is undergoing routine medical tests in a five-star military clinic. Luigi’s comrade Nunzio supports the frail mother during her forlorn vigil for her dead son. As Giuseppina reminisces she is tormented by oppressive regrets – especially for her marriage, which she revisits through the struggles of a single mother from across the street, signora Consiglia. But in Nunzio’s tales Luigi becomes an altruistic and fearless character, admired and loved by his dying mother.
Massimiliano Canzanella is the author of the books ‘L’î ’a vulé’ and ‘Nun me dìcere niente’ which are also available in English under the titles ‘Set your soul to it’ and ‘You don’t say’. Through a student-run charity (Language4Water), he has taught Neapolitan Language and Culture at Glasgow University from 2019 to 2023.
Rita Rae, The Honourable Lady Rae is a Scottish lawyer, judge and a former Senator of the College of Justice. She comes from a mixed heritage of an Italian mother and a Scottish father. They met in Naples in 1946 and in the same year her father returned to Scotland with his new wife and both resided in Scotland. Her mother was the daughter of a Neapolitan lawyer, Carlo Bruno, who died in 1937. That influence led her to enter the legal profession in Scotland.
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