42 research outputs found
Down the Rabbit Hole: Dedications in the Works of Lewis Carroll, J. M. Barrie, and C. S. Lewis
No full textThe paper analyzes dedications in children’s literature through the paratextual categories outlined by Gérard Genette. In particular, the study focuses on those dedications addressed to the children who became the main characters of the works dedicated to them. These dedications maximally manifest their function of vestibules, connecting reality and literary fiction, thus assuming fundamental importance for a deep understanding of the literary works. The paper uses as cases of study the dedications in Alice's Adventures under Ground, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass, written by Lewis Carroll to Alice Liddell; “To the Five,” the
dedication to the Davies brothers in the opening of J.M. Barrie's play Peter Pan: the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up; and finally the dedication letter addressed to Lucy Barfield by C.S. Lewis in
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. After questioning why no dedications addressed to children appear before the mid-nineteenth century, the paper examines the study cases to
determine whether they follow Genette's model or deviate from it. The analysis highlights how the dedications, which are work dedications, present aspects of exemplar dedications and private epitexts. Indeed, they maintain a private nature of the communicative act thanks to textual references that only the dedicatees can interpret fully. The analysis also observes some recurrent themes in all the dedications: the idea of the book as a gift from the adult to the child; the remembrance of the moment of genesis of the story, clearly separated from the moment of
writing; and the presence of the threshold not only in the paratext but also as a theme. The research thus tries to answer two questions: if the moment of the story's genesis is separated from
the moment of writing, can dedications shed light on why the story was written down? And how do the temporal relationships expressed in the dedications give keys to interpreting how time is portrayed within the stories
Way Beyond the Radio. Looking at the remediation processes in the podcast S-Town through the lenses of Gérard Genette's theories
No full textPlacing itself within a broader debate on the role of literary theory and its tools in media studies, this article applies Gérard Genette’s notions of transtextuality and paratextuality to the study of podcasts’ remediation processes. After providing a theoretical framework on the textual nature of the podcast, which justifies the application of the Genettian theories to this medium, this work proceeds with analyzing the ground-breaking podcast S-Town’s remediation of the radio, the novel, and, of its predecessor, Serial. Re-thinking the remediation processes in terms of transtexual and paratextual relationships not only helps identify which aspects of the different media are remediated but also highlights the narrative function these remediations often perform. The analysis thus reveals that in S-Town, remediation processes are used to create a metanarrative discourse about the distinctive media characteristics of the podcast. Finally, the article questions how the relationship between the tools of literary theory and theory itself manifests within this analysis
Comunicare i saperi umanistici in televisione
No full textIntraprendere un percorso di analisi dei contenuti televisivi divulgativi in ambito umanistico è un’operazione non esente da difficoltà. Non è facile, infatti, capire cosa includere nell’analisi e cosa escludere. Tale difficoltà si percepisce con maggior evidenza studiando il primo ventennio televisivo, quello della cosiddetta paleotelevisione, dove la missione pedagogica della Rai risultava evidente anche in contenuti non strettamente didattici.
La questione implica un ulteriore elemento di complessità: se, infatti, per quel che riguarda la divulgazione scientifica l’attenzione degli studiosi (insieme alla produzione di contenuti televisivi) sembra decisamente più robusta e il perimetro di pertinenza più chiaro, la divulgazione umanistica tocca ambiti assai diversi e non codificati – dovrebbero esservi inclusi, ad esempio, i reportage di viaggio? Tale strutturale ibridismo costituisce, forse, la forza stessa della divulgazione televisiva - popolare, accessibile e ad alto grado di intrattenimento - ma certamente ne rende più complesso lo studio.
Davanti alla necessità di restringere il campo, ci limiteremo in queste pagine all’analisi della divulgazione della letteratura nella televisione generalista. La scelta è determinata da una considerazione: nell’ambito della divulgazione televisiva delle discipline umanistiche, la letteratura è presente insieme all’arte e alla musica, ma rimane l’ambito meno studiato.
Tuttavia, abbiamo ritenuto utile impostare l’analisi mantenendo costante il confronto con la divulgazione artistica e musicale, così da assicurare una ricognizione più ampia delle peculiarità e della rilevanza del sapere letterario all’interno del più generale progetto della divulgazione umanistica. Dopo una ricostruzione sulla presenza della divulgazione letteraria in televisione e sulle tipologie di programmi con cui essa si è manifestata, proporremo l’analisi di due casi che riteniamo particolarmente significativi, sia per il successo e la popolarità che hanno ottenuto presso il pubblico, sia per il grado di innovazione stilistica e linguistica: si tratta di : Tutto Dante di Roberto Benigni (Rai 1, 2013) e Pickwick. Del leggere e dello scrivere di Alessandro Baricco (Rai 3, 1994)
A possible deliberate Mahābhārata-echo in the imagery of the Buddhacarita compounded-rūpakas
No full textThe main focus of the paper is to tentatively document traces of hypertextuality between the Buddhacarita and the Mahābhārata, under the assumption that Aśvaghoṣa probably knew this latter work, albeit non-definitive version of it. The selected methodological approach is a comparison between Bc and MBh in-compound-rūpakas. Indeed, since it is plausible that he benefited from an erudite court audience, Aśvaghoṣa is here assumed to take for granted that even indirect hints at MBh passages would be promptly understood. Therefore, he sometimes re-uses Mahābhārata expressions, and merely changes the word-order or replaces a single constituent in the matching figurative phrases or compounds, and sometimes plays with the MBh rūpakas in a more complex way. On the basis of the survey and analysis of all the Bc’s rūpakas and their supposed inspirational MBh source, the present inquiry tries to show how the singled-out cross-references are not only aimed at building a generic sophisticated literary pattern for his mahākāvya and his learned audience, but they are also intentionally targeted at evoking Epic heroic imagery as clues for the kingly commitment the author attributes to Buddha
Per un’analisi preliminare della poiesi di Aśvaghoṣa: fra epica, retorica ed estetica
No full textAśvaghoṣa (I-II C.E.), the multifaceted buddhist author of the mahākāvyas Saundarananda and Buddhacarita, seems to have mastered the rhetorical devices of metaphora in absentia (rūpaka) and simile (upamā) in both of his works. These aspects will become systematised only until much later (VI-VII C.E.) and eventually investigated in contemporary cognitive linguistics studies (Black 1962; Levin 1977; Lakoff 1980). By means of a diachronic and synchronic approach, this article analyses the poetics and poiesis of the author through the lens of intertextuality and the dynamics of literary reuse in South-Asian and Buddhist literature. In this context, applying a synchronic approach means interpreting different types of rūpakas and upamās, foregrounding the author’s self-consciousness on rhetoric and stylistic forms. Similarly, the diachronic approach imposes a bidirectional criterion, namely a) the evaluation of a pre-systematised use of analogy forms in texts belonging to the epic genre (Itihāsa), and b) the assessment on already systematised analogy forms in later canonical alaṃkāraśāstras, from Bhāmaha’s Kāvyālaṃkāra (VII C.E.) to Mammaṭa’s Kāvyaprakāśa (XI C.E.)
Book review, Oliver Gerstenberg, Euroconstitutionalism and Its Discontents
No full textWhile discussing several issues, the book chooses as its main theme the role courts – specifically, those beyond the state – and judicial review have acquired in contemporary constitutionalism. To address the criticism concerning judicial imperialism, made by political constitutionalists against national experiences as well as against the CJEU and the ECtHR, the author highlights the positive features of the «democratic experimentalist conception» of constitutional adjudication. In G.’s words, «constitutional dialogue occurs around and through processes of judicial interpretation. Without claiming for themselves the final word, courts can exert a more indirect – forum-creative and agenda setting – role in the process of an ongoing clarification of the meaning of a right. In exerting this role, courts rely less on a pre-existing consensus, but a potential consensus is sufficient: courts can induce debate and deliberation that leads to consensus» (p. viii). An example is the ECJ and ECtHR case law, which is considered «able to constructively re-open and re-politicize controversies that are blocked at the national level, or which cannot be resolved at the domestic level» (pp. ix-x). Conclusively, G. registers the emergence of a Euroconstitutionalism beyond the state, which also fulfils «the project of radical (or deep) democracy
Gustav Meyrinks Raumkonzepte: Der Amsterdamer Jodenbuurt im Vergleich zum Prager Ghetto
No full textThe essay is focused on interpretations of space depiction in Gustav Meyrink’s (1868–1932) work.
The interest of the author for this topic is as evident in his novels as it is in his short stories, and
his most famous work, Der Golem (1915), has been thoroughly analyzed in the field of literary
space, especially concerning his representation of the former Jewish district of Prague. This
depiction is the subject of several studies about space deformations in phantastic literature and of
transcultural research, especially in regards to the interactions between Czech, German and
Jewish elements throughout his novel. Using these studies as main methodological sources,
Meyrink’s space depiction in other novels and stories, which are not set in Prague but still show
traces of a Prague “paradigm”, are analyzed – in particular Das Grüne Gesicht (1916), which also
shows a Jewish district, albeit in Amsterdam, a city that Meyrink apparently never visited before
writing his story. This article introduces the methodological premises of my research and puts
forward a preliminary and very brief reflection on the Amsterdam Jewish district in Das Grüne
Gesicht
Il podcast true crime in Italia. Storia, tipologie, prospettive e approcci metodologici
No full textL'elaborato propone uno studio sul panorama contemporaneo del podcasting in Italia, attraverso l’analisi della produzione true crime. In primo luogo, si traccia un quadro teorico sul podcasting e sugli strumenti d’analisi utilizzati, inquadrati in due prospettive fondamentali: gli studi sulla serialità e quelli sul genere. Successivamente, vengono identificate cinque tipologie di podcast true crime che, considerate nel loro insieme, permettono di delineare un quadro dello stato attuale del podcasting in Italia e delle sue caratteristiche distintive, aprendo anche a possibili ipotesi sull'evoluzione futura di questo medium
Prospects of intertextual relations between Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita and Saundarananda rhetorical-stylistic forms and epic sources
No full textAśvaghoṣa (1st-2nd century CE) is the earliest known author of Indian poetry (kāvya) and a major contributor to the Brahmanical and Buddhist cultural and literary heritage. Nevertheless, we still do not have a clear picture of the sources that may have primarily influenced the composition of his works - namely the two court epic poems (Mahākāvya) Saundarananda 'Handsome Nanda' and Buddhacarita 'Acts of the Buddha' - and even less certain are the ways in which Aśvaghoṣa may have interacted with the epics, viz. e. the Mahābhārata 'The Great Bhārata' and the Rāmāyaṇa 'Rāma's Path'. Although the contribution of epic sources to his works has often been debated in the field of cultural-historical reconstruction studies, it has never been approached from a strictly philological-textual perspective. The present study provides a comparison of one hundred stanzas of Aśvaghoṣa's poems and the epic sources to demonstrate that an intertextual philological relationship between them is indisputable. The chosen methodological approach focuses on cross-referencing the main rhetorical and stylistic forms in the epic sources, the so-called alaṃkāras 'ornaments' used in the Mahākāvyas - i.e. the simile (upamā) and the metaphor (rūpaka). It analyses the logical structure of the ornaments that make the poems and epics similar, namely the relationship between the subject of comparison (upameya), the object of comparison (upamāna) and the common property (sādhāraṇadharma). This could help to determine the role that the two epics played in influencing the compositional process of Aśvaghoṣa, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Furthermore, the analysis of cross-references can lead to the identification of the sections from which Aśvaghoṣa may have borrowed. By presenting the most striking case of intertextuality, centred on the ornaments mentioned above, the proposed approach examines the ways in which Aśvaghoṣa seems to rework, adapt and manipulate the epic model from a diachronic perspective. The underlying aim is to shed light on the general framework of the dynamics surrounding the genesis of the Mahākāvya genre itself, which is so intertwined with the epic (Itihāsa)
Implementing eco-social policies: Barriers and opportunities. A preliminary comparative analysis
No full textDespite the global consensus on the importance of shifting to a model of sustainable development, identifying pathways that can simultaneously and equally fulfil social, economic and environmental goals remains extremely arduous. This paper analyses opportunities for and barriers to the effective adoption of eco-social policies in national programmes by undertaking a comparative analysis of three case studies: Payment for Ecosystem Services in Costa Rica, the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputin (ITT) proposal for Yasuní National Park in Ecuador and the Virunga Alliance in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The three programmes had varying degrees of success. The Payment for Ecosystem Services was a successful national programme that led to unprecedented forest recovery in Costa Rica. On the contrary, the ITT proposal for the Yasuní National Park was a governmental policy initiative that failed due to various national and international issues. The promising Virunga Alliance, a development project implemented in Virunga Park is at risk due to regional insecurity and a fragile national economy. The author looks at the different approaches taken in each country, analysing the benefits and trade-offs as well as the factors that led to their adoption or defeat. She then examines how the actors involved, the economic agenda, the national and international contexts, and the national policy framework influenced the success or failure of ecosocial policies. Drawing from this, she identifies topics for future research on the topic. At the time of writing, Diletta Carmi was working as a Civil Servant at LVIA (Lay Volunteers International Association) in Burkina Faso, dealing with communication, coordination and research for a project on food security
