“Worlds of Poets: Dante, Tagore, D’Annunzio”  is a literature seminar focused on strengthening the cultural bridge between Italy and Bengal. The two places share similar kinds of emotions, tastes, and inclinations toward art and literature. The seminar focused on the life and works of three eminent poets namely Dante Alighieri, Rabindranath Tagore, and Gabriele D’Annunzio.

The event was held at the Victoria Memorial Hall(Conference Hall), with opening addresses from Jayanta Sengupta (Secretary & Curator, Victoria Memorial Hall) and Gianluca Rubagotti(Consul General of Italy in Kolkata).

The keynote address was delivered by Prof. Sukanta Chaudhuri (Professor Emeritus, Jadavpur University), highlighting the influences of Italian poets on the Bengal Renaissance.

A video message from Italy was seen as the first step in the process to unite two of the most-visited house museums in the world: Il Vittoriale Degli Italiani and Jorasanko Thakur Bari.

A series of papers were presented: by Mario Prayer (Sapienza University, Rome), Sujata Mukherjee (Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata), and Giordano Bruno Guerri (President “VittorialedegliItaliani”, Gardone Riviera).

The seminar was followed by the launch of the book Suddhilok (Il Purgatorio) by Dante Alighieri. It has been translated into Bengali from Italian by Alpana Ghosh, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, which has been published by Jadavpur University Press.

The Consul General of Italy in Kolkata, Gianluca Rubagotti, said that they have been working on the program for more than 2 years, but due to the pandemic it had to be postponed. The main objective of this seminar was to delve into possible influences and common themes which unite the works of these three great poets, beyond what may appear at a first glance.