Rethinking Collective Story: Olga Tokarczuk’s Tender Narrator and Spatiotemporal Entanglement

This article introduces characterisation of the tender narrator concept by Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, which was a central point in her Nobel Prize lecture (2019). During the identification, three key elements of Tokarczuk’s project are specified: the bond of diegetic forms with climate and environmental crisis of the Anthropocene; dynamically changing, fragmented collective and individual perspectives; and the titular narrative tenderness manifested in sensitivity to more-than-human voices, networks, and relations. Through this, the potential of this idea is included in the repertoire of econarratological research and, more broadly, non-anthropocentric narrative theories. To detail the manifestations of the fourth-person narrative, as the tender narrative is also called, this paper problematises spatiotemporal experiences based on the example of Tokarczuk’s novel The Empusium (2024). In the analysis of how representations of time and space are mediated in the tender story, aspects such as interdependencies, despatialisation and fragmentation are brought to the fore

Fragmented Form and Spatiotemporal Experiences in Transnational Korean Women’s Poetry

            This paper explores the intersection of poetic form and transnational identity in contemporary women’s poetry, focusing on the strategic use of fragmentation and prose poetry. By examining the works of poets Don Mee Choi, Emily Jungmin Yoon, and Cathy Park Hong, it highlights how these forms enhance the exploration of spatiotemporal experiences and cultural belonging. I show how the interplay between fragmented poetry and prose poetry creates a dynamic aesthetic, reflecting the layered complexity of lived experiences, trauma, and resilience. Through a detailed analysis, this paper demonstrates how the use of prose poetry provides a versatile platform for delving into narratives of confinement and oppression, while fragmented forms capture the fluidity and dislocation inherent in transnational identities. I highlight how the integration of personal and socio-political narratives underscores the interconnectedness of global experiences, offering new perspectives on identity and belonging in a constantly shifting world. &nbsp

Stratigraphy of the Walk and Post-anthropocentric Narratives: The Case of Antonio Moresco

Drawing on material ecocriticism, new materialism and eco-narratology, this article proposes an analysis of the narrative structure of the novel Gli increati by Antonio Moresco as a case of “Anthropocene storytelling”. Specifically, I consider the practice of walking as a prompt for the novel complex temporal and spatial dimensions. My discussion situates within a broader reflection on the recent challenges posed by the concept of the Anthropocene to traditional modern epistemologies, based on conceptual dichotomies and linearity. I propose that the novel serves as an example of a narrative organised not by the principle of causality, but by what I call “stratigraphic logic”

Review of Concetta Maria Pagliuca and Filippo Pennacchio (a cura di), Tempora, i tempi verbali nel racconto Vol.1 (Biblion, 2023) and Francesco De Cristofaro, Paolo Giovannetti e Giovanni Maffei (a cura di), Tempora, i tempi verbali nel racconto Vol. 2 (Biblion, 2024)

Review of Concetta Maria Pagliuca e Filippo Pennacchio (a cura di), Tempora, i tempi verbali nel racconto Vol.1. Biblion, 2023; Francesco De Cristofaro, Paolo Giovannetti e Giovanni Maffei (a cura di), Tempora, i tempi verbali nel racconto Vol. 2. Biblion, 2024.Recensione di Concetta Maria Pagliuca e Filippo Pennacchio (a cura di), Tempora, i tempi verbali nel racconto Vol.1. Biblion, 2023; Francesco De Cristofaro, Paolo Giovannetti e Giovanni Maffei (a cura di), Tempora, i tempi verbali nel racconto Vol. 2. Biblion, 2024

Doubled Embodiment and the Temporal Experience of Illness in Comics

This contribution considers the centrality of pictorial embodiment in autobiographical comics. It begins by tracing pictorial embodiment’s connection to othering and then examines the popular practice of doubled embodiment in graphic illness narrative. Expanding upon theorizations of doubled embodiment as manifesting subjective experiences of illness, several examples will serve to trace how double embodiment in graphic illness narratives speaks to the ill subject’s personal experience of time. Ultimately, this contribution proposes that double embodiment can indicate how, in illness, time intersects with considerations of minds and emotional states. In the works of graphic illness studied below, doubles address how an ill life is often one “marked not by progress but by recurrence, repetition, and ellipses” (41), as comic critic Jared Gardner claims in relation to his own chronic illness

The Erasure of Historical Consciousness and the Hegemony of the Present in Time Travel Films

The paper discusses how the present became absolute and colonized the historical past in the mass culture of late capitalism, by examining the ideological premise of time travel films of the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on Fredric Jameson’s and David Lowenthal’s views of history and popular culture, the article suggests that the primacy of the present and the disappearance of historical consciousness becomes really striking in narratives that thematize the unnatural structures and causal logics of multiple, co-existing temporal planes. The course of history is presented as an evolution towards superior social structures, culminating in the liberal democracy of the United States, and any interference with this system is portrayed as a threat to social order. Its hegemonic aspirations are glorified in the narratives through the affirmative attitude of the fictionalized historical characters towards it

Käte Friedemann, “The Narrator in the Epic”

Il concetto teorico di «narratore» come istanza mediatrice indipendente dall’autore fa la sua comparsa negli studi letterari all’inizio del Novecento, compiutamente formulato per la prima volta nel saggio di Käte Friedemann Die Rolle des Erzählers in the Epik (Il ruolo del narratore nell’epica, 1910). Il saggio, che affianca se non anticipa la riflessione di Henry James e Percy Lubbock sull’uso del punto di vista, sarà negli anni Venti tra le letture di Michail Bachtin e nel dopoguerra tra i testi di riferimento di Franz K. Stanzel, ma a dispetto del suo ruolo pionieristico non verrà tradotto in altre lingue e non accederà dunque a una circolazione internazionale. Le pagine che seguono presentano in traduzione italiana una sintesi delle principali tesi del saggio, così come vengono riassunte e puntualizzate dalla stessa Friedemann nell’articolo “Der Erzähler in der epischen Dichtung” (Il narratore nella forma epica, 1913). L’articolo tradotto è preceduto da un’introduzione che ripercorre la traiettoria intellettuale dell’autrice, cresciuta a Berlino in una famiglia di ebrei assimilati, vicina all’ambiente dei neokantiani e poi allieva a Berna di Oskar F. Walzel, della quale si perdono le tracce nella Palestina degli anni Quaranta. La riflessione di Friedemann, situata in un territorio ancora indistinto tra teoria del romanzo e narratologia, rappresenta non soltanto un tassello da collocare tra i nomi di Wilhelm Dilthey e di György Lukács, ma contribuisce a riportare in primo piano nodi teorici che sono a tutt’oggi oggetto d’indagine – primo fra tutti il problema del narratore come medium che giudica, qualità (o difetto) ineliminabile di ogni sistema di pensiero prodotto da esseri umani e non da «automi».The theoretical concept of ‘narrator’ as a mediating entity independent from the author emerged in literary studies in the early 1900s and was  fully articulated for the first time in Käte Friedemann\u27s 1910 essay “Die Rolle des Erzählers in der Epik" ("The Role of the Narrator in Epic Literature”). Friedemann’s work, which parallels or even predates Henry James’ and Percy Lubbock\u27s analysis of point of view, influenced Mikhail Bakhtin in the 1920s and later Franz K. Stanzel. Despite its pioneering role, it remained untranslated, which significantly limited its impact. The following pages provide the first Italian translation of the essay’s main theses, as condensed by Friedemann herself in her 1913 article “Der Erzähler in der epischen Dichtung” (“The Narrator in Epic Form”). The translation is preceded by an introduction tracking the intellectual path of the author, who grew up in an assimilated Jewish family in Berlin, was connected to Neo-Kantian circles, studied under Oskar F. Walzel in Bern and moved to Palestine in the early 1940s. Friedemann’s work, situated between the theory of the novel and narratology, represents an important voice in early 20th century literary theory, one that should be considered in its conversation with authors such as Wilhelm Dilthey or György Lukács. Furthermore, the article contributes to bringing to the fore theoretical nodes that are still under investigation today, first and foremost the problem of the narrator as a judging medium, and as such inevitably human

In Memory of Peter Steiner

Obituary of Professor Peter Steiner.Obituary of Professor Peter Steiner

Kinaesthetic Narrativization of Place in 360° Stereoscopic Flânerie

In narrative film, space predominates over time, while in stereoscopic spherical cinema (3DSC), the transitions between spatial frames redefine the supremacy of space through orientational gaze and kinaesthetic flânerie by a deputy actant who explores the geopsychic space through the cartographic processes of narrativization. On one level, narrativization occurs through routes and geospatial cognitive mapping as well as horizontal cinescape projections within spatial frames. On the other level, it transpires at the intersection of a first-person perspective and platial experientiality, as the viewer’s body relocates, finding its place based on cultural, political, and social proximities. Thus, the coordinate system of 3DSC, inherently platial, is anchored in narrative pauses, devoid of temporal aspects except for the perpetual “now”. Whether 3DSC obliterates time through kinaesthetic wandering depends on the metalepsis of each narrative, the oscillating nature of the audience\u27s perspectives, shifting between exocentric and egocentric views, ocularization and locus, auricularization and situatedness

Space, Time, and Identity in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight explores the transformation of Gawain’s identity through his quest, where time and space play crucial roles. The narrative juxtaposes brief, action-packed episodes with extended periods of stillness, emphasizing Gawain\u27s passive heroism. The circular structure of the journey symbolizes a return to the self, yet transformed through encounters with the other. The use of Paul Ricœur\u27s theory about narrative identity highlights the significance of Gawain\u27s wounds as paths to self-recognition. The comparison with David Lowery’s 2021 film adaptation reveals contemporary concerns with identity and otherness