by Valentina Salcedo
Trieste is celebrating its most famous literary anti-hero Zeno Cosini From October to December, 2024. Zeno is the main character of Italo Svevo’s great modernist masterpiece Zeno’s Conscience, which came out 100 years ago.
The slightly inept, chronically procrastinating, and chain-smoking Zeno is a stark contrast with the bustling modern trade hub he lived in. He is one of the great anti-heroes of modern fiction. James Joyce, who resided in Trieste, first lauded him as such. Joyce also taught English to the author Italo Svevo.
From October to December, Trieste has laid on a panoply of events to celebrate Zeno, including conferences, theatrical debuts, literary walks and tourist narratives. Join a coffee house meeting, reading marathon and “transpositions of memes from students all over Italy”, organizers urge.
One such event is being held at Ugo Carà Museum of Modern Art in Muggia. ‘The city of Zeno: the signs and dreams of Svevo’ is by the Art Collection of the CRTrieste Foundation. It includes selected works by about thirty 20th century artists.
