At just 27 years old, this brilliant Bastia academic will publish a long-awaited book on Corsican society. His challenge is to show that the feeling of crisis, far from immersing people in idleness, allows them to assert themselves. His book will be on sale from December 16
Kevin Petroni has the future ahead of him. This young teacher is one of the most prominent members of the Musanostra literary association chaired by Marie-France Bereni-Canazzi. Everyone who knows him well believes that this 27-year-old author is a scholar in the noblest sense of the word.
He comes from a highly esteemed family in Bastia, a town where his father runs a delicatessen in rue César-Campinchi.
An avid reader, Kevin is currently a professor of Letters and is preparing a thesis at the University of Corsica and the Sorbonne.
Next month, the famous Classiques Garnier publishing house will publish its book entitled Farewell to national aspirations.
Prior to this eagerly awaited publication in literary, academic and political circles, he answered questions from Corse-Matin.
What is your background and how do you see your professional future?
I did all my schooling at the Lycée Jeanne-d’Arc then I followed higher studies in Letters in Paris, before returning to Corsica where I now teach. For the moment, my professional future is mainly focused on my thesis. Its title will be The Corsica of the antimoderns and will be conducted with professors Eugène Gherardi and Sophie Basch at the University of Corsica and the Sorbonne.
How did the idea for your book come about, the first comments of which are particularly laudatory?
The idea for my book comes from my teenage readings. In particular, I had been marked by three novels that were both fascinating and relevant. They described the same trajectory, in this case the abandonment of the native country for the consumer society, mass tourism, and violence.
What is your goal as an author?
My book comes from a university essay in which I try to explain how the three novels in question, The Sermon on the Fall of Rome by Jérôme Ferrari, Prix Goncourt 2012, Murder by Marcu Biancarelli et Our Angels by Jean-Baptiste Predali, deal with the transition from a traditional Corsican society to a modern Corsican society.
Why this title: Farewell to national aspirations ?
In my essay, I wanted to show that the novels studied followed a path of renunciation. The main characters seem linked to an idealized homeland by their childhood. However, they realize that this country is no longer habitable today because of the economic poverty, but also sexual and cultural that they encounter. They then decide to leave him.
What message did you want to convey?
It is above all a literary work on a corpus of contemporary authors. The challenge is to show that the feeling of crisis, far from plunging the characters into idleness, allows them to assert themselves. The farewell is a kind of metamorphosis.
Do you think that your book, which is a very relevant reflection on Corsican society, will cause controversy?
I don’t think so. My reflections are nourished by the works and especially the positions of the Corsican writers Jérôme Ferrari, Marcu Biancarelli and Jean-Baptiste Predali.
I am not trying to defend a strictly personal point of view on the issues raised. For me, it is essentially a question of offering a reading path.
How do you think your book will be received by the nationalists?
Why would my work be unfavorably received by anyone? It is above all an in-depth research carried out in a purely university setting.
I tried to illustrate the position of the authors of what is called “the Corsican group of the South Acts editions”, according to an approach as objective as possible. As a researcher, I hold to an essential rule: intellectual honesty.
The title of your last chapter, The indigestion of Corsica, is provocative. Why ?
He is not intentionally provocative.
In fact, this is a quote from Jérôme Ferrari, taken from an article entitled Under the clichés, an island, published in the newspaper Release on April 2, 2011.
The sentence was as follows: The real is indigestible. My writings actually present themselves as a study of the Corsican realism of the three authors mentioned above. And according to a point of view that is close to that of the pro-independence president of the Community of Corsica, Jean-Guy Talamoni, when he speaks of “nightmarish Corsica” to evoke this aesthetic.
Being published at the Classiques Garnier is a huge reference. How was this possible for a young Corsican author like you?
Les Classiques Garnier has been an institution since 1833. This famous publishing house publishes exclusively distinguished theses and research work carried out by recognized professors.
I was lucky, after my first research thesis, that I was offered to be edited there. This symbolizes the interest in my approach.
When is your book expected to be released?
Farewell to national aspirations will be on sale from December 16, 2020. It will be found in all Corsican and continental bookstores if, of course, they reopen after or despite the general confinement. It is already possible to pre-order it.
After literature, what are your passions?
If I had to tell you about my other passions after, indeed, literature, I would mainly mention philosophy, history, painting and architecture.
How do you see the political future of our island?
I really don’t have any preconceived ideas on this specific topic. For me, the main source of concern in the coming months is related to the coronavirus pandemic.
And this, whether it is about health or the economy. We will have to be really vigilant.
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