comparative literature

Environmental Justice Is Social Justice: Literary and Cultural Representations of the Climate Crisis in Third-Millennium Europe through a Gender-Based Analysis

Environmental Justice Is Social Justice: Literary and Cultural Representations of the Climate Crisis in Third-Millennium Europe through a Gender-Based Analysis

This project investigates the representations of the climate crisis in different European cultural productions through a
transdisciplinary, transnational, postcolonial, intersectional, and inter-/transmedia approach. It analyzes the current theoretical
debate on the Anthropocene, on environmental violence as a legacy of colonial imbalances of power, and on the connection
between environmental justice and social justice (with a specific focus on gender inequalities). It then examines how cultural

Gruppo di ricerca internazionale fondato tramite accordo interuniversitario tra Bard College (New York), Program of Italian Studies e il Dipartimento di Lettere e Culture Moderne

Gruppo di ricerca internazionale fondato tramite accordo interuniversitario tra Bard College (New York), Program of Italian Studies e il Dipartimento di Lettere e Culture Moderne

Il gruppo d ricerca è formato da studiosi del Bard College-Italian Studies Program, Stati d’Uniti D’America, coordinati dal prof. Franco Baldasso e da studiosi interdipartimentali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, coordinati dalla prof. Franca Sinopoli. Il Bard College, parte della Columbia University, è un’antica istituzione  fondata nel 1860 composta da un college di arti liberali e un conservatorio, e offre otto programmi di laurea in arti e scienze.

The Narration of Ethics in the New Convergent Era

The Narration of Ethics in the New Convergent Era

Grounded in literary narratology and transmedia studies, this project seeks to understand the complex ethical dynamics of contemporary storytelling at the intersection of old and new media. It aims to provide insights into the practices and policies needed to promote ethical and responsible storytelling in the convergent and digital era.

"Narrating the Trauma in European Literatures and Cultures from the second half of the 19th Century to the "late modernity": a Comparative Approach to Memory and Post-memory narratives in Italy and Europe."

"Narrating the Trauma in European Literatures and Cultures from the second half of the 19th Century to the "late modernity": a Comparative Approach to Memory and Post-memory narratives in Italy and Europe."

The project originates from the awareness of a general change of the theoretic framework of literature, especially of narration, which has taken place in the last years. The trans-disciplinary dimension, in addition to the transnational dimension, is another determining factor that has caused a re-positioning of the specificity of literature within a wider cultural space, with which it interacts.

La meraviglia. Alcune prospettive letterarie

In Plato’s Theaetetus Socrates ties wonder and knowledge in a binding knot when he defines wonder as “the only beginning of philosophy” and acknowledges it as a distinctive feature of the philosopher. Aristotle associates wonder with understanding and underlines that both of them are pleasurable as is wisdom. In the Metaphysics the Stagirite links this passion to man’s basic drive for learning and truth, while emphasizing that it possesses both an emotional and a cognitive meaning.

Astonishment. Essays on wonder for Piero Boitani. Ediz. italiana e inglese

Aristotle’s definition of wonder in the Metaphysics points to man’s basic drive for learning and truth, for understanding natural phenomena and their causes. From this perspective Aristotle’s words call attention to the capacity for wonder built in human nature as the necessary passion that inspires the desire to know in man, who is naturally a contemplative being. These ideas are fundamental to understand wonder and its development across the centuries.

In the realm of Queuetopia: How to give physical shape to relations with power in al-Ṭābūr(s) by Yūsuf Idrīs and Basma ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz

The present work aims to analyze the symbolic image of queues, contextualized within the same geographic area (Egypt) but represented in two different historical moments: 1952 and 2012. The historical frame is provided here by two narrative works, a short story and a novel, both entitled al-Ṭābūr (The Queue) by two Egyptian writers, respectively Yūsuf Idrīs (1927-1991) and Basma ‘Abd al-‘Azīz (1976). The paper will try to provide preliminary but meaningful insight into the political (if it is so) and figurative meaning of queuing as portrayed by the two authors.

Where science fiction and al-khay?l al-‘ilm? meet

The emergence of Science fiction in Arabic (al-khayyal al-'ilmi) can be traced back to the second part of the 20th century: this literary genre has elaborated themes and images that switches among the fantastic, the marvelous and the utopian and whose seeds belong to classical Arabic literary heritage. al-Khayyal al-'ilmi was also undoubtedly influenced by the most recognized ouvres of English Science fiction. This paper will focus on the “places” – broadly speaking – where al-Khayyal al-'ilmi met Science fiction.

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