Giorgio AmitranoOrder of the Rising Sun | |
---|---|
Born | (1957-10-31) 31 October 1957 (age 67) Jesi, Ancona, Italy |
Occupation(s) | Translator, essayist |
Awards | |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Naples "L'Orientale" |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Japanese literature |
Institutions | University of Naples "L'Orientale" |
Giorgio Amitrano Order of the Rising Sun (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒo amiˈtraːno]; born 31 October 1957) is an Italian Japanologist, translator and essayist, specializing in Japanese language and literature.
Life and career
Amitrano grew up in Naples, graduating from the University of Naples "L'Orientale"; his professors included Maria Teresa Orsi, Luigi Polese Remaggi and Namkhai Norbu. He won a scholarship to Tokyo in 1984. The following year he moved to Osaka, where he stayed until 1989, also teaching at Osaka University.
He currently is full professor of Japanese Literature in the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies at L'Orientale. He also presided the Faculty of Political Science of the same university, where he taught Language and Culture of Japan. In 2012, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nominated him head of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo for a five-year term.
He is the translator to Italian of the works of Banana Yoshimoto (alongside Gala Maria Follaco) and Haruki Murakami, as well as having translated some of the works of Yasunari Kawabata and Yasushi Inoue. His translations earned him the Alcantara Prize in 1999, the Noma Award for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 2001, the Grinzane Cavour Prize in 2008, and the Monselice Prize [it] (Special Jury Prize for Literary and Scientific Translation) in 2012. In 2020, he was awarded membership of the Order of the Rising Sun.
He is deputy editor of the journal Poetica; since 2004 he has written in the monthly magazine on literary and figurative arts Paragone [it], and he also collaborates to a number of Italian newspapers and cultural publications: Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, Il manifesto, Alias, L'Indice dei libri del mese and Nuovi Argomenti.
As a main author, the Italian School of East Asian Studies published his volume The New Japanese Novel: Popular Culture and Literary Tradition in the Work of Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana (1996) and Feltrinelli Il mondo di Banana Yoshimoto (1999, expanded in 2007). In 2007, he wrote the introduction to I miei cani by artist Giosetta Fioroni [it]. In 2018, he published with DeA Planeta Libri Iro iro: il Giappone tra pop e sublime, where he analyzes present-day Japan between tradition and modernity.
Bibliography
Translations
- Atsushi Nakajima
- Cronaca della luna sul monte e altri racconti , Marsilio, 1989
- Banana Yoshimoto
- Kitchen , Feltrinelli, 1991
- N.P., Feltrinelli, 1993
- Sonno profondo , Feltrinelli, 1994
- Lucertola , Feltrinelli, 1995
- Amrita , Feltrinelli, 1997
- Honeymoon , Feltrinelli, 1999
- H/H , Feltrinelli, 2001
- Presagio triste , Feltrinelli, 2003
- Il corpo sa tutto , Feltrinelli, 2004
- Ricordi di un vicolo cieco , Feltrinelli, 2006
- Chie-chan e io , Feltrinelli, 2008
- A proposito di lei , Feltrinelli, 2013
- Haruki Murakami
- Tokyo Blues , Feltrinelli, 1993
- Dance Dance Dance , Einaudi, 1998
- La ragazza dello sputnik , Einaudi, 2001
- Tutti i figli di Dio danzano , Einaudi, 2005
- Norwegian Wood, Einaudi, 2006 (new edition of the translation Tokyo Blues)
- Kafka sulla spiaggia , Einaudi, 2008
- 1Q84, Einaudi, 2011
- Ranocchio salva Tōkyō , illustrated by Lorenzo Ceccotti, Einaudi, 2017
- Kenji Miyazawa
- Una notte sul treno della Via Lattea e altri racconti , Marsilio, 1994
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Storia di Genji il principe splendente , Einaudi, 1992
- Yasunari Kawabata
- Prima neve sul Fuji , Mondadori, 2000
- Il paese delle nevi , Mondadori, 2003
- La danzatrice di Izu , translated with Gala Maria Follaco, Adelphi, 2017 – edition also incorporating Esistenza e scoperta della bellezza
- Romanzi e racconti , Mondadori, 2003 – a compendium of selected works
- Yasushi Inoue
- Il fucile da caccia , Adelphi, 2004
- Amore , Adelphi, 2006
- Yukio Mishima
- Vita in vendita , Feltrinelli, 2022
Essays
- The New Japanese Novel: Popular Culture and Literary Tradition in the Work of Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana, Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1996
- Il mondo di Banana Yoshimoto , Feltrinelli, 1999 (republished in 2007)
- "Yama no oto" kowareyuku kazoku (「山の音」こわれゆく家族) , Misuzu Shobō, 2007
- Iro iro: il Giappone tra pop e sublime , DeA Planeta Libri, 2018
Filmography
- Amitrano makes a brief cameo in the role of a tour guide in the 1997 film The Vesuvians, in the segment La salita by Mario Martone.
See also
References
- ^ "INCONTRO : Un ponte tra il Giappone e l'Italia". zoomgiappone.info (in Italian). 18 December 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ^ Palmieri, Francesco (10 October 2021). "Giorgio Amitrano, la "voce" di Murakami e Yoshimoto". Il Foglio (in Italian). Retrieved 19 September 2022.
- Campione, Dario (2 June 2018). "Il Giappone di Giorgio Amitrano al MUSEC di Lugano". Corriere di Como (in Italian). Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- "Facoltà di Scienze Politiche". unior.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 6 April 2011. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
- "Premi e Onorificenze". aistugia.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 23 November 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- "A Giorgio Amitrano l' "Ordine del Sol Levante, Raggi in oro con nastro"". unior.it (in Italian). Archived from the original on 13 July 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- Living people
- 1957 births
- Academics from le Marche
- Academics from Naples
- People from Jesi
- People from Naples
- 20th-century Italian translators
- 21st-century Italian translators
- Translators from Japanese
- Translators to Italian
- Italian essayists
- Italian Japanologists
- University of Naples "L'Orientale" alumni
- Academic staff of the University of Naples "L'Orientale"
- Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class
- Italian LGBTQ writers