It is these departments that have proposed the many major writers who have attended the conference, 274 in all, from every part of the world. The Festival began as an academic project of the former Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures and developed within the two language Departments that were created when the Faculty was closed. Its influence reaches far beyond the Festival itself, which still remains its focal point.

Over the years, thanks to its special thematic structure, Incroci di civiltГ , has become a well-recognized and engaging cultural project. Venice offers the ideal scenario for this proposal because of its millennial history as a crossroads of cultures and languages and because of the complex challenges it has to face today. It is important for us to remember that the FestivalвЂ™s name, Incroci di civilt Г (Crossroads of civilizations), was conceived as an implicit response to a heated debate around the so-called вЂњClash of civilizations.вЂќ Today, as in the past, a constructive reflection on cultural differences and on the definition of a universal concept of humanity remains an ongoing and important challenge for our time. The success of the first experimental edition convinced the municipality and the University to promote the event and, a year later, to set up four intense days of literary discussion. The city of Venice accepted the proposal to provide a wider stage for Italian and foreign authors who would come together in Venice to discuss literature and human rights. It followed in the wake of an important international academic conference organized by CaвЂ™ Foscari University and the University of Padua. Incroci di civiltГ began in March 2008, sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the U.N.

Civilization 4 ita