Antonio Scurati Popular Books

Antonio Scurati Biography & Facts

Antonio Scurati (born 25 June 1969) is an Italian writer and academic. A professor of comparative literature and creative writing at the IULM University of Milan, mass media scholar, and editorialist for the Corriere della Sera, Scurati has won the main Italian literary prizes. In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Strega Prize for his novel M: Son of the Century (2018), which is part of a planned tetralogy dedicated to Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism. It was at the top of the charts for two consecutive years, was translated into over forty countries, and is set for a television series produced by Sky Original in 2024. Early life and education Scurati was born in Naples to a Neapolitan mother and a father from Cusano Milanino. He graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of Milan. Scurati continued his studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. He later completed a PhD in Theory and Text Analysis at the University of Bergamo. Scurati worked as a professore a contratto (contract professor) at Bergamo, where he coordinated a centre for studying the languages of war and violence. At Bergamo, he also taught the theory and elements of television language. In 2005, Scurati became a researcher in Cinema, Photography, and Television. In 2008, he moved to the IULM University of Milan, where he became an associate professor and conductor of a creative writing seminar and a seminar in orality and rhetoric, as well as co-director of the "Arts of the Story" writing master's course, together with film critic Gianni Canova, dedicated to epic and document-based narrative writing. Career From early writings to collaboration with the Corriere della Sera In 2003, Scurati published the essay Guerra. Narrazioni e culture nella tradizione occidentale, which was a finalist for the Viareggio Prize. His novel Il sopravvissuto (2005) was awarded (in a tie with Pino Roveredo) the 43rd Premio Campiello. The novel was also awarded the Premio Nazionale Letterario Pisa for Fiction. In 2006, a revised edition of Scurati's debut novel, Il rumore sordo della battaglia, was published. That same year, Scurati published the essay "La letteratura dell'inesperienza. Scrivere romanzi al tempo della televisione", a reflection on media, Dadaism, literature, and humanism. Scurati's writing appeared in the weekly publication Internazionale and the daily newspaper La Stampa. In 2007, he published the historical novel Una storia romantica. In the same year, Scurati produced a documentary film for the Italian company Fandango. The film La stagione dell'amore investigates themes of love in contemporary Italian society, and continues the investigation conducted by director Pier Paolo Pasolini in his film Love Meetings (1965). In 2009, Scurati published Il bambino che sognava la fine del mondo, a novel that mixes reality and fiction and is fierce criticism of mass media and the information economy as a whole. In 2010, Scurati published Gli anni che non stiamo vivendo. Il tempo della cronaca, a collection of articles on contemporary topics of crime, politics, and current affairs. In the same year, he addressed the same topics in the column "Lettere dal nord" within the television program Parla con me. In 2015, he published Il tempo migliore della nostra vita, a biographical novel dedicated to the life of Leone Ginzburg. It was awarded the Viareggio Prize, and was a finalist for the Premio Campiello. On 20 September 2019, it was announced that Scurati would begin writing a column for the Corriere della Sera. His first article, concerning euthanasia, appeared in the newspaper on 28 September 2019. M tetralogy, TV series adaptation, and commentary In September 2018, Scurati published the novel M: Son of the Century (M. Il figlio del secolo), the first volume in a series of four books about Benito Mussolini. The tetralogy intends to tell the history of Italy beginning on 23 March 1919, the day the Italian Fasces of Combat was founded, and ending in 1945. The novel concludes with Mussolini's speech to the Chamber of Deputies on 3 January 1925, which officially established Italy as a dictatorship following the political crisis caused by the murder of Giacomo Matteotti. The first edition of the novel contained eight historical errors (in names, dates, and quotations) that were detailed by Ernesto Galli della Loggia in the Corriere della Sera, where he criticized Scurati for having "retouched the history" with his novel. Scurati responded to the controversy in a column also published in the Corriere della Sera. In it, he argued that the current era requires "a cooperation between the rigor of historical accuracy and the art of the novel", and that "telling is an art, not an exact science". The controversy also involved Pierluigi Battista, to which Galli della Loggia wrote again, stating that "creative license does not authorizes betraying the truth of history". In an interview to Il manifesto that was printed on 23 April 2019, Scurati stated that "giving a voice to Mussolini serves to free us from him", and added: "Above all it means dealing with the repressed collective conscience, fascism as one of the matrices of national identity and doing so through a new popular and inclusive narrative, according to the vocation of the novel form. I was driven by the belief that, after the historical fall of the anti-fascist prejudice, a novel about Mussolini was possible and, therefore, necessary precisely to renew the reasons for anti-fascism." On the night between 4 and 5 July 2019, M. Il figlio del secolo was awarded the prestigious Strega Prize, and Scurati commented: "I dedicate the victory to our grandfathers and fathers, who were first seduced and then oppressed by fascism, especially those among them who found the courage to fight it with weapons in hand. I would also like to dedicate the award to our children, with the hope that they will not have to go back to experiencing what we experienced a hundred years ago, especially to my daughter Lucia." The novel was a success, selling over 600,000 copies by April 2022, when it was being translated for publication in 46 countries and in production for a television series adaptation, which is produced by Sky Original and directed by Joe Wright, with Luca Marinelli as Mussolini, and scheduled for 2024. The English translation by Anne Milano Appel was published by Harper on 5 April 2022. In September 2020, M. L'uomo della provvidenza, the second volume of the quartet was published. It follows the parable of Mussolini from 1925 to 1932, recounting his liberticidal politics and the fierce power struggles and ideological battles of the National Fascist Party. It is framed by the omnipresent figure of Mussolini and his mediocrities and eccentricities. The novel was translated into French in 2021, and was awarded the 2022 European Book Prize. In September 2022, the third volume of the series was released, M. Gli ultimi giorni d.... Discover the Antonio Scurati popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Antonio Scurati books.