«De Sanctis» awards Dacia Maraini, Cartarescu and Starnone-Corriere.it

Important personalities of Italian and international culture received the De Sanctis Europa Prize on Thursday 8 June, the section born in 2021 of the De Sanctis Prize, dedicated to outstanding European figures in the artistic, humanistic and scientific fields. Established by the De Sanctis Foundation in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Brussels, and with the city's Italian Cultural Institute, the award (assigned by the jury chaired by Giorgio Ficara and made up of critics and scholars) was awarded to nine personalities of European culture during a ceremony at the headquarters of the Italian ambassador in Brussels.

The awards were presented on stage by authorities and cultural personalities, in the presence of the ambassador Federica Favi, of Francesco De Sanctis, great-grandson of the literary critic and president of the De Sanctis Foundation, in the event hosted by Allegra Iafrate, regent of the Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels.

The winners are: the writer Dacia Maraini (who received the award from the writer and poet Marc Quaghebeur), Jamil Anderlinidirector of «Politico Europe» (awarded by Stefano Sannino), the writer Mircea Cartarescu (awarded by Diego Marani), Maurice Molinaridirector of «la Repubblica» (awarded by Enrico Tibuzzi), the director Paolo Sorrentino (who received the award from the ambassador Federica Favi), the writer Dominic Starnone (awarded by Francesco De Sanctis); among the winners also the architect Bas Smets (awarded by Marie Pok) and the directors Felix Van Groeningen And Charlotte Vandermeersch (awarded by Jean Bourgeois).

«I strongly believe in Europe - commented Dacia Maraini among the winners - and therefore I am happy to receive an award which, with that European title, has a particular meaning. Not only do I feel I belong to Europe, but indeed I wish there were more of Europe, with more decisive ideas and, for example, with his justice. Let me give you an example: I know how well an experience like Erasmus has worked, because I know many young people who are happy to have been able to do it: that's where Europe feels. Which is not, in some ways, a very great world power; but it should focus more on its cultural power».

Maraini also recounted a personal memory, which demonstrates his special bond with the figure of the great critic Francesco De Sanctis (1817-1883), to whom the recognition is entitled: «Not only do I love his work very much, but I am fond of the figure of De Sanctis. I taught for a semester at the Zurich Polytechnic, where a humanities chair was founded: a very nice idea in a Polytechnic, not to separate science and humanistic culture. And it was the chair born with De Sanctis, the one in which he held his lessons during his time in Zurich ». In fact, there the critic held the chair of Italian literature from 1856 to 1860; in 2007, the Swiss university inaugurated a new chair in Italian Studies, naming it after De Sanctis and dedicating it to illustrious Italian visiting professors: it was in the Zurich lectures that the critic matured many of the themes he was to develop in his famous History of Italian literature (1870).