Fausto Cercignani
Fausto Cercignani is an Italian scholar, essayist and poet.
Biography
Born to Tuscan parents, Fausto Cercignani studied in Milan, where he graduated in foreign languages and literatures with a dissertation dealing with English at Shakespeare’s time. His career as a university professor was at first characterized by philological investigations in the fields of English studies and Germanic studies. In 1983, after teaching at the Universities of Bergamo, Parma, and Pisa, he returned to Milan and carried on his activity at the University of Milan, where he intensified his researches on German literature, a field that he had been cultivating for years.Cercignani was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class in 1996.
The student of English
Cercignani’s philological interests have been mainly directed towards the history of the English language, with especial regard to the Elizabethan period. His articles on English pronunciation at Shakespeare’s time anticipate his major work Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, which has been cited as «the best work available» on the subject.As «the foremost authority» on Elizabethan pronunciation, Cercignani is often cited on puns, rhymes, and spellings in the more recent editions of Shakespeare's works, in most reference works on Shakespeare, and in various publications dealing with linguistic and literary questions from a historical point of view.
The student of Germanic
Cercignani's philological interests have also been directed towards the historical phonology of the Germanic languages and other aspects of historical linguistics. Specialized journals like “Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung”, “Indogermanische Forschungen”, “Journal of English and Germanic Philology”, “Language”, “Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur”, and “The Journal of Indo-European Studies” have published his articles on Proto-Germanic, Gothic, English and German.Some of these studies – e.g. Early 'umlaut' phenomena in the Germanic languages, in “Language”, 56/1, 1980 – are frequently cited for alternative views on early linguistic changes.
Cercignani's notable work on The Consonants of German: Synchrony and Diachrony «offers both an original contribution to German phonology and a first-rate account of the state of the art».
The student of German
Cercignani's literary interests have at first been directed towards the poetry of Karl Krolow, with essays published in “Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift”, “Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch”, and other journals. His study of Christa Wolf’s earlier novels and subsequent essays on her later works have contributed to promote an awareness of the true essence of the narrative production of the East German writer, irrespective of her political and personal ups and downs. The emphasis placed by Cercignani on Christa Wolf’s heroism has opened the way to subsequent studies in this direction.The numerous other writers whose works Cercignani has subsequently studied include Jens Peter Jacobsen, Georg Trakl, Georg Büchner, Arthur Schnitzler, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Rainer Maria Rilke, Alban Berg, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Robert Musil, Novalis, Joseph Roth, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Karl Kraus, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, August Stramm, Gerhart Hauptmann, Reinhard Jirgl, Friedrich Schiller.
Since 1992 Cercignani has been editor of the international periodical “Studia austriaca”, a publication devoted to the culture and to the literature of Austria, past and present. This yearbook is published in collaboration with the Austrian Cultural Forum in Milan.
Since 1994 he has been editor also of “Studia theodisca”, a periodical that accepts international essays on the literature of German-speaking countries.
The poet
Cercignani’s poetry is collected in seven booklets and includes also poems published in the “Almanacco dello Specchio”, “Anterem”, and other periodicals. Discussing his production, one critic speaks of orphic poetry, but «hard and shiny like steel» and another remarks that Cercignani’s poems «achieve a maximum of concentration thanks to an acceleration of the thought or feeling which reconstructs physicality by means of abstraction».Fausto Cercignani has also experimented with the self-translation of his poems.
An adagio
Selected works
English studies
- Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Oxford, University Press, 1981.
- English Rhymes and Pronunciation in the Mid-Seventeenth Century, in “English Studies”, 56/6, 1975, pp. 513–518.
- The Development of */k/ and */sk/ in Old English, in “Journal of English and Germanic Philology”, 82/3, 1983, pp. 313–323.
Germanic studies
- The Consonants of German: Synchrony and Diachrony. Milano, Cisalpino, 1979.
- The Development of the Gothic Short/Lax Subsystem, in “Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung”, 93/2, 1979, pp. 272–278.
- Early «Umlaut» Phenomena in the Germanic Languages, in “Language”, 56/1, 1980, pp. 126–136.
- Zum hochdeutschen Konsonantismus. Phonologische Analyse und phonologischer Wandel, in “Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur”, 105/1, 1983, pp. 1–13.
- The Elaboration of the Gothic Alphabet and Orthography, in “Indogermanische Forschungen”, 93, 1988, pp. 168–185.
- Saggi linguistici e filologici. Germanico, gotico, inglese e tedesco, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 1992.
German studies
Books
- F. Cercignani, Existenz und Heldentum bei Christa Wolf. «Der geteilte Himmel» und «Kassandra», Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 1988.
- F. Cercignani, Memoria e reminiscenze. Nietzsche, Büchner, Hölderlin e i poemetti in prosa di Trakl, Torino, Genesi Editrice, 1989.
- F. Cercignani, Studia trakliana. Georg Trakl 1887-1987, Milano, Cisalpino, 1989.
- F. Cercignani, Studia büchneriana. Georg Büchner 1988, Milano, Cisalpino, 1990.
- F. Cercignani, Studia schnitzleriana, Alessandria, Edizioni dell'Orso, 1991.
- F. Cercignani - E. Mariano, Vincenzo Errante. La traduzione di poesia ieri e oggi, Milano, Cisalpino, 1993.
- F. Cercignani, Novalis, Milano, CUEM, 2002.
Essays
- Dunkel, Grün und Paradies. Karl Krolows lyrische Anfänge in «Hochgelobtes gutes Leben», in “Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift”, 36/1, 1986, pp. 59–78.
- Zwischen irdischem Nichts und machtlosem Himmel. Karl Krolows «Gedichte» 1948: Enttäuschung und Verwirrung, in “Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch”, 27, 1986, pp. 197–217.
- Il «Faust» goethiano. Forma e sostanza, in Il «Faust» di Goethe. Antologia critica, edited by F. Cercignani and E. Ganni, Milano, Led, 1993, pp. 21–38.
- «Nathan il saggio» e il Settecento tedesco, in “ACME”, 47/1, 1994, pp. 107–124.
- Sul «Wozzeck» di Alban Berg, in Studia austriaca V, Milano, Edizioni Minute, 1997, pp. 169–190.
- E. T. A. Hoffmann, Italien und die romantische Auffassung der Musik, in Das Land der Sehnsucht. E. T. A. Hoffmann und Italien, edited by S. M. Moraldo, Heidelberg, Winter, 2002, pp. 191–201.
- Per una rilettura di «Salomè». Il dramma di Oscar Wilde e il libretto di Richard Strauss, in Studia theodisca IX, Milano, CUEM, 2002, pp. 171–192.
- Georg Büchner. Empatia e prospettivismo, in Il cacciatore di silenzi. Studi dedicati a Ferruccio Masini, vol. II, edited by P. Chiarini, Roma, Istituto Italiano di Studi Germanici, 2003, pp. 237–258.
- ‘Poesia filosofica’ o ‘filosofia poetica’? Con alcune osservazioni su Schiller, in La poesia filosofica, edited by A. Costazza, Milano, Cisalpino, 2007, pp. 163–170.
- Inganno e autoinganno. Il campagnolo di Kafka, in Studia austriaca XVIII, Milano, PGreco, 2010, pp. 51–64.
- Hofmannsthal fra teatro e filosofia. Con particolare riguardo a «L’uomo difficile», in La filosofia a teatro, edited by A. Costazza, Milano, Cisalpino, 2010, pp. 369–385.
Poetry
- Fiore siglato, Firenze 1988.
- Fisicità svanite, Torino 1988 - First Prize "Città di Moncalieri 1989".
- Omaggio a Shakespeare, Ten Poems, introduced by R. Mussapi, in “Almanacco dello Specchio”, n. 13.
- Various texts in “Anterem”, nn. 40, 42, 44, 46 e 47.
- Vene di trasparenza, Verona 1990.
- Nella grafia di un’ombra, Alessandria 1991.
- Pulviscoli rigati, Napoli 1992.
- Stelle di brina, Milano 1993.
- Reticoli svagati, Milano 1996.
- Shakespearean Fancies, 2012, and
- Scritture. Poesie edite e inedite, Torino 2015.
Short stories
- Five Women, 2013,
Awards
, Vienna, 1996.