Open Access Scientific Journals of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Verona
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“Da quella sponda,” “da questa sponda”: Un caso di studio sulla migrazione di ritorno in poesia
No full textNel sempre più ampio bacino degli studi dedicati alla letteratura sulla migrazione, poco spazio è tuttora riservato alle migrazioni di ritorno. Il tema, già di interesse dall’inizio del ventesimo secolo, diventa cruciale nel contesto contemporaneo. L’articolo analizza la questione nella letteratura italoamericana del secondo Novecento assumendo la produzione di Luciano Cecchinel come case study.Il legame tra Cecchinel e la cultura americana è strettamente connesso alla storia del ramo materno della sua famiglia, i cui capostipiti presero parte alla Grande Emigrazione stabilendosi in Ohio. I suoi nonni dovettero poi tornare in Italia per problemi economici durante la Grande Depressione, separandosi dai parenti più prossimi che, rimasti oltreoceano, non incontrarono mai più. La loro figlia Annie, madre del poeta, soffrì l’allontanamento dagli affetti e da quella che considerava la sua patria, tanto da rifiutare inizialmente di apprendere la lingua italiana. Divenuta madre a sua volta, Annie contribuì a far apprendere al figlio la sua lingua, la lingua americana.In ragione di questa “odissea famigliare,” Cecchinel ha maturato quella che Du Bois definirebbe una “double-consciousness,” tale che Folco Portinari si chiede se l’autore sia “un poeta americano che scrive in italiano o un poeta italiano che traduce benissimo dall’inglese.” Questo tratto della sua poetica emerge nelle raccolte ‘americane’ sulla diaspora familiare, Lungo la traccia (2005) e Da sponda a sponda (2019), vincitrice del premio Viareggio per la poesia 2020. In queste opere, Cecchinel dà voce alle esperienze di diverse generazioni di migranti di ritorno.Anche sulla base di interviste con l’autore, l’articolo si propone di analizzare il suo viaggio poetico con il duplice obiettivo di esaminare le peculiarità tematiche e formali di queste raccolte e di fornire spunti metodologici per approcciare il tema della migrazione di ritorno.In the rich and ever-expanding body of studies on literature and migration, little space has been dedicated to returning migrants. Since the beginning of the 20th century, such a theme has become crucial in our contemporary globalized world. The present essay examines this theme in Italian-American literature, assuming Luciano Cecchinel’s poetical experience as a case study.The poet’s ties with American culture stem from the history of his maternal ancestors, who came to the US during the years of the Great Emigration. After long peregrinations, they settled in Cambridge, Ohio, where their closest relatives joined them. During the Great Depression, economic difficulties forced his grandparents to return to Italy with their little daughter Annie, leaving the rest of the family behind, never to see them again.Annie, the poet’s mother, strongly resented returning to Italy and leaving an America that she considered her homeland. She even initially refused to learn the Italian language. Having become a mother herself, Annie decided to teach her son English, her first language. As a result of this “family odyssey,” Cecchinel has developed what Du Bois would call a double consciousness. So much so that Folco Portinari wonders whether the author is “an American poet who writes in Italian or an Italian poet who translates well from English.” These traits emerge in the collections of poems dedicated to his family diaspora, Lungo la traccia (2005) and Da sponda a sponda (2019), winner of the 2020 Viareggio Poetry Prize. Cecchinel’s poetry gives voice to the experiences of generations of returning migrants.Based on interviews with the author, the article aims to explore his poetic journey with the twofold objective of analyzing the thematic and formal peculiarities of these collections, as well as providing new critical insights into the theme of return migration
The Discursive (De)Construction of Climate Change Advocacy: Framing the US Green New Deal Resolution
No full textThis paper studies the climate-related discourses of two (sets of) actors with a significant following on the two poles of the current US climate debate: the climate advocacy of one of the most vociferous US environmentalists in office, House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the delegitimizing climate counternarratives fashioned by mainstream conservative media outlet Fox News. Specifically, it centres on the processes that govern the argumentative framing of the 2019 policy proposal known as the (US) Green New Deal Resolution (GND) within Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s tweets and news segments on the GND posted on the official Fox News YouTube site. Guided by the analytical framework delineated in Fairclough and Mădroane (2020), this paper seeks to lay bare the ways in which these two deliberating agents made selected premises salient and overriding, used linguistic devices to (re)define and (re)categorize phenomena, and had recourse to macro speech acts such as explanations and narratives to support their intended aims. In exposing the mechanisms that govern the framing of the critical issue of climate change and the debate of an environmental policy, it hopes to contribute to understanding how framing strategies are employed within policy debates that unfold in less formal contexts and to shed light on the communication of climate-related issues in ways that more effectively resonate with the public and counteract climate scepticism and denial
The editions of Arnao Guillén de Brocar of BECLaR project transcribed with the help of Transkribus and OCR4all: the creation of a model for the neural network system and the exploitation of results obtained
No full textEntre el software disponible para el reconocimiento de textos impresos antiguos he decidido emplear dos sistemas, Transkribus y OCR4all, para la transcripción diplomática de las ediciones de Arnao Guillén de Brocar. Se pretende, por una parte, poner de manifiesto las características tipográficas y editoriales de las ediciones de clásicos latinos impresas por Arnao, relevantes para la creación de un modelo de entrenamiento de las redes neuronales empleadas por Transkribus y OCR4all. En segundo lugar, el objetivo es el de presentar algunas herramientas y métodos para mejorar los resultados de la transcripción. Aunque el trabajo aún debe perfeccionarse, ya ofrece resultados que merecen compartirse.Among the software available for the recognition of old printed texts, I have decided to use two different tools, Transkribus and OCR4all, for the diplomatic transcription of the Arnao Guillén de Brocar’s editions. Firstly, the following research wants to point out the typographic and editorial characteristics of the editions of Latin classics printed by Arnao that are outstanding for the creation of a training model for the neural networks system on which Transkribus and OCR4all are based. Secondly, it will be intended to present some tools and methods to improve transcription results. Actual outcomes deserve to be shared, though the work is still at an early stage
Spanish romances of chivalry and history. Another look at a dialogue from the prologues of Montalvo and Feliciano de Silva
No full textLa condición de los libros de caballerías respecto a la verdad histórica se planteó formalmente desde el prólogo de la obra inaugural del género en la tradición impresa. Tras él, fue uno de los ejes del debate posterior, en clave moral. Y desde ahí se impuso en una dilatada tradición crítica, dejando en penumbra otro aspecto, en el que se centra este artículo: el de los problemas suscitados por la necesidad de establecer una poética aceptable para un relato extenso en prosa romance. Desde esta perspectiva se propone una revisión de las relaciones establecidas por los libros de caballerías con las distintas modalidades de la historiografía, también en un proceso de renovación desde las décadas iniciales del siglo XVI.The condition of the books of chivalry with respect to historical truth was formally raised from the prologue of the inaugural work of the genre in the printed tradition. Subsequently, it was one of the axes of the subsequent debate, in a moral key. And from there it prevailed in a long critical tradition, leaving another aspect in the dark, on which this article focuses: that of the problems raised by the need to establish an acceptable poetics for an extensive story in Romance prose. From this perspective, a review of the relationships established by the books of chivalry with the different modalities of historiography is proposed, at a time when the historical genre is also in a process of renewal since the initial decades of the 16th century.La condición de los libros de caballerías respecto a la verdad histórica se planteó formalmente desde el prólogo de la obra inaugural del género en la tradición impresa. Tras él, fue uno de los ejes del debate posterior, en clave moral. Y desde ahí se impuso en una dilatada tradición crítica, dejando en penumbra otro aspecto, en el que se centra este artículo: el de los problemas suscitados por la necesidad de establecer una poética aceptable para un relato extenso en prosa romance. Desde esta perspectiva se propone una revisión de las relaciones establecidas por los libros de caballerías con las distintas modalidades de la historiografía, también en un proceso de renovación desde las décadas iniciales del siglo XVI
Adramón: study and edition. Abstract of PHD thesis in progress
No full textFicha de tesis doctoral en cursoFicha de tesis doctoral en cursoAbstract of PHD thesis in progres
“Water, Water Everywhere”: Flows, Fate, and Transcendental Settlerism in Margaret Fuller\u27s “Summer on the Lakes, in 1843”
No full textIn this article I offer revisionist close readings of the first chapters of Summer on the Lakes, in 1843, where Margaret Fuller documents the beginning of a journey through the Great Lakes region during the era of ‘Indian removal’ and the US invasion and settling of lands further westward. I argue that while Fuller builds an understanding of the world that is directable and fluid, the ability to reform the world is in her writing, through a theory of fixed racial hierarchies, reserved only for the white settler. In close readings, I demonstrate how on the banks of the mighty flows of Niagara Falls, the Great Lakes, and the Rock River, the text documents and attempts to direct the fluid power flows of a continent—and, parallel to this, how it focuses on theorizing the divergent ‘settler’ and ‘Indian’ at the crossroads of what Fuller calls “inevitable, fatal” white progress. Along these lines, I contextualize the book’s aesthetics and politics as exemplary of what I call ‘Transcendental settlerism.’ Such colonial-critical readings, I suggest, are vital for more thoroughly understanding the legacy of Transcendentalism and the history of race, colony, and liberal imaginaries of progress in the United States
A (not so) Forgotten War: The Korean Conflict as a Turning Point in the History of the War Comics Genre
No full textThe Korean War did not leave a long-lasting mark in cultural memory, and it is usually described as the “Forgotten War.” This (partial) oblivion might be attributed to the fact that this war did not represent either a victory or a loss, but a ‘tie.’ The Korean War did not inspire as many novels or movies as the Second World War or the Vietnam War did (Rosso 2003). In sharp contrast to other media, in the 1950s, comic book publishers created a noticeable number of titles addressing the American military involvement in Korea (Rifas 2021). In this paper, I would like to address the cultural importance of these comics showing how they anticipated some of the themes (and fracture) that would emerge within America during the Vietnam War thanks to the Civil Rights Movement and the counterculture. Indeed, one can already observe the existence of two conflictual narratives.On one hand, building up on the medium tradition (as a propaganda tool), war comics tried to reaffirm the values of patriotism and duty, embodied by white masculine men fighting the Red (racialized) menace overseas, recirculating the same anti-Asian stereotypes used against Japanese during World War II. At the same time, their casting of women in traditional gendered roles foreshadows an important theme of the 1980s revisionist narrations of the Vietnam War, the “remasculinization of America” (Jeffords 1989).On the other hand, EC (War) comics started to question authority and official narratives, giving a more realistic portrayal of the war. They did not hesitate to describe its degrading aspects and moral contradiction. These comics were socially relevant as they provided the medium with models of dissent, which would be further developed during the Vietnam era
“You Think We Fixta Git up off Dis Block for Real?”: Blackness, Precariousness, and Resistance in Antoinette Nwandu’s “Pass Over”
No full textThe process of othering of black people in the US can be traced back to the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the identity produced by such legacy is constantly haunted by a past—that of slavery and segregation—and by a present—that of systemic racism—that cage it in the slave ship, in the plantation, in the ghetto. Read in this light, Black condition is an ongoing process of mourning and awakening in which identity formation entails a peculiar form of agency, a “wake work”—in Christina Sharpe\u27s words—capable of rupturing and subverting and, therefore, of imagining new ways to deal with the afterlife of slavery.My paper analyzes how the persistence of systemic antiblackness urges black people to engage the paradox of living within a transgenerational grief while rupturing it. To do so, I will examine the play Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu, in its filmed version by Spike Lee (2018), which combines Beckettian and Biblical themes to depict Black condition as a combination of irreconcilable opposites and shows how, to borrow from the opening paragraph of Fred Moten’s In the Break, “the history of blackness is testament to the fact that objects can and do resist.” In the play, Moses and Kitch are stuck in a block of Chicago, determined to pass over and “rise up to their full potential,” like Jewish people in the Exodus. Despite their efforts, their dreams of the promised land collide with US reality and the objectified identity that has been forced on them
People-building Strategies in Trump’s and Biden’s Political Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis between Populism and Anti-Populism
No full textSocial-identity creation is crucial for politicians to rhetorically build their political community, legitimise specific actions and mobilise supporters by appealing to specific values or discursive argumentations. Combining a critical discourse analysis perspective derived from van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach with Conceptual Metaphor Theory, this paper investigates people-building discourse strategies in Donald J. Trump’s speech prior to the Capitol Hill riots and President Joseph R. Biden’s Inaugural Address. The research aims to compare strategies adopted in populist and anti-populist discourse. Results show that, while the distinction between populism and anti-populism is still underdeveloped, similar discourse strategies and metaphorical mappings chiefly revolving around the ideas of nation and democracy may be deployed with opposite ends. Furthermore, the study highlights how the populist/anti-populist frontier is not clear-cut and may shape different civic identities and ideals of democracy according to the ideology underpinning each politician’s discourse
Why Ecofeminism Matters: Narrating/translating Ecofeminism(s) around the World
No full textEcofeminism is a widely encompassing ideology, touching on subjects as diverse as nature-based religion, women’s rights, environmental issues about water, land, and air pollution, wildlife conservation but also the oppression of Third World countries and peoples by Western industrialized nations. A major proposition is that a society based on cooperation and balance rather than dominance and hierarchy is necessary for the survival on this planet of any living being, that is why ecofeminist scholars propose to think about a change in our perspective about a sense of community based on a system of cooperation, ecology, and protection of planet Earth, and not its exploitation and destruction.As a theoretical and activist movement, ecofeminism emerged in the US context of the 70s and 80s from the intersection of feminist studies and the arising movements for social justice and environmental health. It started as a framework that sought to combine, re-examine and widen these movements. Since then ecofeminism has developed into different directions and spread across the world. When we discuss ecofeminism today we know it is intersectional and global, it shows how women live and act in different geographical, social, political and cultural contexts. My essay wants to examine how ecofeminist ideas have been narrated and translated into various linguistic/cultural contexts since their American beginning and how they have developed, changed and readapted through different textual typologies, from books to newspaper articles, blogs and web publications