The Orca caravan for the 50th anniversary of "Horcynus Orca"

On Oct. 6, 2025, at 5 p.m., the Southern High School, Federico II University and the Darwin Dohrn Museum of the Zoological Station present 'The Caravan of the Orca,' for the 50th anniversary of "Horcynus Orca" by Stefano D'Arrigo. Reading by Luigi Lo Cascio, Lecture by Gabriele Frasca. Coordination by Giancarlo Alfano.

March 1975 saw the publication of Stefano D'Arrigo's Horcynus Orca, an overflowing novel of more than 1,200 pages proposed by Mondadori to the Italian public, which the year before had been confronted with Elsa Morante's La Storia, while meanwhile Pasolini (unbeknownst to all) was preparing Petrolio.

The novel was immediately reprinted (May 1975) and a few years later was offered as an Oscar Mondadori (1984). In 2000, thanks to Walter Pedullà's push, Rizzoli published I fatti della fera, an earlier, shorter version of the novel dating from 1960-61. Also for Rizzoli, Horcynus Orca was then republished in 2003.

Over the years D'Arrigo's work has won passionate readers, fierce scholars, admirers and translators, being read, commented on, adapted for the theater, translated into German and French, while new translations are currently underway.

For 2025, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first publication, Italian universities, archives, foundations and study centers throughout Italy are coming together to create a Caravan of the Orca from northern Italy to the Strait of Messina, where D'Arrigo's work is set. Conferences, documentary exhibitions, seminars, readings and theatrical performances will follow one another from February to October, composing an ideal common path among the author's papers, the pages of the novel and the artistic reinterpretations inspired by them. The appointment is at the Darwin Dohrn Museum of the Zoological Station, in Villa Comunale, Naples.

Admission is free with reservations required.

For info: amiciacquarionapoli@gmail.com