Roberto Calasso
Roberto Calasso (* May 30, 1941 in Florence ) is an Italian essayist and cultural- philosophical writer, present its most important works translated into several European languages. He is also Managing Director of the publishing house Adelphi in Milan.
Life
Calasso studied English literature at the University of Rome and was awarded his doctorate by Mario Praz with an investigation into the hieroglyphics of Sir Thomas Browne. After the death of Roberto Bazlen 1965, 1962, together with Luciano Foà - as a kind of secession from the publisher Einaudi - was founded in Milan, the publishing house Adelphi, Calasso entered in its place, since 1971 as a managing director. As one of the first projects the young publisher, the Italian version of that developed by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari critical edition of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche was tackled. For his contribution to the work of Nietzsche in Italy Calasso was awarded the 1998 Premio Nietzsche. In 2008 he was awarded the Science Award of Aby Warburg Foundation.
Calasso is married to the writer Fleur Jaeggy and lives in Milan.
Work
Calasso is holding in his larger works " artful balance between literature and essay. Associative one image to the next stringing he unfolds his view of Greek mythology ( in The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia ), the Indian conception of the world ( Ka) and modern European literature ( in The Fall of Kashmir ). " In his subsequent work, The Literature and the Gods Calasso finally tried a narrowing of Greek and Indian mythology and literature of those of European modernism, which he referred to as "absolute" ( first Hölderlin and Friedrich Schlegel, then Baudelaire, Lautréamont, Nietzsche, Benn )
A special feature of Calassos literary production is the blurb that he has written for hundreds of Adelphi titles. Because they are not conventional advertising, but, as one reviewer wrote, text " at its best, which can be condensed to the length of two printed pages to sparkling micro- narratives ", was the 40th anniversary of the publishing house Adelphi a selection of hundred of these miniatures in a band issued.
Writings
- The Secret History of the Senate President, Dr. Daniel Paul Schreber. (1974 ) From the Ital. Reimar Klein. Frankfurt / M.: Suhrkamp 1980 ISBN 3-518-11024-1
- The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia. (1988 ) From the Ital. Moshe Kahn. Frankfurt / M., Leipzig: Insel- Verlag 1993 ISBN 3- 458-33176 -X
- The sinking of Kasch. (1983 ) From the Ital. by Joachim Schulte and Reimar Klein. Frankfurt / M.: Suhrkamp 1997 ISBN 3-518-39925- X
- Ka (1996 ) From the Ital. by Anna Katharine Cheerful and Marianne Schneider. Frankfurt / M.: Suhrkamp 1999 ISBN 3-518-41067-9
- The literature and the gods. (2001) From the Ital. Reimar Klein. The Hague: Mouton 2003 ISBN 3-446-20263-3
- The forty-nine steps. Essays. (1991 ) From the Ital. by Joachim Schulte. The Hague: Mouton 2005 ISBN 3-446-20567-5
- Hundreds of letters to an unknown reader. (2003) From the Ital. by Roland H. weighing stone. The Hague: Mouton 2006 ISBN 978-3-446-20741-7
- K. (2002) From the Ital. Reimar Klein. The Hague: Mouton 2006 ISBN 978-3-446-20759-2
- The Pink Tiepolo. (2006) From the Ital. Reimar Klein. The Hague: Mouton 2010 ISBN 978-3-446-23576-2
- The dream of Baudelaire. (2008) From the Ital. Reimar Klein. The Hague: Mouton, 2012 ISBN 978-3-446-23998-2.
- Disappearing profiles. The role of the publisher and the changes in the publishing industry. (2013 ) From the Ital. Reimar Klein. In: Lettre International, LI 100, Spring 2013.