The Ways of the Word

Resistance, Reason, Iconic, Innovation 25 April – 18 May 2022

The Ways of the Word is the series dedicated to books, readers and all those who are looking for tools to find new interpretations of the present that tell us about our time in an original way.

The aim of this fourth edition is to undertake a journey, not only in the literary sense, along the path travelled by four keywords which highlight aspects of the past and the present, and allow us to draw a line towards the future we want to design.

Four encounters with four words to be broken down and reassembled – words that are used, abused or trendy, words which appear and disappear, keywords, catch-all words.

Four opportunities to go in-depth, to recount, understand and recognise. The Ways of the Word
​series is promoted in collaboration with the Libraries and Cultural Welfare Sector of the Municipality of Bologna and the Il Mulino publishing company as part of the Bologna Pact for Reading.

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Resistance

• Monday 25 April 2022 at 18:00 - 19:00

On the occasion of **Italy's Liberation Day** we recall what April 25 symbolises and how important it is **to resist**.
Freedom, Democracy, Awareness, Hope: what reasons drove us to rebel and participate in the struggle for liberation?
The language of writing and music intertwine to rediscover the "pure light", the same described by **Pier Paolo Pasolini** in the poem **"The resistance and its light"**. The role of women in the great wars past and present as partisans, runners and combatants will also be investigated.

With **Benedetta Tobagi** and **Vasco Brondi**.

The event will be held in MEDIATECA, in the CUBO at PORTA EUROPA.

Reason

• Wednesday 4 May 2022 at 18:00 - 19:00

The 55th Census Report on the social situation in the country highlights how the many expectations that have been betrayed during the last period of the health, economic and social crises have generated the sleep of reason, provoked a flight into magical thinking and fuelled historical and scientific denial.

The irrational has infiltrated the social fabric by finding space in public discourse, climbing the book sales charts and occupying evening prime time television. The social sciences are taking up the challenge of reawakening Reason by applying mathematical and statistical models to the questions that this modernity imposes on us.

With **Massimiliano Valerii** and **Antonietta Mira**.Moderator **Daniele Donati**.

The event will take place in Sala Stabat Mater at the Archiginasio.

Iconic

• Wednesday 11 May 2022 at 18:00 - 19:00

The adjective **iconic** - from the Greek eikon, image - is increasingly used and has ended up invading every area of the language. Now even the word iconic has become iconic, a fashionable term to label an object that we want to indicate as representative of a larger whole - a period, a culture, place or trend - but which is often trivialising and simplifying. In what has been defined **the age of the image** it is instead necessary to recognise and rediscover the **complexity of the elements** that emerges from interpreting an image.

With **Riccardo Falcinelli** and **Veronica Ceruti**.

The event will take place in Sala Stabat Mater at the Archiginasio.

Innovation

• Wednesday 18 May 2022 at 18:00 - 19:00

The moment of maximum information availability fatally corresponds to the **triumph of disinformation**: fake news seems more and more credible. Information is not free, and ideas are presented as in a marketplace, where plausible facts are bought and sold. New rules are needed to reconcile freedom of expression and the proper functioning of democracy, and greater attention is required regarding the **quality of sources** and the professions related to information and editorial mediation.

With **Antonio Nicita** and **Ludovica Lugli**.

The event will take place in Sala Stabat Mater of the Archiginasio.