Andrea Capra | The Haunting of Naples: Poverty and Ordinary Horror in Anna Maria Ortese's Neapolitan Chronicles

Please join us for the upcoming Italian Lecture Series talk entitled "The Haunting of Naples: Poverty and Ordinary Horror in Anna Maria Ortese's Neapolitan Chronicles" by Andrea Capra (Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Princeton University), hosted by the Department of French and Italian. Co-sponsored by the Department of English and the Program in Modern Thought and Literature.

Abstract: What is horror, and how does it manifest in the arts? Typically, the word horror brings to mind vampires, zombies, and extraordinary circumstances. My research reclaims the term to describe the more commonplace horrors present in our lives and societies. Among them, in this talk I will focus on the one of poverty. I explore this theme through twentieth-century Italian author Anna Maria Ortese, particularly her Neapolitan Chronicles — a collection of short stories and reportages that chronicle the harsh living conditions in postwar Naples. Via an analysis of Ortese's work, its narrative tropes and literary techniques, I discuss how and why we should read for horror beyond the horror genre. This approach not only broadens our understanding of literary horror but also offers reflections on the societal implications of this experience - an experience, as I argue, of the ordinary, one that runs the risk of being overshadowed by the spectacular elements usually found in the horror genre.

About the Speaker

Andrea Capra is a literary scholar who received his PhD from Stanford University in Italian, and is currently Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Princeton University. Starting from July, he will be Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at NYU. Capra's book manuscript is entitled Ordinary Horror: From Giacomo Leopardi to Elena Ferrante, and studies how horror manifests in texts not part of the horror genre. He also works on technoscientific topics, with an emphasis on the storytelling surrounding artificial intelligence. His writings have appeared on venues such as Modern Language Notes, Angelaki, Italian Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and others.

Co-sponsored by the Department of English; Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages; and the Program in Modern Thought and Literature