Prof. left us at the age of 88. Giuseppe Amorosoa highly regarded man of letters and critic, known throughout Italy for his studies, for thirty years he was a professor at the University of Messina and a historic regular collaborator of the literary page of the Gazzetta del Sud since the 1970s, and also for a long time of the Corriere della Sera. Pupil of Gaetano Mariani, a great scholar of the 20th century, poet of Scapigliatura, he was also very close to another fundamental figure in his career, the prof. Gianvito Resta, academic of the Lincei and dean for many years of the Faculty of Letters in Messina.
Then the prof. Amoroso began his luminous university career first teaching Italian literature as an assistant, then as ordinary Modern and contemporary Italian literature.
He never left Messina, which he loved viscerally, but he reached one international fame for example for his studies on the nineteenth century, his volume on Prati is fundamental, while the study of our 20th century has included delving into the pages of Tecchi, Prisco and Brancati among others, publishing his essays for the very prestigious “Castoro” series. Teaching was another of the pillars of his life for over thirty years. And beyond his academic commitment, his favorite author was the great Orlandino poet Lucio Piccolo, to whom he dedicated many studies and conferences, but he also loved the Barcelona poet Bartolo Cattafi very much.
And finally, how can we fail to remember, it doesn’t seem like a deminutio at all, his boundless love for the Juventus team, which literally devoured him in the dark moments and at the same time made him radiant in the triumphs (“When Juventus plays the universe is a ball. ..»).
To the prof. Giuseppe Fontanelli, a long-time professor at our university and his loyal student, we asked for his thoughts: «I remember very well his lessons on contemporary literature, filled with many intuitions, often with new perspectives. He was always animated by the many stimuli that the text offered. There were prominences of a historicist nature in him, but his measure was essentially based on the search for style. His signature was undoubtedly a continuous participation in what the word offered in its modulation. Word that he “pursued” with great skill, in a succession that marked the mechanisms of the language and imagination of the authors treated. On a human level he might have had some upsurges, but then everything passed, and he managed to establish contact with great authenticity. She was capable of becoming very attached to people. He was a man who also knew how to provoke from an intellectual point of view, and he would retrace his steps if he recognized that he had made a mistake. In recent years he carried himself with tremendous pain, due to the tragic and grotesque story of the copying of his books.”
This is how the vice-rector of the University of Messina, Prof., remembers him. Giuseppe Giordano, long-time director of the Department of Ancient and Modern Civilizations: «Giuseppe Amoroso was a reference figure in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of our University. Professor of Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature, he punctually embodied the role of the scholar and militant critic. In this capacity he has appeared in newspapers of national importance such as the Corriere della Sera or the Gazzetta del Sud (collaboration with the latter for over ten years), presenting – with prose attentive to the choice of every word – almost all of the Italian literary production of the last decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the new millennium. His figure in the corridors of the Faculty did not go unnoticed. He always enjoyed entertaining colleagues and students. He was the teacher of generations of students to whom he taught the love of Literature in its various forms. A passionate man, he showed his way of throwing himself into things even in “frivolous” aspects (but for him they were not frivolous) such as his undisputed and indisputable support for Juventus. With him another piece of a generation of masters of our University who were capable of making Messina a center for the radiation of ideas disappears.”
The rector Giovanna Spatari last night in one university note expressed «on behalf of the entire academic community, the condolences for the passing away of Prof. Giuseppe Amoroso, who was a leading figure in Italian literary criticism, demonstrating great analytical ability especially with respect to contemporary authors and texts”.
The funeral of Prof. Amoroso will be held on Friday at 10.30 am in the Co-Cathedral of the Santissimo Salvatore dell’Archimandritato (San Domenico Savio).
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To his wife, Prof. The heartfelt condolences of the SES-Gazzetta del Sud and the Bonino-Pulejo Foundation extend to Ella Imbalzano and all her family members.