Last 16 to 18 June, Dr Fabrizio Foni and Dr Irene Incarico attended as guest speakers the first edition of FantaMacerata, a festival hinged on science fiction, horror, and pop culture in general (literature, comics, cinema, music, TV series, etc.). The event was held in the historic centre of Macerata, an Italian city in the Marche region.

Dr Incarico, visiting senior lecturer withing the Department of Italian, was involved in two talks. The first one (17 June) focused on the impact of electronic music, science fiction, and synthesisers on the collective imagination of the 1970s and the 1980s. This talk, chaired by Marco Sonaglia, was also attended by Paolo F. Bragaglia and Riccardo Pietroni, who are at the helm of a travelling museum and research project devoted to the preservation and restoration of locally produced pioneering synthesisers, as well as by Fabrice Quagliotti, leader of the cult space rock band Rockets. The second talk which Dr Incarico took part in (18 June), also moderated by Marco Sonaglia and attended by renowned artist Lola Airaghi and anthropologist Eleonora D’Agostino, revolved around horror culture, with particular attention to Stephen King’s books and their adaptations, as well as Italian comic-book series such as ‘Dylan Dog’ and ‘Morgan Lost’.

Dr Foni, senior lecturer within the Department of Italian and member of the Institute of Anglo-Italian Studies, was invited to speak in the highlight talk closing the festival, together with Prof. Fabio Camilletti (University of Warwick) and Massimo Scorsone, editor of Mondadori’s popular book series ‘Oscar Draghi’. This talk, chaired by Edilio Venanzoni, focused on the transmedial legacy of H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction, including the successful and ongoing TV series ‘Stranger Things’.