Upcoming Events:
Gianni Clerici Day III
Il tennis nella letteratura e nel cinema / Tennis in Literature and Film
Brescia, April 16–17, 2026
Call for Papers
While Sinner-mania continues to grow in Italy, the international rise in tennis’s popularity is also reflected in the increasing number of literary and cinematic representations of the sport. From Andre Agassi’s bestselling autobiography Open to Luca Guadagnino’s recent hit film Challengers, tennis holds a prominent place in contemporary popular culture. These, however, are only the latest expressions of a long-standing artistic tradition dating back to the origins of tennis itself, spanning film and theatre, “high” literature (such as Giorgio Bassani’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis or David Foster Wallace’s postmodern masterpiece Infinite Jest), commercial fiction (like Sophie Kinsella’s debut The Tennis Party or Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Carrie Soto Is Back), life writing, and journalism. Not to mention notable writers obsessed with tennis, including Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, and Martin Amis.
This conference aims to explore the narrative forms and modes of tennis — both in its modern and historical manifestations — within European and global literatures, cinema, and television series. It will also showcase the extensive archive and library of the writer, journalist, and TV commentator Gianni Clerici (1930–2022), preserved at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Brescia (https://brescia-raccoltestoriche-gianniclerici.unicatt.it/).
We invite 20-minute presentations in Italian or English from scholars, journalists, and tennis experts. Possible topics include:
- The narrative of tennis in literature
- Literary traces of tennis history
- Writers who play tennis and tennis players who write
- Gianni Clerici’s tennis-themed literary works
- Tennis on stage
- Cinematic representations of tennis
- Tennis in TV series
- (Auto)biographies of tennis players
- Tennis biopics
- ennis and authorial journalism
- Tennis in contemporary commercial fiction
Proceedings from the conference will be published.
Please submit your abstract (maximum 300 words) in the language of your presentation, along with a brief biographical note, to: valentina.varinelli@unicatt.it and franco.lonati@unicatt.it . Deadline for submissions: October 31, 2025.
While Sinner-mania is steadily growing in Italy, a measure of the global hype surrounding tennis is the proliferation in the past few years of literary and cinematic representations of this game. From Andre Agassi’s bestselling autobiography Open to the recent success of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, tennis occupies a central place in contemporary pop culture. Yet these are only the latest expressions of an artistic tradition as old as the sport itself, encompassing film and theatre, ‘high’ literature (think of Giorgio Bassani’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis or David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest) and commercial fiction (such as Sophie Kinsella’s debut novel, The Tennis Party, and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Carrie Soto Is Back), life writing and journalism, not to mention tennis fanatics like Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, and Martin Amis.
This conference aims to investigate the forms and modes of representation of tennis – both in its modern version and in its early manifestations – in world literature, cinema, and TV series. It will also be the opportunity to promote the impressive tennis library and archive built by Italian TV commentator, journalist, and writer Gianni Clerici (1930-2022), now held at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Brescia (https://brescia-raccoltestoriche-gianniclerici.unicatt.it/).
We welcome 20-minute papers in English or Italian from academics as well as journalists and tennis experts. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- literary narratives about tennis
- traces of tennis history in literature
- writers who play tennis and tennis players who write
- Gianni Clerici’s literary works about tennis
- tennis on stage
- cinematic representations of tennis
- tennis in TV series
- tennis (auto)biographies
- tennis biopics
- tennis and authorial journalism
- tennis in contemporary commercial fiction
The proceedings will be published in a volume.
Send an abstract of max. 300 words in the language of your proposed paper together with a short biographical profile to valentina.varinelli@unicatt.it and franco.lonati@unicatt.it . Submission deadline: 31 October 2025.
Organising Committee: Giuseppe Cosio, Valentina Varinelli
Scientific Committee: Pierangelo Goffi, Franco Lonati, Francesco Rognoni
Past Events:
15 December 2023 – Gianni Clerici Day I: Gianni Clerici: The Story of Tennis
03-04-2025 Gianni Clerici Day II: The Writing of Tennis: Journalism, Literature, Publishing