Occitan and the university: a complex relationship

Biography

Monica Longobardi studied at the University of Pisa, later winning a Ph.D. from L’Università “La Sapienza” in Rome.

As a teacher of Literary Subjects and Latin in High Schools, she has published many essays and volumes on teaching Italian and Latin, including one dedicated to ludolinguistics (Vanvere, Carocci, 2011). Since 1992 she has collaborated with IRRSAE Emilia-Romagna as a teacher trainer.

From 1996 to 2021 she taught Romance Philology at the Universities of Siena and Ferrara. As university lecturer, she worked on Provençal lyricism, medieval French literature, rhetoric and dialectic, and literary translation of Romance languages. She has also translated Petronius’ Satyricon (Barbera, 2008; Rusconi, 2015) and Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (Rusconi, 2019).

Since 2011 she has been interested in twentieth-century rewritings of medieval Romance literature, inaugurating a new teaching devoted to the posterity of the Middle Ages. Among the various essays on medievalisms, we include those on the poetic version in neovolgare of the Roman de la Rose, by Franco Scataglini, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century (The Garden and the Rose, Mimesis, 2018).

As part of the enhancement of minority languages, since 2015 she has included the study of modern and contemporary Occitan literature in courses in Romance Philology; she has directed theses on Occitan and organized international conferences and meetings with Occitan poets and writers in Ferrara. She studied troubadour legacies in the poetry of Antonio Bodrero, Claudio Salvagno and Ida Vallerugo (Lengas, 79 / 2016).

Relative to modern and contemporary Occitan literature, we include Journey to Occitania (VirtuosaMente, 2019); Joan Ganhaire, You Who Killed Me, VirtuosaMente, 2021; Joseph d’Arbaud, The Beast of Vacarés, The Golden Nut, 2022 (Preface).

Major publications on minority languages:

• M. Longobardi & H. Sheeren (edited by), “L’Europa romanza: identità, diritti linguistici e letteratura – L’Europe romane: identité, droits linguistiques et littérature,” Lengas [online], 79 | 2016, http://lengas.revues.org/1060. [Introduction: “«Nos abandones pas tu qu’un pauc nos coneisses» Lingue tagliate e lingue salvate. Contribution: Troubadours de lunchour. Periferie trobadoriche].
• M. Longobardi & M. Ghetti (edited by), “Ognuno resti com’è, diverso dagli altri”. Plurilinguismo, multilinguismo, multiculturalismo, special issue ” Online Annals of Teaching and Teacher Education,” v. 11, no. 17 (2019).
• M. Longobardi, Viaggio in Occitania, preface by Fausta Garavini, Aicurzio, Virtuosa-mente, 2019.
• M. Longobardi & E. Ceccarini (ed.), E nadi contra suberna: essere trovatori oggi: atti di Convegno, (Ferrara, November 20-21, 2018), Milan, Ledizioni, 2020.
• Joan Ganhaire, You who killed me; introduction, translation and notes by Monica Longobardi; linguistic note by Matteo Rivoira, Arenzano, VirtuosaMente, 2021.
• M. Longobardi, Tradurre una lingua minoritaria: l’Occitano. (A proposito di), – Joan Ganhaire, You Who Killed Me, Introduction, translation and notes by Monica Longobardi. Linguistic note by Matteo Rivoira, Arenzano, Virtuosa-Mente (“Facing Text”), 2021, pp. 454, https://site.unibo.it/griseldaonline/it/letture/monica-longobardi-tradurre-lingua-minoritaria-occitano (review-essay).
• Monica Longobardi, Joseph d’Arbaud, The Beast of Vacarés, Preface by Monica Longobardi; translation by Rosella Pellerino, Rocca di Papa (RM), La Noce d’Oro, 2022, “Bibliomanie. Literatures, historiographies, semiotics,” 54, no. 23, December 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.48276/issn.2280-8833.10239 (review).
• Monica Longobardi, ” PanromanIC. Handbook of intercomprehension between Romance languages,” Lengas [En ligne], no. 91, November 2022, URL : http://journals.openedition.org/lengas/6303 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/lengas.6303.

Motivation Translation Award

Monica Longobardi has contributed more than commendably to the dissemination of knowledge of contemporary Occitan literature in Italy. She has done it with overwhelming dynamism by dedicating to it a university teaching activated for several years at the University of Ferrara, by coordinating several dissertations, by animating scientific meetings of international scope, and by engaging not only in philological and literary study and analysis, but also at translating the texts of some important authors (Joseph D’Arbaud, Mas-Felipe Delavuët, Max Rouquette, Joan Ganhaire).

She dedicated to these tasks knowledge, intelligence and love, and of course time, perhaps the most precious of resources in today’s world.

His efforts represent an important testimony and legacy for the Italian Academy and for the world of culture more generally, because she has shown how important can be a minor language’s literary production, relegated by history to a subordinate role, but elevated to heights of expressive sophistication by generations of artists of the word who have chosen it to compose their works.