Boccaccio AfterLife Award

To celebrate the 700th anniversary of Giovanni Boccaccio’s birth and the year of Italian Culture in the United States the Decameron Web @ Brown University in collaboration with the Italian Consulate General in Boston, Massachusetts and the Ente Nazionale Giovanni Boccaccio of Certaldo, Italy announces...

New extended deadline for submissions: October 31, 2013

The Boccaccio AfterLife Prize for Best Translation and Adaptation of a Decameron novella into any Media (Text, HyperText, Theatre, YouTube movie, Videogame, Twitter, or any other social media, animation or visualization on the digital platform).

The adaptation of literary works into other media is a cultural phenomenon which long predates our contemporary transition from an analog to a digital environment. However, ‘adaptation’ has acquired a new meaning within our contemporary context, a context increasingly characterized by what we call ‘trans-mediality,’ or cultural production across multiple media platforms. (Harry Potter - in his incarnations as literary character, film star, videogame hero, internet fanfiction persona, etc., comes immediately to mind.)

Boccaccio belongs to that elite group of authors whose legacy widely transcends the written word. Adaptations of the Decameron surface in the cinema, digital projects, even computer games - perhaps only Dante’s Comedy, among Italian literary classics, has known similar popularity outside the limits of academe.

With this competition, we want to harness the creativity of students and readers of Boccaccio, inviting them to translate a novella of their choice into their own, contemporary language, social context and preferred media.

Prize: Winners will be selected in three categories: best translation-adaptation into contemporary English, best adaptation for the stage, and best adaptation for other media (Youtube, social networks, animation, videogames, and similar) The winners will receive $500 and publication of the project on the Decameron Web site. Finalists will be invited to Providence for a celebratory event organized in collaboration with the Italian Consulate General in Boston and the Casa del Boccaccio Foundation of Certaldo, Italy. The ceremony will be introduced by a roundtable discussion on adaptations of Boccaccio’s works throughout the centuries (announcement to follow), and a theater group from Boccaccio’s birth town of Certaldo (Florence) will perform two short plays adapted from the Decameron. The competition is open to participants from any country.

Deadline: All submissions, in whatever language or media, should reach us no later than October 31, 2013.

Address all correspondence to: The Boccaccio AfterLife Prize, c/o Department of Italian Studies, Box 1942, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA; or email: vhl@brown.edu

[View Italy in US 2013 announcement]

The Project