Biography

Giuseppe Scaraffia was born in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, in 1950. He graduated in Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at the University of Milan

University of Milan

The University of Milan is a higher education institution in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 62,801 students, a teaching and research staff of 2,455 and a non-teaching staff of 2,200....

 with a thesis on the idea of happiness in Diderot. He has taught French Literature

French literature

French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...

 at the Sapienza University of Rome since 1976. Over the years his research has focused in particular on the great myths of seduction

Seduction

In social science, seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally "to lead astray". As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation...

 of the XIX century, from the figure of the femme fatale

Femme fatale

A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...

 to that of the tall dark stranger.

In 2000 he was nominated Chevalier

Chevalier

Chevalier is a class of membership in a French Order of Chivalry or order of merit.* a member of the Ordre National du Mérite* a rank in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres* a rank in the Legion d'honneur* a member of the Order of Palmes académiques...

 de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...

, an institution which is directly managed by the French Ministry of Culture.

In 2008 he was awarded the "Grinzane – Beppe Fenoglio" special prize for the book "Cortigiane" (2008).

With his partner Silvia Ronchey he wrote and hosted cultural programmes for RAI

RAI

RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

 television collaborating with the national channels RAI SAT

RAI

RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...

, RAI 1, RAI 2 and RAI 3. Among these, "L'altra edicola" (a cultural programme broadcast by RAI 2 in the 1990s). Always with Silvia Ronchey he also did a series of interviews to great "masters" of culture like Ernst Jünger

Ernst Jünger

Ernst Jünger was a German writer. In addition to his novels and diaries, he is well known for Storm of Steel, an account of his experience during World War I. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement following World War I...

, Claude Lévi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....

, James Hillman

James Hillman

James Hillman was an American psychologist. He studied at, and then guided studies for, the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, founded a movement toward archetypal psychology and retired into private practice, writing and traveling to lecture, until his death at his home in Connecticut on October 27,...

, David Lodge

David Lodge (author)

David John Lodge CBE, is an English author.In his novels, Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular. He was brought up Catholic and has described himself as an "agnostic Catholic". Many of his characters are Catholic and their Catholicism is a major theme...

, Keith Waldrop

Keith Waldrop

Keith Waldrop is the author of numerous books of poetry and prose, and has translated the work of Claude Royet-Journoud, Anne-Marie Albiach, and Edmond Jabès, among others. A recent translation is Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal .With his wife Rosmarie Waldrop, he co-edits Burning Deck Press...

 and Jean-Pierre Vernant

Jean-Pierre Vernant

Jean-Pierre Vernant was a French historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece. Influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Vernant developed a structuralist approach to Greek myth, tragedy, and society which would itself be influential among classical scholars...

.

Selected Bibliography

Scaraffia has published 14 essays and two novels, as well as having edited the Italian translations of more than 20 works by foreign authors (from Proust to Mérimée, from Stendhal

Stendhal

Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...

 to Maupassant).

• G. Scaraffia, Dizionario del dandy, Bari, Laterza, 1981. (title translation: Dandy's dictionary)
• G. Scaraffia, Scritti su Diderot, Roma, Bulzoni, 1983. (title translation: Written about Diderot)
• G. Scaraffia, Marcel Proust: Alla ricerca di Swan, Pordenone, Studio Tesi, 1986. (title translation: Marcel Proust: searching for Swan)
• G. Scaraffia, La donna fatale, Palermo, Sellerio, 1987. (title translation: Fatal lady)
• G. Scaraffia, Infanzia, Palermo, Sellerio, 1987. (title translation: Childhood)
• G. Scaraffia, Il mantello di Casanova, Palermo, Sellerio, 1989. (title translation: Casanova's coat)
• G. Scaraffia, Torri d’avorio, Palermo, Sellerio, 1994. (title translation: Ivory towers)
• G. Scaraffia, Miti minori, Palermo, Sellerio, 1995. (title translation: Smaller myths)
• G. Scaraffia, Il bel tenebroso, Palermo, Sellerio, 1999. (title translation: Dark stranger)
• G. Scaraffia, Gli ultimi dandies, Palermo, Sellerio, 2002. (title translation: Late dandies)
• G. Scaraffia, Scrivere è un trucco del cuore, Milano, Ponte delle Grazie, 2002. (title translation: To write as a heart-trick)
• G. Scaraffia, Sorridi Gioconda!, Milano, Mondadori, 2005. (title translation: Smile, Mona Lisa!)
• G. Scaraffia, Cortigiane, Milano, Mondadori, 2008. (title translation: Courtesan)
• G. Scaraffia, Femme Fatale, Firenze, Vallecchi, 2009. (title translation: Femme Fatale)