Open Access Scientific Journals of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Verona
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The Carnal Weight of Eternity
No full textThe rational and spiritual instance of critical confrontation with the creeds historically handed down is combined in the work of J.T. Mendonça, profoundly Christian but not confessionally identifiable as a religious poet, with a poetic word that rises like a prophetic force against the epistemic and social idolatries that enslave our time. The article analyzes the image of God in Mendonça’s verses, where he does not appear as a vision, but rather as a “ashen voice”, a fire that burns away lies and leads us to the vulnerable nakedness of truth.L’istanza razionale e spirituale di confronto critico con i credi storicamente tramandati si coniuga nell’opera di J. Tolentino Mendonça, profondamente cristiano ma non confessionalmente identificabile come poeta religioso, in una parola poetica che si innalza come forza profetica contro le idolatrie epistemiche e sociali che asserviscono il nostro tempo. L’articolo analizza l’immagine di Dio nei versi di Mendonça, in cui non è presente come apparizione, ma come “voce di cenere”, fuoco che brucia la menzogna e ci consegna alla vulnerabile nudità della verità
A Postcolonial Prayer: Trauma, Heterotopic Spaces and the Deconstruction of Soviet Discourse in Svjatlana Aleksievič’s Černobyl\u27skaja Molitva
No full textČernobyl’skaja Molitva (1997), the fourth part of the Golosa utopii cycle, stands not only as a significant example of Svjatlana Aleksievich’s unique method of composition, but also as a powerful postcolonial response from a subaltern perspective to the “culture of war” in Soviet discourse. Using a postcolonial approach and Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, this essay examines how Černobyl’skaja Molitva deconstructs Soviet identity discourse, particularly the myth of the “Great Victory,” and how the model of prayer creates a shared space - an alternative space of coexistence - which itself can be seen as a challenge to Soviet colonial discourse.Černobyl’skaja Molitva (1997), quarta parte del ciclo Golosa utopii, non è solo un esempio significativo dell\u27arte compositiva di Svjatlana Aleksievič, ma rappresenta anche una potente risposta postcoloniale da una prospettiva subalterna alla “cultura della guerra” nel discorso sovietico. Utilizzando un approccio postcoloniale e il concetto di eterotopia di Foucault, il saggio esamina come Černobyl’skaja Molitva decostruisca il discorso identitario sovietico, in particolare il mito della “Grande Vittoria”, e come il modello della preghiera crei uno spazio condiviso – uno spazio alternativo di coesistenza – che può essere visto come una sfida al discorso coloniale sovietico
“Vaccinate or Terminate”: A CDA of USA and Italian Online Petitions on Covid-19 Vaccines
No full textIn the contemporary crisis of representative democracy, the increased accessibility of the Internet has favoured novel forms of civic engagement. E-petition platforms like Change.org have empowered individuals to address decision-makers on various issues, utilising the web to gather endorsement. During the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccination campaigns polarised public opinion, with some advocating a widespread distribution of vaccines and others rejecting them for various reasons. The swift authorisation and implementation of vaccine mandates amplified fear and mistrust, skilfully exploited by spreaders of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Integrating Critical Discourse Analysis with Corpus Linguistics, this study examines a corpus of online petitions in favour and against Covid-19 vaccinations published on Change.org in the United States and Italy. In both countries, vaccination proponents emphasise the prioritisation of human health by protecting vulnerable groups and waiving vaccine patent rights. Opposers of vaccination present a range of motivations, including doubts about vaccine safety, concerns about individual rights, and arguments against mandates. They may also tap into a populist distrust of political elites and health authorities. Consequently, the petitions blend elements from different genres, encompassing political propaganda and popular science
The Language of Crisis in the ‘Virocene’: A Critical Corpus-informed Analysis of Covid-19 and Climate Change Discourse in the EU
No full textThe article is part of an ongoing research project investigating the climate and health nexus in EU policy-making discourse and communication (Bevitori and Russo 2023). Combining the theoretical and methodological tools of critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics (inter alia, Baker 2023; Baker and McEnery 2015; Mautner 2015), the research for this study extends its scope by focusing on a specialized corpus, purposefully compiled to represent EU public communication discourse in the pandemic era (2020-2022). It draws on recent work on the politics and management of the Covid-19 virus as the expression of a wider politics and discourse of crisis (Krzyżanowski et al. 2023; Wodak 2022; 2021; Lipscy 2020) to investigate legitimation and consensus-building strategies in the discursive construction of the Covid-19 and climate change crises
The Impact of Polarised Social Media Networking Communications in the #Longcovid Debate between Ideologies and Scientific Facts: A Language Analysis from a Corpus of Posts on Twitter/X
No full textThe Covid-19 pandemic has shaped many conventions in social, cultural and linguistic terms. Its outbreak in early 2020 sparked an unprecedented R&D effort (Pedrini 2021; Burgess et al. 2021) by the international scientific community in developing effective vaccines (Knoll and Wonodi 2020). Indeed, these vaccines helped the world to return to normal life, though the vaccines’ effectiveness was questioned (Andrews et al. 2022).
The global debate concerning Covid-19 issues has not come to an end, especially in online and digital environments. Media play roles in creating and shaping representation(s) and truth(s) (Garfin et al. 2020; Chaiuk and Dunaievska 2020), but it is on social media networking platforms that discussions have been leading to patterns of polarisation. A case in point is Long Covid, or post-Covid-19 condition, defined “as a variety of mid- and long-term effects after [people] recover from their initial illness” (WHO 2021). Online discussion about this topic has increased over time.
The aim of this study is to present the results of an analysis of a corpus of automatically-retrieved (Brooker, Barnett and Cribbin 2016) social media networking content from Twitter (now called “X”) in a 13-week timespan (September 2022–November 2022) and made up of almost 600,000 tweets. The 2.5M-token corpus of tweets is investigated using quantitative and qualitative approaches (Stefanowitsch 2020) to retrieve data on users’ reactions about Long Covid. Some of these statements reflect conspiracy-based theories involving vaccination, fake news and post-truths, clashing with scientific evidence. Other tweets reflect supportive stances, thus leading to forms of ambient affiliation (Zappavigna 2011)
Pecola and the Natural World in Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”
No full textThe Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison’s first novel published in 1970 has been widely studied from almost every perspective. Critics have explored issues such as racism, trauma, child abuse, cultural standards, class and gender relationships, mental illness, and mass media power, to name a few. This essay addresses a topic that has received little attention so far: the relationship between Pecola and Lorain’s natural surroundings. The few moments when Pecola interacts with plants and animals reveal a different side of her—a Pecola who stops being a victim, a departure from the predominant portrayal in most readings of the novel. Instead, she emerges as an active and productive agent in Lorain’s impoverished urban landscape, regardless of the misery where she is forced to live. This, I argue, explains the presence of flowers among the waste in the novel’s final image. While the garbage that surrounds Pecola is a metaphor for her being abandoned by everybody, flowers testify to Pecola’s capacity to resist and bear fruit in some way.
Through the lens of African American environmental history, a perspective hitherto unexplored in interpreting this specific text, I show how Pecola’s capacity to form profound and meaningful connections with plants and animals in a hostile environment is linked to the historical experiences of African Americans in the New World
Covid-19: An Overview of the EU Communication Campaign
No full textThe outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic triggered European countries’ response at the beginning of 2020. The global crisis was managed through different emergency measures, and in so many ways that the EU, as a supranational political body, did not follow a common approach when dealing with member states. What was the role played by the EU during the pandemic crisis? And how did the EU institutions try to legitimate their action? The aim of this paper is to answer these questions through an interdisciplinary investigation on the EU communication campaign on Corona virus targeted to European citizens, in order to unveil the ideological frames behind European actions. Results show that EU discourse on the Covid-19 crisis reveals the interests and the goals of a global business player, rather than an independent political actor
AI-Driven Intralingual Translation across Historical Varieties: Theoretical Frameworks and Examples from Early Modern English
No full textThis article examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can transform intralingual translation, with a focus on historical varieties, particularly Early Modern English. It explores the foundations of AI-based translation, addressing both the challenges and opportunities of applying this technology to linguistic change over time. Drawing from models in linguistics, natural language processing, and historical linguistics, the study investigates the modernization of Early Modern English, using literary and specialized texts to demonstrate AI’s effectiveness in handling complex vocabulary and syntax. The paper also evaluates AI\u27s impact on fields like historical linguistics and digital humanities, discussing both the benefits and the limitations, such as the risk of anachronism and the need for human oversight. Additionally, it considers how AI-driven translation can contribute to the digitization and accessibility of historical texts, broadening access to linguistic resources and enhancing appreciation for language evolution
William Faulkner sul grande schermo. Adattamenti, rivisitazioni, trasposizioni. Beatrice Melodia Festa
No full textRecensione de William Faulkner sul grande schermo. Adattamenti, rivisitazioni, trasposizioni di Beatrice Melodia Festa.Review of William Faulkner sul grande schermo. Adattamenti, rivisitazioni, trasposizioni by Beatrice Melodia Festa
“The American Hypertext Novel”: Surpassing Hyperfiction through Michael Joyce’s Twilight: A Symphony
No full textThe present paper discusses Michael Joyce’s CD-ROM-based hypertext novel Twilight: A Symphony (1996), written in the Storyspace hypertext writing program, as a case study and as part of a larger set of explorations and experimental practices in electronic literature during the 1990s. Examining this early form of hypertext literature adds to the historicization of the evolution of the American hypertext novel, while bringing to the fore the trans-/re-formative potential of the hypertextual form. While Scott Rettberg acknowledges the death of hypertext as a narrative form in the twenty-first century, he observes that “hypertext has provided a basis for other emergent narrative forms” (2015a,183), illustrating that hypertextual narrative forms and practices need to be constantly re-evaluated. Twilight occupies a very particular position in the hyperfiction evolution trajectory, as it appears to be on the threshold of a new era of hyperfiction that was about to emerge after its publication, paving the path for the diverse post hypertextual narrative formulations of the 21st century. The examination of Twilight leads one to the realization that hypertext, and by extension the American hypertext novel, even as a nascent genre, has continuously been reinventing itself by subverting its own form. Joyce extrapolates in his novel that hypertext is a dynamic narrative form in perpetual evolution, a fact to which Rettberg also calls attention. This paper aims to expose the ways in which Twilight paved the path to future literary genres and practices in American digital studies; it illustrates that Joyce’s novel interrogates certain features of early hypertext writing; it demonstrates how certain elements of the novel that differentiated it from other works written in Storyspace at the time can now be considered the original “kernels” of later experimentation in the field of electronic literature; and it emphasizes where these elements can be found again, albeit in new forms, in contemporary works