Open Access Scientific Journals of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Verona
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Comparing Teacher and Learner Perceptions of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT): A Qualitative Study of Interviews
No full textAs a result of the shift to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT), changes occurring both inside and outside virtual classrooms have led to discussions of the possibly detrimental effects of digital pedagogies on learning (Hodges et al. 2020). The challenges faced by the educational community during this time have been addressed on multiple occasions (Ferri, Grifoni and Guzzo 2020, Ferritti 2020, Maldonado and De Witte 2021), yet debate also exists around the “transformative” potential of ERT (Reimers et al. 2020). The move to this format has, in fact, created new teaching and learning spaces, and the many lessons to be learned from this situation will reveal themselves in time to come, as the result of careful investigation. To this end, our paper reports the findings of a small-scale study carried out at the University of Verona in 2020. A qualitative approach was adopted in the analysis of interview data, conducted with those directly involved in ERT. The objective was to explore the perceptions of both language students and teachers concerning their experiences with learning and teaching technologies. The paper examines which emerging themes may be worth integrating into university language teaching approaches going forward
Edgar Allan Poe Read and Translated in Germany: Arno Schmidt’s POEtics
No full textQuesto articolo mira a indagare la ricezione di Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) in Germania, concentrandosi – in particolare – sulla POEtica di uno dei maggiori esponenti del Gruppe 47, lo scrittore tedesco sperimentale e avanguardistico Arno Schmidt (1914-1979).
Sebbene l’influenza di Poe nei Paesi di lingua tedesca non sia stata così intensa come in Francia, la sua importanza per la Germanistica risiede nel fatto che ha proposto idee moderne e innovative, legate principalmente alla sfera del soprannaturale e dell’irrazionale.
Partendo da una breve panoramica della ricezione di Poe nella letteratura tedesca – soprattutto nei primi anni del ventesimo secolo – il saggio esplorerà più da vicino il caso specifico di “Arno Schmidt,” che ha aperto le porte a una comprensione raffinata, curiosa e moderna del genio introspettivo di Poe. Verrà infatti dimostrato come la monumentale opera di Schmidt, intitolata Zettel’s Traum (1970), non solo costituisca una ricchissima raccolta di fonti sulla vita e l’opera di Poe – utile per gli studiosi e gli esperti di letteratura e storia americana – ma offra anche un’interpretazione originale e senza pari dello scrittore americano, che può portare a studi interessanti e approfonditi sulla vita e l’opera di Poe in Germania.
Attraverso esempi concreti, si mostrerà infine come il labile confine tra ambientazione fantastica e realistica nelle opere di Schmidt, a partire da Zettel’s Traum, sembri essere un tema direttamente suggerito da Poe, i cui tratti sono straordinariamente reinterpretati da Schmidt in una moderna prospettiva psicoanalitica. La profonda riflessione di Schmidt sullo scrittore americano ha infine contribuito allo sviluppo di una teoria di tipo linguistico-esistenziale – l’Etymtheorie – che, una volta applicata, porta a risultati tanto interessanti quanto sorprendenti.This article investigates the German reception of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) by focusing on the POEtics of one of the major exponents of Gruppe 47, the experimental and avant-garde German writer Arno Schmidt (1914-1979).
Although Poe’s influence in German-speaking countries was not as intense as in France, his importance for the German Studies lies in the fact that he suggested modern and innovative ideas, mainly related to the sphere of the supernatural and the irrational. Starting from a brief overview of Poe’s reception in German literature—especially in the early years of the 20th century—the essay will explore more closely the specific case of “Arno Schmidt,” who opened the door to a refined, curious, and modern understanding of Poe’s introspective genius. Indeed, it will be demonstrated how Schmidt’s monumental work entitled Zettel’s Traum (1970) does not only constitute a very rich sourcebook on Poe’s life and work—which might be useful for scholars and experts of American literature and history—but also offers an original and unparalleled interpretation of the American writer, thus contributing to relevant and in-depth studies on Poe’s life and work in Germany.
Throughout concrete examples, it will be ultimately shown how the blurred lines between fantastic and realistic settings in Schmidt’s works from his Zettel’s Traum onwards seem to be a theme directly suggested by Poe, whose features are extraordinarily reinterpreted by Schmidt from a modern, psychoanalytic perspective. Schmidt’s deep reflection on the American writer ultimately contributed to the development of a linguistic-existential kind of theory—the Etymtheorie—which, once applied, leads to results as interesting as they are surprising
Bernard Malamud’s Hidden Hypotext? Reversing Shylock in “The Assistant”
No full textMy paper focuses on the rewriting of the character of Shylock in Bernard Malamud’s The Assistant. Shylock has attained “archetypal status” (Clayton Lein 1995, 117), as he has transcended the limits of his existence in The Merchant of Venice; while becoming a symbol, the Shakespearian Jew has transmigrated into other literary works and has given birth to different characters and diegetic entities. Shylock inspired a rich net of intertextual relations, especially in the works of authors who tackled issues concerning Jewishness and its relationship to the world and literature (Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock, Howard Jacobson’s Shylock is My Name, Charles Marowitz’s The Merchant of Venice). I contend, however, that Shylock’s archetypal status made it easy for writers to appropriate a set of meanings and features that are attached to him and to his play. In fact, rewritings often do not necessarily offer explicit quotations or adaptations, but still hold a strong interdiscursive connection. In Malamud’s case, rewriting is based on shared themes and has been attained through three mechanisms which I label mirror-overturn, double metonymy and explication, and which are framed within the theoretical fields of transtextuality (“overt” or “undercover”) and interdiscursivity. An analysis of such strategies provides the means to investigate both the textual and thematic peculiarities of The Assistant and Malamud’s relationship to the binomial “Jewish-American writing”—something that he regarded with an attitude spanning from full acceptance of the label to non-alignment (Grebstein in Field and Field 1975)
Migrating Minds: Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism. Edited by Didier Coste, Christina Kkona, and Nicoletta Pireddu
No full textReview of Migrating Minds: Theories and Practices of Cultural Cosmopolitanism, edited by Didier Coste, Christina Kkona, and Nicoletta Pireddu
Undocumented Migrants: Border-Crossing, Illness, and Labor
No full textUndocumented migrants in the US are often identified as threats to society or reluctantly acknowledged for their labor, essential to the US agricultural farms, construction industries, and food processing and packaging industries. In this essay, I argue for a slight reorientation in the understanding of migrant labor. I start by paring down the undocumented migrants’ identity to their bare bodies. I zoom in on the moment of the border crossing, analyzing the immediate consequences of illegality on the migrant body. Migrants from Mexico and Central America regularly cross the US southern border through the Sonoran Desert, experiencing hyperthermia, dehydration, and intense disorientation. Many die in the desert. The few who make it across carry deep physical and emotional scars of the crossing, much beyond the border and into their lives as ‘illegals’ within the US territory. A second part of the essay will focus on the reconstructive efforts in migrant narratives to acknowledge undocumented migrants beyond their capacity to do the hard labor that citizens refuse to do. It will look at the physical and emotional symptoms (headaches, ulcers, sleep disorders, depression) of working in exploitative conditions, and living a life bereft of opportunities and in constant fear of incarceration and deportation. Juxtaposing the two approaches of disassociating an undocumented migrant’s body from their labor and then recognizing their labor in spite of their bodily limitations and disabilities can contribute to a more complex representation of an undocumented migrant’s identity
Discourses of Borders and the Nation in the USA: A Discourse-Historical Analysis. Massimiliano Demata
No full textReview of Discourses of Borders and the Nation in the USA: A Discourse-Historical Analysis by Massimiliano Demata
Integrating the Formative and Summative Post Covid-19 in a Blended Learning Approach to Higher Educational Assessment: Challenges and Opportunities
No full textThe response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe, reflecting a general move towards remote working, has been overwhelmingly one of turning to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) described as a “temporary solution to an immediate problem” (Bozkurt and Sharma 2020, ii). ERT is often seen from a negative viewpoint, linked to a reactive approach to teaching (Golden 2020; Murphy 2020) with a lack of planning or expertise. This means of delivery, however, has also taught us many lessons, some of which may provide us with new opportunities and ways of working in the future (Hodges et al. 2020; Hartle 2020; Thomas et al. 2021). When considering the assessment of language competence one of these lessons is that formative assessment is more appropriate to asynchronous, online contexts and summative assessment is suited rather to the synchronous, face to face spaces. In Higher Education (HE) contexts in the past summative assessment has generally been conducted in person, in a physical context because of concerns related to exam security (Nusche 2008; Pachler et al. 2010). The challenge now, where online teaching is increasingly becoming part and parcel of the educational repertoire, however, is to integrate both the formative and the summative in a new form of blended learning (BL) for the future. This is a future where the approach to teaching in online digital contexts both synchronously and asynchronously will no longer be ERT but a principled, planned approach to combining the digital with the traditional.
“Because There Is Something About You, in the Way You Hold a Space”: Don DeLillo’s New York in “Cosmopolis” and “Falling Man”
No full textNew York City space puts forward multifold arrays of reflection on the state of the contemporary human self, in particular, of human beings in their interaction with an avantgarde, pompous, profit-oriented, world-reaching, rapid, and ephemeral space. Two post 9/11 Don DeLillo novels: Cosmopolis (2003) and Falling Man (2007) meticulously exhibit the spatial and temporal impact on urban environment and its inhabitants. The present paper scans New York’s urban space in these two novels, categorizing it into exteriors that encompass Manhattan’s streets and squares, and interiors that encompass hair salons, a ruined private flat and the destroyed Twin Towers. These spaces are scrutinized through an interdisciplinary approach that combines fiction with urban and social theory using views of Marshal Berman, Kwame Appiah, Gaston Bachelard, Michel Foucault among others. Revealing cultural divides in public spaces and a dual reality in confined spaces, the close analysis outlines aspects of DeLillo’s early 21st-century New York in which space is not detached from time in shaping an estranged self. The analysis, further, suggests that the accepted break in the flow of creativity and everyday life in the world city before and after 9/11, is, on the contrary, a continuous stream of trauma and a repeated pattern of destruction and creation
«El caballero del Febo»: an example of intertextuality and divine chivalric theatre
No full textEl caballero del Febo, auto sacramental de Juan Pérez de Montalbán, constituye un ejemplo extraordinario de teatro caballeresco a lo divino, ya que la trama se construye transformando los motivos y los personajes de los libros de caballería en alegorías religiosas. En este artículo se realiza un análisis exhaustivo de la obra, teniendo en cuenta la adaptación de la temática religiosa a los motivos caballerescos y, a continuación, se deslinda tanto su intertextualidad como su similitud con otras comedias del autor.El caballero del Febo, by Juan Pérez de Montalbán, is an extraordinary example of divine chivalric theatre, since the plot is created by transforming the motifs and characters of the books of chivalry into religious allegories. In this article an exhaustive analysis of the play is carried out, taking into account the adaptation of the religious theme to the chivalric motifs and, subsequently, both its intertextuality and its similarity to other works written by Montalbán are identified.El caballero del Febo, auto sacramental di Juan Pérez de Montalbán, è uno straordinario esempio di teatro cavalleresco a lo divino, poiché la trama è costruita trasformando i motivi e i personaggi dei libri di cavalleria in allegorie religiose. In questo articolo viene condotta un\u27analisi esaustiva della commedia, tenendo conto dell\u27adattamento del tema religioso ai motivi cavallereschi e, di conseguenza, sia della sua intertestualità che della sua somiglianza con altre commedie dell\u27autore
Can We Reconcile ERT (Emergency Remote Teaching) and Best Practices in Language Learning/Teaching? A Case Study on How to Stimulate Students’ Proactiveness via CMC
No full textThe adoption of technological tools as an alternative to or in support of more traditional methods became pressing and inevitable in 2020, because of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which marked the closure of on-site face-to-face classes all over the world. All of a sudden, what had so far been considered to be ‘normal’ was destabilized or disrupted by the pandemic. Technology solutions had to be adopted to save the whole education system, as teachers reinvented themselves in a period which catalysed a new era in virtual language learning and teacher professional development (Copeland 2021). In some cases it was possible to move classes effectively to online and distance education platforms because of pre-existing experience, but in others all the involved stakeholders had to strive to cope and manage the ‘new normal’ (Trust and Whalen 2021).The present contribution explores the online practices adopted in a course attended by master students with a view to stimulating the attendees’ proactiveness, and in particular their involvement in tasks which encouraged them to develop a capability for using linguistic resources strategically and knowingly, aware of “how meaning potential encoded in English can be realised as a communicative resource” (Widdowson 2003, 177)