Luciano Canfora

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Luciano Canfora, 2015

Luciano Canfora (born June 5, 1942 in Bari ) is an Italian classical philologist . He teaches as a professor of Greek and Latin philology in Bari, is a member of the Partito dei Comunisti Italiani and is considered a committed intellectual of the Italian left. Since 1999 he has been a corresponding member of the Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati .

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Canfora has made numerous contributions to the history of antiquity, antiquity, the post-Reformation and modernity. He is a member of the scientific committee of the Society of Classical Tradition (Boston), the Instituto Gramsci Foundation (Rome), the Association pour l'encouragement des Etudes Grecques (Paris) and the editorial team of the Historia y critica journals (Santiago-Spain ), Limes (Rome) and Filosofia dei diritti umani . He also publishes the historical journal Quaderni di Storia and oversees the book series La città antica by Sellerio and Paradosis by Dedalo .

Controversy over his book A Brief History of Democracy

At the end of 2005 there was controversial discussion in Germany about its Brief History of Democracy . The book was to appear as a volume in the series Europe building edited by Jacques Le Goff , in which the publishers Basil Blackwell (Great Britain), Le Seuil (France), Laterza (Italy), Crítica (Spain) and CH Beck (Germany) are involved . After it had already appeared in Italy, France and Spain and was being prepared in England, CH Beck announced that it would not be published in Germany. According to an expert report by the historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler commissioned by the publisher, it is "not just an extremely dogmatic presentation, but one so stupid that it cannot at any point meet the requirements of Western history." The Süddeutsche Zeitung supported the publisher's decision to reject the manuscript: "The fact that a publisher does not want to print such a book in the 'Building Europe' series is not a scandal, but deserves all support." Canfora's theses about the The role of Stalin and the Federal Republic of Germany under Adenauer was criticized, but the publisher's intention was not to publish the book. Some of the particularly contentious passages can be traced back to incorrect translations.

The Brief History of Democracy was published in January 2006 by the Cologne publishing house Papyrossa after the manuscript had been re-translated. Canfora responded to the allegations with the text "Das Auge des Zeus", which appeared in Konkret Literatur Verlag , and also criticized the original translation by Beck-Verlag. Even George Fülberth , a defender Canforas in Germany, was of the opinion that the criticism is based on a malicious misrepresentation of an incorrect translation.

Works (selection)

  • La biblioteca scomparsa , Sellerio, 1986 ; 1988 . - The missing library. The knowledge of the world and the Alexandria fire. Rotbuch-Taschenbuch 1104. Rotbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1990 (Italian original edition Palermo 1986), ISBN 3-88022-026-3 (Newly published in Europ. Verl.-Anst., Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-434-46182- 5 )
  • Le vie del classicismo , Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1989. - Political Philology: Classical Studies and Modern State Ideologies , Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1995
  • Libro e libertà , Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1994, reprint 2005, ISBN 88-420-7826-3
  • Un mestiere pericoloso. La vita quotidiana dei filosofi greci , Palermo, Sellerio, 2000. - Oh, Aristotle! Instructions for dealing with philosophers , Europ. Verl.-Anst., Hamburg 2000
  • Giulio Cesare. Il dittatore democratico , Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1999 . - Caesar: the democratic dictator; a biography , CH Beck, Munich 2001, (2004) ISBN 3-406-51869-9
  • La democrazia. Storia di un'ideologia , Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2004 . - A Brief History of Democracy: From Athens to the EU . Translator Rita Seuss. Papyrossa, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-89438-350-X - Review: Rudolf Walther, Das Subject der Demokratie (" Friday ", January 5, 2007)
  • L'occhio di Zeus. Disavventure della "Democrazia" , Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2006. - The eye of Zeus. German historiography between stupidity and demagogy - answer to my critics , Konkret Literatur Verlag, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-930786-50-8
  • Esportare la libertà. Il mito che ha fallito , Milano, Mondadori , 2007. - Exporting freedom. From the bankruptcy of an ideology . Papyrossa, Cologne 2008
  • 1914 , Palermo, Sellerio, 2006 . - August 1914. Or: do you go to war because of an assassination attempt? , Papyrossa, Cologne 2010
  • 1956. L'anno spartiaque , Palermo, Sellerio, 2008 . - The turning point 1956 , Papyrossa, Cologne 2012

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Membership database of the Academy ( Memento from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Johan Schloemann: May 19, 2010. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 16, 2005, accessed July 3, 2016.
  3. ^ Adam Krzemiński : The Blindness of Western European Historians at perlentaucher.de . March 15, 2006.
  4. ↑ Otto Köhler : From the king tiger to the house kitten. In: Friday . January 6, 2006, accessed July 3, 2016.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Canfora, Luciano
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian philologist , historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Bari , Italy