Open Access Scientific Journals of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Verona
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‘Breast is Best’ or ‘Fed is Best’?: A Study of Concessive Relations in the Debate on Methods of Infant Feeding
No full textThe ongoing ‘Breast is best’ vs. ‘Fed is best’ dispute represents an interesting object of study: it lies at the crossroads of multiple topical discourses and provides the opportunity to explore the ways in which contrasting constructions of reality interact and compete. Against this backdrop, this paper sets out to identify and investigate central markers of dialogism in the press coverage of the discussion around breastfeeding and bottle feeding. More specifically, the research focuses on concessive relations, a phenomenon typical of “interlocutive dialogism” (“dialogisme interlocutif”) which, while allowing the speaker to offer a multi-voiced perspective, also provides her/him with the possibility to artfully reduce the impact of opposing viewpoints and foreground her/his own.A corpus composed of news stories, editorials, op-eds, and letters to the editor appearing in newspapers within the last thirty years was built specifically for this chapter. More precisely, a dataset consisting of approximately 450 texts published in the last thirty-five years was gathered and examined through the use of automated interrogation routines (Sketch Engine). The approach adopted in the research is therefore corpus-based and enables the identification of recurrent patterns indicative of concessive relations. The quantitative information obtained from the software is interpreted in a discourse-analytical perspective; this last step is instrumental in uncovering tacit beliefs about motherhood and breastfeeding characterizing the ‘Breast is best’ and ‘Fed is best’ approach.
A Corpus-Assisted Contrastive Investigation of Migration-related Terms in British and Italian Political Discourse
No full textCombining the theoretical background of Critical Discourse Studies (van Dijk 2015a, 2015b; van Leeuwen 2008; Wodak 2015a) with a corpus-assisted methodology (van Diik 2015a; 2015b), this paper contrastively investigates the discursive representation of migration and migrant people by leading British (Nigel Farage, Jeremy Corbyn) and Italian politicians (Matteo Salvini, Matteo Renzi) in the years 2016-2018, starting from the examination of the collocational profile of such migration-related terms as immigration, immigrant, migrant, refugee and asylum seeker. The period is salient for the global upsurge of populism (Mudde 2004), the Brexit referendum, and the so-called ‘refugee crisis,’ which turned immigration into a hot topic in the political agenda of parties of different orientations. Our empirical analysis sheds light on two opposing views: the negative portrayal of migrants as a threat by right-wing populist politicians across countries (Lorenzetti 2020), while left-wing politicians display a more humanitarian attitude. Regardless of political stance or specific migrant terms, however, the representation of migrant groups as social actors is crucially founded on the strategies of aggregation, collectivisation and functionalisation (van Leeuwen 2008), which ultimately result in the perpetuation of stereotyped and partial depictions that overlook their features as individuals
Contrastare con le frasi: la fatica, il coraggio, l’atto della scrittura manzoniana
No full textRiassunto: Al vasto panorama delle conquiste della critica circa le strategie di Manzoni autore, narratore e rifacitore della storia raccontata nei Promessi sposi e alle indagini sui suoi interventi metanarrativi, il contributo vuole aggiungere una tessera, che, prendendo le mosse dall’introdursi dell’autore nel silenzio fra il cardinal Federigo e don Abbondio nel passaggio tra XXV e XXVI capitolo, risale alla presa di posizione manzoniana nei confronti dei detrattori delle lettere e alla seria responsabilità che, per contro, il letterato Manzoni si assume volendo rimanere fedele alla storia – nella sua verità come nella sua bellezza – certo della forza performativa del ‘contrastare con le frasi’. Letto insieme alle spie lessicali disseminate nei capitoli precedente e successivo, l’intervento autoriale del capitolo XXVI si rivela anche quale rinnovata legittimazione del ruolo di guida cui è chiamato il letterato e della natura morale che Manzoni riconosce alla letteratura. Per il precipitare in esso di tali elementi concatenati fra loro, il brano è pertanto da considerarsi fra le mises en abyme della poiesi manzoniana.
Abstract: This contribution wants to add a piece to the vast panorama of the achievements of the critics regarding the strategies of Manzoni as author, narrator and remaker of the story told in the Promessi sposi and to the investigations on his metanarrative interventions. Starting from the author’s insertion into the silence between cardinal Federigo and don Abbondio passing from XXV to XXVI chapters, we will investigate Manzoni’s position towards the detractors of literature and, on the other hand, the serious responsibility that he assumes himself as man of letters. He wants, indeed, remain faithful to the story - in its truth as well as in its beauty - certain of the performative force of ‘counteracting with the sentences’. Read together with the lexical signs scattered in the previous and subsequent chapters, the authorial intervention of chapter XXVI also reveals itself as a renewed legitimation of the guide role to which the writer is called and of the moral nature that Manzoni recognizes to literature. Since many linked elements converge in the passage, it is possible to consider it among the mises en abyme of Manzoni’s poiesis.
Parole chiave: ironia, responsabilità della letteratura, coraggio, testimonianza
Key words: irony, responsibility of literature, courage, testimony
Scrittura e scritture nelle Confessioni d’un Italiano di Ippolito Nievo
No full textRiassunto: L’intervento prende in esame il tema della scrittura nelle Confessioni d’un Italiano di Ippolito Nievo. Esso emerge nei momenti decisivi del romanzo ed è sviluppato secondo molteplici prospettive: da quella autobiografica, a quella pedagogica, a quella documentaria, con la presentazione o la trascrizione di scritture cui sono affidate svolte importanti per la formazione del protagonista. Il saggio segue tali diverse direzioni cercando di definire lo statuto che l’atto scrittorio assume nelle Confessioni.
Abstract: The paper examines the theme of writing in Ippolito Nievo’s Confessioni d’un Italiano. This theme emerges at decisive moments in the novel and is developed from a variety of perspectives: from the autobiographical, to the pedagogical, to the documentary, with the presentation or transcription of writings occurring in important turning points in the protagonist’s development. The essay follows these different perspectives trying to define the status that the act of writing takes on in the Confessioni.
Parole chiave: Ippolito Nievo, Confessioni d’un Italiano, scrittura, autobiografia fittizia, romanzo dell’Ottocento.
Key words: Ippolito Nievo, Confessioni d’un Italiano, Writing, Fictional Autobiography, 19th Century Novel.
 
The «Habeas Corpus» of Georges Perec. From the Guilt of the Condemned to the Hyper Control of the Creator
No full textTout comme l’acte de l’habeas corpus restitue au prisonnier sa liberté physique et légale, l’orphelin de la Shoah, Georges Perec cherche à s’approprier son histoire devant le tribunal de la conscience, à travers les multiples voies de la fiction, pour enfin y trouver sa place, aussi bien en tant que «maître de son corps», que de son corpus. Dès les premiers écrits, comme L\u27Attentat de Sarajevo et Le Condottière, jusqu\u27à La clôture et Ellis Island, en passant par W ou le souvenir d\u27enfance, cet article cherche à voir dans le ressassement d\u27une série de noyaux problématiques de la vie de l\u27auteur, un véritable habeas corpus. L\u27acte d\u27auto-accusation (et de légitime défense) qui s\u27exprime dans les divers textes de Perec, à travers différents personnages, ressort comme un discours inachevé, qui avance et recule tortueusement, multipliant sans cesse les questions identitaires, au lieu de les résoudre.
Just as the Habeas Corpus restores to the prisoner his physical and legal freedom, Georges Perec, orphan of the Shoah, seeks to appropriate his history by facing the court of conscience, through the multiple paths of fiction, in order to find his place, both as «master of his body», and of his corpus. From Perec’s early works, L\u27Attentat de Sarajevo and Le Condottière, to La clôture and Ellis Island, through W ou le souvenir d\u27enfance, this article investigates the analogy between the Habeas Corpus and the author’s lifestory. The act of self-accusation (and self-defense) that is expressed in Perec\u27s texts, through different characters, emerges as an unfinished discourse which tortuously moves forward and backward, and which constantly multiplies the questions on identity, instead of resolving them.
François Truffaut e il corpo della scrittura: il caso di Adèle H.
No full textRiassunto: La filmografia di François Truffaut ostenta la presenza del libro nella sua materialità attraverso la sua esibizione nei luoghi più improbabili e tra le mani della maggior parte dei personaggi. Che sia la fonte letteraria riportata sullo schermo, o il volume letto dai personaggi, o addirittura quello da loro scritto, la filmografia truffautiana fa del libro un vero e proprio personaggio di carta. In L’histoire d’Adèle H. il corpo della scrittura entra rumorosamente nel film come forma di riscatto da una marginalità affettiva che l’eroina rivendica nei confronti del genitore, il celebre Victor Hugo, mentre annega nel delirio di una passione amorosa non ricambiata.
Abstract: François Truffaut’s filmography flaunts the presence of the book in its materiality by displaying it in the most unlikely places and in the hands of most of the characters. Whether it is the literary source brought to the screen, or the book read by the characters, or even the one written by them, Truffaut’s filmography makes the book a real paper character. In L’histoire de Adèle H., the body of writing noisily enters the film as a form of redemption from an affective marginality that the heroine claims from her father, the famous Victor Hugo, while drowning in the delirium of an unrequited love affair.
Parole chiave: Truffaut, il libro nel cinema, adattamento cinematografico, passione romantica, Adèle Hugo
Key words: Truffaut, the Book in the Cinema, Film Adaptation, Romantic Passion, Adèle Hugo
«Walking among the fires of Hell». William Blake, Los and Christ
No full textRiassunto: L’analisi del sistema estetico, simbolico ed epistemologico di Blake getta luce sulla figura archetipica di Los, un personaggio interpretabile come l’alter ego dell’autore. Los, un fabbro al lavoro nella propria fucina, e la sua consorte Enitharmon, una tessitrice impegnata al telaio, rappresentano il potere creativo, la dimensione maschile e quella femminile, tempo e spazio, linea e colore, parola e immagine: secondo la tradizione emblematica, essi stanno anche per anima e corpo e impersonano gli aspetti indivisibili dell’arte multiforme di Blake e della sua filosofia. Queste pagine si propongono di dimostrare che Los il fabbro e Blake l’incisore sono una stessa persona, identificabile con la figura dell’alchimista, con il sole e con Cristo.
Abstract: The analysis of Blake’s aesthetic, symbolic and epistemological system sheds light on the archetypal figure of Los, a fictional character interpretable as the author’s alter ego. Los, a blacksmith busy at his furnace, and his consort Enitharmon, a weaver engaged in her looms, represent the power of creation and stand for the male and female principles, time and space, line and colour, word and image: according to the emblematic tradition, they also stand for body and soul and personify the indivisible aspects of Blake’s composite art and of his philosophy. These pages will try to demonstrate that Los the blacksmith and Blake the engraver are a unique persona identifiable with the figure of the alchemist, with the sun and with Christ.
Parole chiave: Incisione, arte del fabbro, alchimia, Los, fuoco, sole, Cristo
Key words: Engraving, Smithery, Alchemy, Los, Fire, Sun, Christ
 
Il futuro del corpo archivio. Una teoria dell\u27atto creativo
No full textThe heritage of the so-called Archival Turn was mainly focused on the body as an ensemble of traces and documents which can be read by the researcher. While the notion of the body as archive have been deeply explored by Performance and Reenactment Studies, its reception within literary theory stays controversial. This article aims at using the Sartrian conception of subjectivity as a dialectical mechanism capable of reenacting on an individual scale a socio-cultural archive to underline the central role played by the body and its memories within the creative process of authors.Una delle prospettive di ricerca più feconde aperte dal cosiddetto Archival Turn è la possibilità di considerare la corporeità come una serie stratificata di documenti che possono essere studiati. Se la nozione di corpo-archivio ha conosciuto grande fortuna all’interno dei Performance e dei Reenactment Studies, la sua ricezione nella teoria della letteratura rimane controversa. Il presente contributo, basandosi sulla concezione sartriana della soggettività come motore dialettico capace di rimettere in azione a livello individuale un archivio socioculturale, intende mostrare come il corpo e le sue memorie giochino un ruolo centrale nel processo creativo degli autori e delle autrici
Peter Handke, Kleine Fabel der Esche von München, Wallstein, Göttingen 2022
No full textRecensione di: Peter Handke, Kleine Fabel der Esche von München. Mit Fotos von Isolde Ohlbaum und einem Nachwort von Michael Krüger, Wallstein, Göttingen 2022, 79 pp.Book Review of: Peter Handke, Kleine Fabel der Esche von München. Mit Fotos von Isolde Ohlbaum und einem Nachwort von Michael Krüger, Wallstein, Göttingen 2022, 79 pp