To celebrate 40th anniversary of Tolkien's death
Gruppo Italiano di Studi Tolkieniani and Effatà publishing house, Turin (Italy)
announce the project for a book whose title is “Tolkien e i Classici” (Tolkien and the Classics). Publication is scheduled for December 2014.

As Italo Calvino wrote in his essay "Why read the Classics", «Classics are those books one usually says of: "I'm re-reading…", and never "I'm reading…"». He listed as far as 14 points apt to define a Classic, and concluded by saying that «one must not believe Classics have to be read because they "serve”"some purpose». There are no good reasons to read Classics: simply, they are read more and more.

So it is with Tolkien. He's been a Classic long since, and 40 years after his death not only his major works have been read by about 200 million people, sticking to a cautious estimate, but it is also granted that critics, scholars and plain readers all over the world do acknowledge his importance after marking him as a Genre author for a long time thus confining him to the margins of the so-called “mainstream”.

Tributes and acknowledgments to Tolkien as one of the great authors of the XX Century have been widely increasing in recent years, and also in Italy, after entering the Academia, he is more and more often proposed in schools for interdisciplinary purposes.

To promote the study of both Tolkien and his relationship with his own time, the "Tolkien e i Classici" project is now put forward. By confronting Tolkien’s works with other literary Classics, notably, but not only, Italian and Anglo-American ones, what is aimed at is to show up the common characteristics of the Classics Calvino had spoken of in his essay, characteristics which perfectly fit the author of The Lord of the Rings. To achieve the composition of a book dedicated to this theme, we aim at joining the work of already known scholars in the field of Italian Tolkien studies to the contribution of anyone wanting to add their own thoughts and opinions, thus expanding the scope of the project as much as possible.

The Gruppo Italiano di Studi Tolkieniani (Italian Group on Tolkien Studies), coordinated by the Associazione Romana Studi Tolkieniani and the Istituto filosofico di studi Tomistici (Philosophical Institute of Thomistic studies) of Modena, is composed by essayists, writers, journalists and translators that have long since dedicated their research to Tolkien and his works. Collectively and individually, they have published articles and essays, mainly for publishers Effatà and Marietti 1820, editing for the latter also the book series "Tolkien e dintorni" (Tolkien and his surroundings)

The following essays have already been proposed and accepted:
• Tolkien and G. Guareschi
• Tolkien and A. Manzoni
• Tolkien and S.T. Coleridge
• Tolkien and G. Orwell
• Tolkien and San Tommaso (Thomas Aquinas)
• Tolkien and G. Chaucer

"Tolkien e i Classici" will be published in Italian in eBook form. Print-on-demand copies will be available as well.

CALL FOR PAPERS
The Gruppo Italiano di Studi Tolkieniani, in collaboration with Effatà publishing house, invite Italian and foreign scholars wanting to join the project to submit their proposals. Candidates may freely propose their topic in the thematic field "Tolkien and the Classics", however the Scientific Committee encourages in particular papers dealing with the following authors: Homer, Virgil, Chrétien de Troyes, Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Matteo Maria Boiardo, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Giacomo Leopardi, Giovanni Pascoli, Fëdor Dostojevski, Italo Calvino, Carlo Collodi, Walter Scott, Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad.

Essays will be written in Italian or English and will be maximum 15,000 characters long (blanks included).
Please submit an abstract (maximum 300 words) and a very brief CV to the following email address within 31st December 2013: info(at)jrrtolkien.it

Only original essays that are not simultaneously under consideration by another publisher/journal/web site will be considered.

Received abstracts will be reviewed by the Committee supporting the “Gruppo di Studio”, composed by Claudio Antonio Testi, Cecilia Barella, Giampaolo Canzonieri and Roberto Arduini.
Essayists will be notified. The final draft will have to be received within 30th June 2014.
It will include all quotations, endnotes, and the list of works cited.


Books about Tolkien published by Effatà publishing house:
http://editrice.effata.it/libri/9788874027262/la-biblioteca-di-bilbo/
http://editrice.effata.it/libri/argomenti/420/tolkien/

The “Tolkien e dintorni” book series published by Marietti 1820 publishing house:
http://www.mariettieditore.it/catalogo/default.asp?IDCategoria=9887&imageField.x=24&imageField.y=5&IDFolder=137