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Rendering Literary Proper Names in Another Language: The Works of Flann O’Brien as a Case in Point
Get PDFIn fictional texts, personal names (and more generally proper nouns) are considered to be meaningful linguistic and cultural items since they often convey specific connotations to a literary text, and they constitute a challenge for translators since they are usually used to define the character itself, often from an ironic perspective. Translators can adopt different strategies (copy; naturalization; transcription; addition; phonological replacement; re-creation; cultural transplantation) but, as it often happens in translation, a significant part of specific connotations of the name is usually lost. Flann O’Brien resorts to a “creative” use of proper names, often comments them (De Selby, one of his characters, claims “to be in a position to state the physiological ‘group’ of any person merely from a brief study of the letters of his name”). This study analyses O’Brien’s use of proper nouns and the several solutions adopted by translators of his novels and short stories, suggesting some possible alternatives and highlighting the semantic potential of the examined proper names which is inevitably lost.
La comunicazione 'difficile': un prototipo di storia come strumento terapeutico
Get PDFABSTRACTL'ipotesi di ricerca si interroga sulle possibili caratteristiche di un prototipo di storia che agevoli le performance comunicative deficitarie. A partire dalle teorie sulla struttura metaforica delle narrazioni e lo sviluppo della competenza empatica, l'articolo esplora il potenziale terapeutico delle storie fondato sulla capacità di simulare relazioni parasociali e preparare la sfera cognitiva ed emotiva a confrontarsi con l'alterità. Viene tracciato uno schema narrativo al fine di facilitare la comprensione dei significati e tradurli in contenuti di comunicazione. L'analisi comprende aspetti dello story-grammar e della narrazione audiovisiva, per mezzo di studi sulle competenze di storytelling nelle persone con sindrome autistica e test sull'attaccamento emotivo alle storie fruite in video. ABSTRACTThe research hypothesis examines the possible features of a narrative prototype to facilitate difficult communication performances. Starting from theories about the metaphorical structure of narratives and the development of empathic competence, the article explores the therapeutic potential of stories based on the ability to simulate social relationships and prepare the cognitive and emotional sphere to deal with otherness. A narrative scheme is defined in order to support the understanding of meanings and to translate them into communication contents. The analysis includes aspects of story-grammar and audiovisual narrative, through studies about storytelling skills in people with Autism Spectrum Conditions and tests on emotional attachment to stories on video
Words and Music Boundaries: Conrad Aiken and his Ambiguous Musicality of Poetry
Get PDFThe American Modernist poet Conrad Aiken attempted not only a thematic rapprochement with music, but also what is usually described as ‘musicalization of fiction,’ that is to say a more formal type of intermediality. By this token, Aiken occupies a specific place in literary history as an author of formal musical borrowings. Yet, paradoxically, Aiken’s use of music remains rather conventional, or traditionalist, so that it only reinforces his marginality within the Modernist world. While Harold Bloom describes Aiken’s poetry as attached to the “tradition of High romanticism”, I would willingly describe his use of music as an orthodox musical mythography, whereby the crossing of the boundaries between the arts becomes a mere poetic tool, and quite a hackneyed intersemiotic translation. In other words, far from constituting a novelty, intermediality and intersemiotic translatation are signs of an attachment to traditionalist values. Aiken’s musical singularity also appears in his novels which seem to have been initially conceived of as purely profitable projects, aiming to improve the poet’s income. However, to an extent, Aiken’s novels reflect his poetry, building on his intersemiotic poetic statements. Indeed, what comes to the fore, in both Aiken’s poetry and his novels, is an almost obsessive questioning of consciousness. And, it is music that plays a heuristic function accompanying images of consciousness. In order to demonstrate Aiken’s attachment to musical borrowings and his paradoxically traditionalist approach to intersemioticity, I will first focus on his poetic manifestos. Second, I shall concentrate on Aiken’s musical representations of consciousness, especially in his novel Blue Voyage (1927). Finally, I will refer to Aiken’s novels in relation to his vision of time as an aesthetic construct in keeping with music
Testo, intersemiosi, intermedialità. Un’introduzione
Get PDFIntroduzione alla sezione monografica su traduzione intersemiotica e nuove forme di testualità.An introduction to the monographic section on intersemiotic translation and new forms of textuality
The thinking eye: from Semir Zeki to John Onians
Get PDFIn 1994 Semir Zeki’s neuro-aesthetics formalizes the interdisciplinary approach to aesthetic facts, linking scientifically the brain to creativity. Consequently, the history of art becomes a neuroarthistory of the human mind, defined as such in 2005 by the historian John Onians. Finding a universal code, based on the nervous system and able to decipher each visual preference and every stylistic shift is the aim of this new analytic attitude. The identification of both the contextual element on which the gaze is intensively and frequently set, bringing to perceptual choices’ neural changes, and the particular mind plasticity modulation, as the genetic basis of any local forma mentis, clarifies how the brain conditions form the artistic manner. For this type of exam, the historian needs to observe in the creator’s and consumer’s brain the workings of the major cortical resources, such as neural plasticity, the rewarding system, the sectoring of the visual system, the intrinsic functional connectivity and mirror neurons. The discovery of this variability of “brain behavior” is the basis of the style shifts and the first step towards the neurohistory of art. Therefore, the named neuro-historical art analysis develops a narration of the somatosensory perceptions of the world, expressed through the language of forms. The latter infers, with the certainty of scientific data, the historical awareness and the aesthetic interpretation, opening up a new dimension of art criticism
La topologia dell'immagine: un silent book di David Wiesner
Get PDFNel corso degli ultimi decenni, neuropsicologi, artisti e studiosi di vario genere si sono posti il problema di quali siano le scelte che un autore di immagini può compiere, sul codice topologico della composizione iconica, per assicurarle un sicuro successo estetico. Molto recentemente, se ne sono occupate le neuroscienze, che hanno dedicato studi alle determinazioni dispositive e orientative degli elementi iconici nello spazio, per tentare di comprendere quali significati vi attribuiamo. Le evidenze fornite dalle ricerche empiriche vengono raccolte e la loro validità applicativa dimostrata, tramite l’analisi di un preciso case study. Considerando il celebre wordless book di David Wiesner, Tuesday, lo sguardo si focalizza sulla regia topologica dell’autore: sguarnito delle facilitazioni comunicative del linguaggio verbale, questo particolarissimo prodotto letterario veicola una narrazione complessa tramite un oculato utilizzo del figurativo e del plastico, in cui la precisa configurazione del topologico detiene un ruolo fondamentale, nella lettura da parte di un osservatore universale.In the last decades, neuropsychiatrists, artists and many different researchers were wondering which choices can a pictures’ author make on the topologic code of an iconic composition, in order to guarantee an absolute success to it. Very recently, neurosciences managed this point, by dedicating many studies to dispositional and orientative determinations of the iconic elements in the space, in order to understand which significance we attribute to a certain topologic structure. The evidences given by the empiric literature are collected and their applicative valitidy is demonstrated, through a case study’s analysis. The focus on David Wiesner’s Tuesday, a renowned wordless book, is directed on the author’s topologic directive choices: without the communicative facilitation given by the verbal language, this peculiar literary product acts a complex narration using a detailed figurative and plastic tool, in which the topologic code has a fundamental role, in a universal observer’s reading
La rappresentazione delle emozioni
Get PDFOccidente e Oriente attivano morfologie di rappresentazione delle emozioni marcatamente differenti, in quanto in termini bioculturalisti il contesto sociale interdipendente delle civiltà orientali codifica in modo rigoroso le emozioni mentre le civiltà occidentali tendenzialmente individualiste ricorrono ad apparati segnici più versatili, ma in entrambi i casi le affordances culturali retroagiscono sulle strutture neuro-cognitive. Tali differenze si riflettono altresì sul modo di concepire il Self, la sua progettualità e il modo in cui gli individui costruiscono la propria memoria autobiografica.West and East activate different morphologies of emotions' representation, since in biocultural terms the interdependent social context of Eastern civilizations strictly codifies the emotions, whereas naturally individualist Western civilizations resort to more versatile signage devices, but in both cases the cultural affordances effect on neuro-cognitive structures. These differences reflect on the way of conceiving Self, its projects and the way individuals build their own autobiographical memory
Storytelling: teorie innovative per lo sviluppo della socialità nei soggetti autistici
Get PDFIl giudizio della tradizione filosofico-antropologica secondo cui l’essere umano è un essere costruito frontalmente, caratterizzato da un’innata predisposizione alla socialità e alla condivisione delle proprie emozioni, sembra vacillare nel caso dei disordini dello spettro autistico (autism spectrum disorders - ASD). A differenza dei soggetti a sviluppo tipico, gli autistici tendono a evitare lo sguardo diretto del loro interlocutore, con gravi ripercussioni sul piano delle abilità di mind reading ed empatia. Numerosi studi, tuttavia, dimostrano come il processo di socializzazione di un individuo possa avvenire anche attraverso le sue esperienze di narrative reading. Lo storytelling, da tale punto di vista, rappresenta un valido strumento per sviluppare prosocial behaviors nei bambini autistici e per articolare il loro linguaggio emotivo. Le ricerche fino a oggi condotte in questo campo evidenziano notevoli miglioramenti dei partecipanti nella sfera dell’empatia e della comunicazione espressiva e verbale.The anthropological-philosophical tradition defines the human being as a creature living frontally, namely characterized by an innate predisposition to socialize and share emotions with other human beings. By contrast, people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) seem to contradict this definition: they tend to avoid direct eye contact with their interlocutor and report a deficit in mind reading and empathy. Nevertheless, lots of studies demonstrate how socialization process can take place also thanks to narrative reading activities. For instance, storytelling represents the main mean to prompt prosocial behaviors in autistic children and to articulate their emotional language. The most recent researches have shown substantial improvements in the participants’ empathy as well as in expressive and verbal communication
Per una fenomenologia dell'iconotesto narrativo ipercontemporaneo
Get PDFI rapporti fra narrativa verbale e immagini stanno ricoprendo sempre maggiore importanza nella letteratura contemporanea. Questo articolo intende analizzare le forme iconotestuali nella narrativa europea e nordamericana più recente cercando di proporre un modello di analisi teorico in grado di dar conto delle retoriche, delle strutture e delle funzioni dell'immagine nella sua interazione con la componente verbale.The relationship between verbal narrative and images is more and more important in the literary panorama of the last years. This essay analyzes contemporary iconotexts in Europe and North America, proposing a model for the analysis of the rethorics, structures and functions of images interacting with a verbal narrative
Il barocco ‘cosale’ di Carlo Emilio Gadda
Get PDFIn quest’articolo viene analizzato il concetto di barocco presentato da Carlo Emilio Gadda nella nota che accompagna il testo del suo ultimo romanzo: La cognizione del dolore. Si mette in relazione la peculiare posizione teorica dell’autore col pensiero di Eugenio d’Ors e di Walter Benjamin, con lo scopo di dimostrare l’originalità dell’approccio gaddiano al barocco.In this paper I shall analyze the concept of Baroque as it is defined by Carlo Emilio Gadda in the note which goes with his last novel: Acquainted with Grief. Our aim is to demonstrate the originality of Gadda’s approach to the Baroque connecting his peculiar theoretical opinion with the thought of Eugenio d’Ors and Walter Benjamin