Menotti Lerro

Menotti Augusto Serse Lerro (22 February 1980) is an Italian poet, writer, playwright, librettist and academic. His work explores matters of social alienation and existentialism, the physicality and vulnerability of the body, the interpretation of memories, the meaning of objects and the philosophical importance of human identity. In 2015 he published Donna Giovanna, l'ingannatrice di Salerno, an innovative feminine and bisexual version of the mythical figure of Don Juan, El Burlador de Sevilla, while in 2018 he wrote Il Dottor Faust, an original version of the character of Faust. In addition he is the author of a New Manifesto of Arts and the founder of the Empathic movement (Empathism) that arose in the South of Italy at the beginning of 2020.

Education and career
Lerro studied English and Spanish languages and literatures at University of Salerno, starting in 2000, and received his degree in 2004. During this time he spent seven months in Oxford as an exchange student. In 2006, after working one year in Milan for Mondadori publishing house, he received a scholarship from the University of Salerno to study abroad and began his masters' degree in "The Body and Representation" at the University of Reading under the supervision of Carolyn Williams Lyle. He later received the expert status of “Cultore della Materia” at the University of Salerno and in 2010 became visiting scholar at the University of Reading, where he undertook postgraduate teaching. Later, after completing his PhD in English and Spanish literature at the University of Salerno, he became a visiting scholar at the University of Warwick (2014) and at the University of Edinburgh (2020). He taught English Culture and Civilization and English Literature at Ciels University of Milan for four years (2014–2018) before moving to Padua to teach the same subjects. In addition, he collaborated and taught lessons at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Accademia Albertina and IULM University. Moreover, in 2022 he received a degree in Italian Studies (Lettere, Sapere Umanistico e Formazione).

Enrolled in the register of journalists since 2005, in 2022 he started writing opinion pieces for the Italian newspaper Affari Italiani.

Critical response to his literary work
According to Andrew Mangham "Menotti Lerro is one of the most interesting poets in modern-day Europe". Furthermore, the Italian influential critic Giorgio Barberi Squarotti defined Lerro as "brillant". In addition, the same Squarotti, wrote a preface at Lerro's collection of poetry titled Gli occhi sul Tempo, Manni editore, 2009. Important are also the words of the poet Roberto Carifi who, on the pages of the Magazine "Poesia" (Crocetti editore), in 2012 defined Lerro as "one of the most interesting poets of the current Italian panorama". Moreover, Alessandro Serpieri, known for his work about William Shakespeare and Emeritus Professor at the University of Florence in the end of his preface at Poesie scelte of Lerro (Zona: 2010) affirmed that "Between despair and dreaming, the poetic voice of Lerro shows a peculiar, expressive power modulated with images (that are often surprising) and a techniques in rhyme and metre that is often masterful".

One of his 2015 dramas, Donna Giovanna, l'ingannatrice di Salerno, was the subject of a Master's degree from a student of the University of Palermo. The same dissertation became the basis for a critical volume about the  figure of a female  and bisexual Don Giovanni, first performed at the Biblioteca Marucelliana. Maria Teresa Chialant, Professor of English Literature at the Università degli Studi di Salerno stressed the deep complexity of the Lerro's writing in the review of his distopian novel 2084: Il potere dell'immortalità nelle città del dolore. In 2008 Mondadori’s literary magazine Nuovi Argomenti selected Lerro as one of the poets to represent the new generation of poets born in the 1980s.

Work
Lerro has written several books of poetry and prose. Several of his works have been translated into other languages such as Poeme Alese. ISBN 978-8874143764 He has also "visual poetry" including Ritagli, consisting of 30 canvases, shown in Berlin, Milan, Florence, Omignano, Vallo della Lucania and Salerno (Pinacoteca di Salerno, Santa Maria de Lama's church and ipogeo del Complesso Monumentale di San Pietro a Corte)



He produced the music CD I Battiti della Notte (Lerro-Krezymon) and in 2015 three concerts have been performed in Poland: Kraków, Warsaw  and Gdańsk,  organized by Italian Institute of Culture. In 2017 two concerts have been performed in Italy: Ascea and Salento. In 2019 the concert was given in Vallo della Lucania.

Primary Bibliography
(organized under the following sub-headings)

Selected Poetry

 * Primavera (Poesie 1997-2007); (2008) ISBN 9-7888567-0-1227
 * Estate (Poesie 2008-2020); (2020) ISBN 978-8866445388
 * Lockdown. Profumi d'autunno (2022) ISBN 978-8874148806
 * Una nota sospesa (2023) ISBN 978-8874149193
 * Memorie e figure di fine millennio (2024) ISBN 978-8874149483

Selected Narrative

 * Augusto Orrel: memorie d'orrore e poesia (2007) ISBN 978-8875361266
 * Il diario di Mary e altri racconti (2009) ISBN 978-8895514741
 * Fuga da Orrel (2012) ISBN 978-8864382920
 * 2084. Il potere dell'immortalità nelle città del dolore (2013) ISBN 978-8864383798
 * I Mostri di Anoir (2019) ISBN 978-8868664671

Selected Theatre

 * Donna Giovanna (2015) ISBN 9788864385709
 * Il gorilla (2015) ISBN 978-8874144945
 * Donna Giovanna, l'ingannatrice di Salerno (2017 - Opera Libretto) ISBN 978-8864386980
 * Il Dottor Faust (2018) ISBN 978-8864387543
 * La solitudine dei miti (2021) ISBN 978-8874148226

Selected Aphorisms

 * Aforismi e Pensieri. Cinquecento gocce dal mio mare (2013) ISBN 978-8864383446

Selected Criticism

 * Raccontarsi in versi. La poesia autobiografica in Inghilterra e in Spagna (1950-1980); (2012) ISBN 978-8843063802
 * Autobiographical Poetry in England and Spain, 1950-1980: Narrating oneself in verse; (2017) ISBN 978-1443832748
 * The Body in Autobiography and Autobiographical Novels. The Importance of Being Normal; (2018) ISBN 978-1527505667
 * New Manifesto of Arts; (2020)
 * The Empathic Movement (2023) ISBN 978-1527538573 Hardback edition
 * The Empathic Movement (2024) ISBN 978-1-0364-0996-8 Paperback edition

Secondary bibliography

 * The Poetry of Menotti Lerro, edited by Andrew Mangham (Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 2011) ISBN 978-1443828444 Hardcover;
 * The Poetry of Menotti Lerro, edited by Andrew Mangham (Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 2012) ISBN 978-1443840224 Paperback enlarged version;
 * Menotti Lerro. Tra Drammaturgia e Narrativa, edited by Francesco D'Episcopo (Genesi editrice: 2019) ISBN 978-8874147199
 * «Entropia del cuore» di Menotti Lerro. Segreti e suggestioni, edited by Francesco D'Episcopo (Genesi editrice: 2020) ISBN 978-8864388762
 * Gli occhi sulla critica, edited by Maria Rosaria La Marca (Zona editrice: 2010) ISBN 978-8864381145
 * «Donna Giovanna» di Menotti Lerro. L'innovazione del mito, edited by Sara Cudia (Zona editrice: 2020) ISBN 978-8864388779

Empathic Movement / Empathism / New Manifesto of Arts
The Empathic Movement / Empathism (Italian: La Scuola Empatica / Empatismo) is a literary, artistic, philosophical and cultural movement born in Italy in 2020 within the ‘New Cultural Triangle of Ancient Cilento’: (Omignano – "The Aphorisms Village", Salento – "The Poetry Village", Vallo della Lucania – "Seat of Contemporary Arts Centre"). Starting with the values and ideas expressed in the New Manifesto of Arts  written by Menotti Lerro and Antonello Pelliccia in 2018,  this manifesto places empathy, the need to feel close, at the centre of the self, in contrast to previous views as isolated artists. It follows that any creative or didactic experimentation cannot be separated from a process of identification with other's life stories. This horizon of meaning implies a civil promotion of the artistic society pouring from individual and community growth according to ethical purposes mediated by an aesthetic dimension: namely, that of art.

Cilento Poetry Prize
Lerro developed the Cilento Poetry Prize (Italian: Premio Cilento Poesia), an Italian literary prize founded in 2017 and awarded annually in Salento Cilento – "The Poetry Village". Some of the prize awardees include: 2017 – Davide Rondoni; 2018 – Milo de Angelis; 2019 – Franco Loi and Roberto Carifi (special winter edition at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera); 2019 – Giampiero Neri and Vivian Lamarque; 2020 – Elio Pecora; 2021 – Dacia Maraini; 2022 - Valerio Magrelli and Tiziano Rossi. 2023 - Maurizio Cucchi and Najwan Darwish. Prizes for criticism have been awarded to: 2018 – Francesco D'Episcopo; 2019 – Umberto Curi; 2020 – Remo Bodei

Awards and honors

 * Honorary citizen of Salento Cilento.
 * Honorary citizen of Omignano Cilento.
 * In 2016, he was awarded with a “Special Mention” in the three selected authors for literature for the Italian National Prize “100 Italian excellences”.
 * In 2018 he received the Giambattista Vico prize
 * In 2010 – "L'Aquilaia" prize
 * In 2010 – "Renata Canepa" prize
 * In 2015 – "CetonaVerde" prize
 * In 2018 – "Paolo Serra" prize