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Spivak and Sontag: Deconstructing Borders Through a Critical Appraisal of Literature
No full textAs Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak underlines in her Death of a Discipline (2003), the study of literature in academic contexts needs to be reconsidered in all its complex dynamics and aspects, overcoming the plurality of perspectives respectively given by Cultural Studies, Area Studies and Comparative Literature. By encouraging the analysis of any literary text through ‘close reading’ techniques, Spivak aims not only to deal with disciplinary borders, but also to overcome the geo-political and cultural frontiers in favour of a vision in which any literary text is acknowledged and recognized in its linguistic and thematic complexity. In the present chapter, I intend to show that the body is central in this process as the act of reading enables a form of communication which is based upon a double process of embodiment and disembodiment. More precisely, by focussing on the relationship between the author and the reader with the literary texts, I would argue that the act of reading coincides with the attempt of overcoming the general concept of border. To this extent, by adopting a philosophical and literary perspective, I will analyse some Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s works in association with some passages of Susan Sontag’s private diaries
‘They remain just bodies’: on pornography in David Foster Wallace (1989–2006)
No full textDavid Foster Wallace was deeply involved in a tricky and vexed research on pornography from 1989, as the recurrence of this theme in several non-fiction essays, brief stories, novels, interviews, and archival documents makes clear. The analysis of pornography in Wallace’s oeuvre offers the opportunity both to further explore his commitment to other fundamental topics – such as the overlap between addiction and entertainment – and to understand the significance of this theme in his overall literary project. Thus, employing a chronological approach, the chapter focuses on some published writings and unpublished documents in the period which runs from 1989 to 2006. The chapter argues that Wallace mobilized the paradox of pornography – which he understood as the erotic engagement of the viewers and the denial of any form of relationship among viewers and performers – in order to show that there was another way to experience intimacy through an aesthetic practice, namely the act of reading which, as he often stressed, is characterized by a distinctive and powerful conversation between author and reader
David Foster Wallace e Martin Heidegger. A Heideggerian Perspective of Infinite Jest
No full textIn his celebrated novel Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace makes some reference to Martin Heidegger and the question concerning technology. The aim of this article is to show the extent to which the novel can be regarded as a literary transposition of philosophical-phenomenological categories. Wallace’s name for technology is entertainment. According to different languages, both elements combine to define our world as a technologically constituted space. During a party of cinema graduate students, anonymous voices mention exactly the Heideggerian Perspective, according to which the space, i.e. the world, is enframed by technology. Now, this world is depicted both in the book Infinite Jest, and in a movie with the same title, whose structures prevent us from a complete understanding, and impose an endless repetition of the message, until it loses all meaning. Thus, the only real «jest» consists in a suspension of the understanding, which can be expressed only by means of the true antidote to the entertainment, i.e. irony
Bad Thing, It, System, Substance. Alcuni modi per dire il dolore in David Foster Wallace
No full textThe present paper aims to provide a framework to contextualize the concept of pain, as discussed by David Foster Wallace in his fiction. In order to do so, I analyze four Wallacian expressions (Bad Thing, It, Substance, and System) and contend the writer does in fact fictionalize “pain”. Recognizing pain as a relevant theme explored by Wallace in fiction and non-fiction writings, may prove useful in evaluating how this specific concept has changed over the years. Seen from this perspective Wallace’s oeuvre looks like a deep system in which each character appears connected to the other in a complex set of interrelationships. As a consequence the role of the reader is not only focussed on the reception of the text, but also on the construction of that peculiar literary network reaching far beyond the limits of a single work
Un “esercizio di pensiero” tra filosofia e letteratura
No full textIl presente contributo intende affrontare il rapporto tra filosofia e letteratura attraverso un’analisi circostanziale di aspetti teoreticamente rilevanti del racconto di Borges intitolato La Biblioteca di Babele. Ai fini di tale operazione, si farà ricorso ad alcuni saggi di Maurice Blanchot, Michel Foucault e Pierre Macherey che, seppur con metodologie differenti, hanno affrontato il portato speculativo del testo di Borges senza tuttavia piegare l’elemento letterario a esigenze di carattere descrittivo o didascalico. Quanto si intende mostrare è che il rapporto tra filosofia e letteratura non è riducibile a un pensiero della prima sulla seconda o della seconda sulla prima. Al contrario, è soltanto a partire dal riconoscimento di una fattiva interazione tra filosofia e letteratura che è possibile ottenere una corretta visione del modo in cui il linguaggio – nell’uno come nell’altro campo di sapere – è funzionale alla rappresentazione di una questione (di un tema o di un problema) che trova una sua possibile esemplificazione nell’ambito di un’esperienza di lettura e rilettura
Trasformazioni del desiderio. Dal volto materno al linguaggio letterario
No full textIn questo saggio viene discusso il ruolo del riconoscimento nell’autoritratto. Seguendo le teorie di Lacan e Winnicott, si focalizzerà l’attenzione sulla relazione esistente tra il volto materno e lo specchio, e tra il linguaggio e il desiderio, per mostrare il processo attraverso il quale gli esseri umani costruiscono la propria identità. Proprio questi temi vengono discussi anche da David Foster Wallace, in Infinite Jest. Nel saggio si cercherà di mostrare come il protagonista principale di questo racconto possa essere considerato come la rappresentazione di un crollo in cui il soggetto è completamente libero di esprimere il proprio desiderio. In questa prospettiva, è interessante vedere anche come il linguaggio modifichi la propria funzione nel contesto letterario. Quindi, è senza dubbio attraverso il riconoscimento che gli esseri umani possono capire il significato di un volto in un autoritratto
Il discorso su/di Pierre Rivière. Michel Foucault e il partage tra disciplina e in-disciplina
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