Symposium on Cultural Memory and Literature

6–9 May 2004 – University of Malta

A meeting of the delegates from European Universities taking part in the project on “Cultural memory in European Countries: Difference and Identity in a United Europe” (ACUME) will take place at the University of Malta from the 6 to 9 May. This symposium forms part of an original project funded by the European Commission and steered by the University of Bologna under the general direction of Professor Vita Fortunati, Professor of Comparative Literature at Bologna University.

One of the main aims of this project is to investigate cultural memory in the various European nations while exploring the notion of difference and identity in a United Europe. The symposium which will be addressed by nineteen speakers from various European Universities including Bologna, Cardiff, Charles University, Prague, Krakow, Estonia, Copenhagen, Warwick, Bucharest, Limerick and six speakers from the University of Malta, will focus in particular on the theme of “Bearing Witness: the literary and documentary
expression of cultural identity.”

Professor Peter Vassallo, Head of the Department of English and Director of the Institute of Anglo-Italian Studies, has been appointed convener of the Conference and chairman of the organizing committee. In September 2002, he was elected member of the steering committee which is based at the University of Bologna and which monitors and evaluates the various interdisciplinary projects approved by the European Commission, which include Cultural Amnesia, Landscape and Place, and Foundation texts and Mythology.

The title of Dr. Adrian Grima’s paper is “Forging the National Imaginary in Maltese Literature.”