Joseph Farrell

Joseph Farrell is Emeritus Professor of Italian at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. In 2005, he was given the title Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana for his work in promoting Italian culture abroad. The history and culture of Sicily have always fascinated him, and so he was inevitably drawn to the work of Leonardo Sciascia. He has published articles on Sciascia in learned journals and newspapers, and has given talks on his works in European and American universities. He is translator...See more

Joseph Farrell is Emeritus Professor of Italian at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. In 2005, he was given the title Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana for his work in promoting Italian culture abroad. The history and culture of Sicily have always fascinated him, and so he was inevitably drawn to the work of Leonardo Sciascia. He has published articles on Sciascia in learned journals and newspapers, and has given talks on his works in European and American universities. He is translator of The Knight and Death and A Straightforward Tale and is currently a member of the advisory board of "Todomodo". His first book on Sciascia was published by Edinburgh University Press in 1995, and the desire to reconsider Sciascia's work in the light of the many stimulating studies published in recent years has led to the present work. Farrell's other works include: Sicily, A Cultural History; a biography of Dario Fo and Franca Rame; a study of Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa; and in 2021 Honour and the Sword, a study of the history and culture of duelling. He has produced two book-length interviews, the first with Franca Rame and the second with Dacia Maraini. Together with Paolo Puppa, he edited the History of Italian Theatre for Cambridge University Press. He has also edited volumes of essays on Carlo Goldoni, Dario Fo, Primo Levi, Carlo Levi, Ugo Betti and the mafia. He produced critical editions in English of plays by Fo, Pirandello and Goldoni, translated three film scripts by Giuseppe Tornatore, as well as novels by Sciascia, Consolo, Del Giudice and Valerio Varesi, and plays by Fo, Goldoni and De Filippo. See less