I had planned to attend the Australian Fairy Tale Society conference last weekend but had to stay in Canberra to get studio work done. Instead I stayed up late on Saturday night for the Giambatistta Basile conference run by the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction.
The keynote was Ruth B. Bottigheimer who spoke about Basile and Greek Mythology but it was great to have 3 Italian speakers presenting who were familiar with his texts.
I really enjoyed the introduction to Giambattista Basile, the person and the historical backdrop, by conference organizer Lorenza Gianfrancesco.
Assunta Vitale's The narrative frame of the Cunto: structure, collections and paradoxes and
Giulia Depoli on Neapolitan folktales between the 15th and the 17th centuries: Masuccio, Morlini and Basile were fascinating.
I started off taking notes, but ended up sketching the presenters!
Thank you to Heather for sharing my artwork before the conference started.
