We are honored to host Prof. Gala Maria Follaco, Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Literature at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Department of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean.
Gala Maria Follaco has translated works by several major Japanese authors, including Banana Yoshimoto, Seichō Matsumoto, Shūichi Yoshida, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, Tamiki Hara, and Yasunari Kawabata.
Among her most recent publications are: Chronicles of a Reconstruction: From Tōkyō hanjōki (1927) and Post-Earthquake Tokyo (2024); Japanese Literary Culture: The Thousand Forms of Writing from the 7th to the 21st Century (2023); Dead Leaves: The Theme of Old Age in the Work of Nagai Kafū Based on Two Essays from 1943–44 (2022); and The Novel of Unease: Cities, Media, and Affectivity in Contemporary Japanese Narrative (2021).
Prof. Follaco will guide us through the history of manga, a form of Japanese comics whose origins can be traced back to proto-manga from as early as the 7th century, up to the present day, when manga has become a global cultural phenomenon.
The manga industry has expanded far beyond books to include anime, merchandise, games, and international events, while maintaining a unique identity tied to its pocket-size format (tankōbon), right-to-left reading direction, and the predominant use of black and white.
Accompanying Prof. Follaco with live illustrations will be Andrea Yuu Dentuto, journalist, foreign correspondent, illustrator, and manga artist trained in the Japanese tradition, whose work appears in nationally distributed magazines, bookstores, and comic shops.
Dentuto is an illustrator for the newspaper Mainichi Shinbun, a mangaka for several Japanese publishing houses, and an in-between animator at TMS Animation Tokyo.
Since 2020, he has been a permanent consultant for Nippon Shock Edizioni (Rome) for Japanese manga publishing rights.
He is also President of the Japanese language and culture association Momiji of Bari.
It promises to be an engaging and enjoyable event, we look forward to seeing you in the Aula Magna!
