Call for Papers: XXVIII International Symposium on Onomastics & Literature

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We are delighted to announce the upcoming XXVIII International Symposium on Onomastics & Literature, set to take place from September 24–26, 2025 in Potenza, hosted by the University of Basilicata. Sessions will be held in the Aula Magna of the Francioso Campus and the National Archaeological Museum of Basilicata Dinu Adamesteanu. A cultural visit to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Matera is also planned for September 27.

🎯 Conference Themes

This year’s symposium invites proposals on the following core topics:

1. The Names of ‘Villains’ How literary antagonists become iconic through their names — from Iago to Tartuffe, from Maganzese to Shylock — and how these names transform into cultural symbols or deonyms.

2. Names in Autobiographical Writings The onomastic identity of the author-narrator-protagonist, hidden names, pseudonyms, or symbolic place names in autobiographical literature.

3. Anthropological Foundations of Names Taboos, apotropaic functions, magical meanings — from Chrétien de Troyes to the Eumenides, from Manzoni's Innominato to the unnameable in religious and literary traditions.

4. Autonymy in Literature When literary characters rename themselves — Don Quixote, Jekyll/Hyde, Mattia Pascal — or authors adopt heteronyms or playful autonyms (Pessoa, guidogozzano).

5. Lucanian Onomastics Exploring names in the works of Rocco Scotellaro, Mario Trufelli, Gaetano Cappelli, and others. Celebrating local identity, dialect, and symbolism on the 50th anniversary of Carlo Levi’s death.

✉️ Submission Guidelines

Please send your abstract (about one page, not generic but content-specific) along with a brief CV by June 30, 2025, to:

📧 Donatella Bremer — donatella.bremer@unipi.it

📝 Publication Opportunity

Papers may be submitted for peer review in the academic journal “il Nome nel testo”. The final submission should not exceed 36,000 characters (spaces included).

For inquiries, contact:

• 📧 Giorgio Sale — giosale@uniss.it

• 🔗 Official Website

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This unique symposium offers a platform for literary scholars, linguists, philologists, and onomasticians to explore the power of names in literature — in identity, narrative, and cultural imagination. Whether you're tracing the legacy of a villain's name or unearthing forgotten Lucanian roots, join us in Potenza this September!