2024 Programme
Event #28
Sunday 1 September, 07.00 pm
Matteotti square1 - euro 4.50
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Matteo Nucci
The gratitude of enemies
The idea that enemies could be mutually grateful seems unimaginable and only achievable during a reconciliation. Yet, it is after enemies quarrel, having reached the heights of hatred, that their shared humanity can restore a sense of grace. This is the moment when individuals realize they are part of a whole, when they stop following the path that drives them to vainglory, and allow the grace that binds all mortal beings to overflow. This is what happens to Achilles after he has hated, killed, and humiliated Hector, when he realizes that his enemy is just a human being. A human like Patroclus and the rest of us, who forget grace until it overflows, pushing us to weep with those we once believed we hated just as Achilles does with Priam in the final scene of the Iliad.
https://www.festivaldellamente.it/it/live-streaming-alessandro-barbero/
Matteo Nucci was born in Rome in 1970. He has published several novels with Ponte alle Grazie, including "Sono comuni le cose degli amici" (2009, finalist for the Premio Strega), "Il toro non sbaglia mai" (2011), "È giusto obbedire alla notte" (2017, finalist for the Premio Strega), and the narrative essay "L’abisso di Eros" (2018). For Einaudi, he released a new edition of Plato's "Symposium" (2009) and the narrative essays "Le lacrime degli eroi" (2013), "Achille e Odisseo. La ferocia e l’inganno" (2020), and "Il grido di Pan" (2023). With HarperCollins, he published the novel "Sono difficili le cose belle" (2022) and "Sognava i leoni. L’eroismo fragile di Ernest Hemingway" (2024). His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies, and eBooks. He also collaborates with the magazines La Stampa and L’Espresso.
Event #43extraFestival
Minotauro Institute, with Loredana Cirillo and Filippo Rosa
Thank you! What we have never told our children and students
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