In the Footsteps of Hugo Pratt: Corto Maltese between Legacies, Ruptures, and Renewal
Event: In the Footsteps of Hugo Pratt: Corto Maltese between Legacies, Ruptures, and Renewal
Date: 29 - 30 April 2026
Time: 29 April: 14:00 - 19:30, 30 April: 09:00 - 12:00
Venue: Italian Cultural Institute, Din L-Art Ħelwa, Valletta
Photo credit: Juan Díaz Canales and Rubén Pellejero, "Equatoria" (2017) © CONG SA
The conference “Sur les traces de Hugo Pratt. Corto Maltese entre héritages, ruptures et renouveau / Sulle tracce di Hugo Pratt. Corto Maltese tra eredità, rotture e rinnovamento” ('In the Footsteps of Hugo Pratt: Corto Maltese between Legacies, Ruptures, and Renewal') will take place on 29 and 30 April in Valletta. On 29 April, sessions will be held from 14:00 to 17:00 at the Italian Cultural Institute (St George’s Square), followed by a second session from 18:00 to 19:30 at Din L-Art Ħelwa (133 Melita Street). On 30 April, the conference will continue from 9:00 to 12:30 at the Italian Cultural Institute.
Although the entirety of Hugo Pratt’s (Ugo Eugenio Prat, 1927-1995) comic-book oeuvre is today rightly regarded as both art and literature, it is undoubtedly the stories featuring Corto Maltese that have most profoundly shaped the collective imagination across several generations. The Franco-Italian conference, organised by Prof. Dominique Lanni and Dr Fabrizio Foni (respectively lecturers in the Department of French and the Department of Italian at the University of Malta), aims to explore the legacies, ruptures, and renewals found in the adventures of Europe’s most celebrated comic-strip sailor. Its scope ranges from the cultural influences that informed his creation to the successors who have, in various ways, taken up Pratt’s mantle.
As keynote speakers, the conference will welcome two distinguished specialists in Pratt’s work: the French scholar Michel Pierre, an expert in colonial history and comics, and the Italian Laura Scarpa, an author, editor, and lecturer in comics, who heads the association and publishing house ComicOut. The decision to hold this first Maltese conference dedicated to Pratt’s (anti-)hero in the nation’s capital is a fittingly symbolic one: in fiction, the popular character, the son of a sailor from Tintagel, in Cornwall, and a gypsy woman from Seville, was born on 10 July 1887 in Valletta.
The conference is organised with the support of the Embassy of Italy, the Embassy of France, Din L-Art Ħelwa, as well as the Department of Italian, the Department of French and the M.A. in Film Studies of the University of Malta's Faculty of Arts.
The conference programme is available on the of the Department of Italian.
