VERGA A SCUOLA, TRA GRAMMATICHE E ANTOLOGIE

Verga entra nei programmi scolastici un anno dopo la sua morte, nel 1923. Il presente intervento intende offrire una prima ricognizione sui modi e i tempi di ingresso di Verga nelle grammatiche e nelle antologie scolastiche, attraverso l’ausilio di alcuni esempi, che metteranno in luce le differenti motivazioni alla base dell’uso degli scritti verghiani. Si terrà conto anche delle riflessioni di Croce che hanno avuto enormi riflessi sulle scelte antologiche successive, contribuendo alla creazione dell’immagine di Verga, tuttora presente nelle scuole (e nelle università), di uno scrittore la cui lingua non va analizzata in senso stretto per dare spazio al piacere della lettura. Nelle grammatiche, invece, sono spesso invece state sottolineate alcune particolarità dello stile di Verga (anche per prenderne tacitamente le distanze), accentuando lo scarto tra le scelte di Verga e le soluzioni aderenti alla norma.   Verga at school, from grammar books to anthologies Verga began being included in school programs a year after his death, in 1923. This paper intends to offer an initial survey on Verga’s entry into school grammar books and anthologies thanks to a number of examples meant to highlight the different motivations behind the use of Verghian writings. The paper considers the enormous repercussions that Croce’s reflections had on subsequent anthological choices and how they have contributed to creating the image of Verga that still prevails in schools (and universities) as an author whose language should not be analyzed in the strict sense, giving space to the pleasure of reading. In grammar books, on the other hand, some peculiarities of Verga’s style have often been underlined (with the aim of keeping them at a distance), in order to emphasize the gap between Verga’s choices and solutions complying with the norm

Dal romanzo della tortura ai Promessi Sposi: Manzoni lettore di Verri, in L’Italianistica oggi: ricerca e didattica, Atti del XIX Congresso dell’ADI - Associazione degli Italianisti (Roma, 9-12 settembre 2015), a cura di B. Alfonzetti, T. Cancro, V. Di Iasio, E. Pietrobon, Roma, Adi editore, 2017 (ISBN: 978-884675137-9)

Questo intervento tende a illustrare il peso esercitato dalle Osservazioni della tortura di Pietro Verri nel corso della composizione dei Promessi Sposi e soprattutto della Storia della Colonna Infame, che, sorta inizialmente come capitolo del Fermo e Lucia, è diventata Appendice storica su la Colonna Infame prima di arrivare alla sua veste definitiva. Verri, infatti, era stato il primo ad occuparsi dei processi agli untori del 1630 e aveva studiato e postillato il Summarium Offensivi contra don Ioannem Caietanum de Padilla, trascrizione degli atti di uno dei processi agli untori. In seguito Manzoni ha utilizzato come punto di partenza per il suo lavoro sia le Osservazioni sulla tortura sia i materiali già compulsati dal Verri

«Luogo è in Inferno...»: Viaggio a Malebolge

[Italiano]:In questo volume sono contenuti alcuni dei contributi discussi nel corso della Giornata di Studi «Luogo è in Inferno...». Viaggio a Malebolge, tenutasi il 5 dicembre 2016 all’Accademia Pontaniana di Napoli a cura della Cattedra di Letteratura italiana del Dipartimento di Studi Letterari, Linguistici e Comparati dell’Università di Napoli L’Orientale, con la collaborazione del Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici dell’Università di Napoli Federico II.La raccolta, introdotta da Margherita De Blasi, include due saggi di ordine più generale, su Malebolge nell’insieme (Pinto, Cappelli) e tre saggi (Celotto, Varela-Portas, Fenzi) che affrontano singoli canti (in particolare XVIII, XXI-XXIII) e connessi problemi esegetici. Gli autori hanno avuto la possibilità di usufruire di uno spazio editoriale ampio, aperto, senza condizionamenti di “numeri di caratteri” né di temi né di posture critiche. Con tale impostazione, il volume può aspirare a offrire qualche progresso nella ricerca o qualche suggerimento a largo raggio – basti ricordare le importanti proposte sulla funzione e il significato strutturanti della figura di Gerione, offerte da Pinto; le interpretazioni della fabula della rana e il topo, entrambe dottrinalmente raffinate anche se fortemente divergenti, avanzate da Varela-Portas e Fenzi; l’approfondimento del concetto e della portata dei peccata linguae svolto da Celotto, nonché la riflessione sulla “bestialità” della ragione quando rivolta al male proposta da Cappelli. L’affaire Malebolge, insomma, ora più che mai, con i suoi peccati politico-civili, con la sua pressante denuncia dell’ipocrisia pubblica delle classi dirigenti (il livello sociale del girone è decisamente alto) ha ancora molto da dire, non solo sul piano della ricostruzione storico critica, ma su quello degli interrogativi attuali, senza tema di coinvolgere il presente e confrontarlo interrogando l’Antico./[English]:This volume contains some of the contributions discussed during the Workshop «Luogo è in Inferno ...». Viaggio a Malebolge (December 5th, 2016) held at the Pontaniana Academy of Naples.The book, introduced by Margherita De Blasi, includes two essays of a general order, on Malebolge as a whole (Pinto, Cappelli) and three essays (Celotto, Varela-Portas, Fenzi) dealing with single canti (in particular, XVIII and XXI- XXIII) and related with exegetical problems. The authors have had the opportunity to take advantage of a wide, open editorial space, without any conditioning of "character numbers", neither of themes nor of critical postures. With this approach, the book may aspire to offer some progress in research or some wide-ranging suggestions – just remember the important proposals on the function and the meaning of the figure of Gerion, offered by Pinto; the interpretations of the fabula of the Frog and the Mouse, both doctrinally refined even if strongly divergent, advanced by Varela-Portas and Fenzi; the deepening of the concept and the extent of the Sinata linguae played by Celotto, as well as the reflection on the "bestiality" of reason when it is addressed to the evil proposed by Cappelli. The Malebolge affair, in short, now more than ever, with its political-civil sins, with its pressing denunciation of the public hypocrisy of the ruling classes (the social level of the group is very high) still has much to say, not only on the level of critical historical reconstruction, but on that of current questions, without the theme of involving the present and comparing it by questioning the Ancient Age

IN LIMINE. FORME MARGINALI E DISCORSI DI CONFINE/FRINGE FORMS AND BORDER DISCOURSES.

In organizing the second edition of the Graduate Conference of the PhD programme in Literary, Linguistics and Comparative Studies at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", which took place in the splendid setting of Palazzo Du Mesnil on 20-21 October 2016, the members of the organizing committee – in full accordance with the PhD coordinator, prof. Carlo Vecce, and the Board of Professors – continued the path traced by their predecessors, remaining faithful to the interdisciplinary dialogue that has characterized our PhD training programme for years. The conference debate was devoted to investigating the concept of limen in its various meanings: limen as threshold, textual and meta-textual margin; limen as border, boundary; limen as extreme limit; limen as in-betweenness, the threshold of consciousness and perception. The concept of limen is referable to what defines, separates, combines, allows the crossing and contamination, the identification or differentiation. It can be fixed, variable, incorporated or invented and is understood as an object in its literal meaning or as a metaphorical concept. The richness of ambivalent meanings linked to this concept has allowed a wide discussion panorama, in which marginal forms and boundary discourses have been analyzed in a multicentric and multidisciplinary perspective. Given the many submissions (almost three times more than the tight constraints), the committee had the delicate and unenviable task of selecting them; the choices were based on the pre-established themes – marginality in literature, linguistics and in the arts – without favouring any kind of approach and remaining open to innovative proposals that could demonstrate the arbitrariness of superficial and hasty 'labels' present in today's cultural landscape. While aware of the inadequacy of any subdivision for an event such as this one, characterized by a constant strive for interdisciplinary contact, it was decided to place the essays gathered together in this volume in three sections: even if corresponding to distinct research areas, they all share the same field of inquiry in a broader sense. The first section of the volume focuses on Textual Crossings. In this part, we find papers analyzing the relationship between text and 'paratext', those describing the processes of rewriting (understood as evolution of a text according to the different wills of the author, both as a re-use and as transfer to different cultural, chronological and linguistic contexts) and those focusing on innovative solutions adopted in some Italian literary texts at linguistic and stylistic levels. In the second section, Boundaries between Arts and Culture, there is room for contributions that deal with literary works relegated to the margins of the canon (for a rate of originality that is too high compared to current trends or because they are considered to be ancillary in some ways). There are also essays that deal with the theme of socio-anthropological margins, particular notions of the concept of limen and those on different artistic and cultural expressions in motion. Finally, we find studies that make an in-depth examination of issues related to cultural crosses and the loss of collective and individual identity. The third section, Linguistic Marginality, focuses on the contacts between different linguistic systems, on the varieties that arise from those contacts, on speakers’ perception of those varieties, on the ways in which the concept of 'crossing a border' is expressed in different linguistic codes, and, not least, about variations related to unusual communication situations (such as, for example, telematic events). A more detailed description of the essays is provided in the abstracts preceding each paper. Before dismissing this volume, we would like to thank all those who made its realization possible: the speakers, who participated in the Graduate Conference and decided to commit themselves by sending their proposals for the publication of its proceedings; the session chairs, who enthusiastically accepted our invitation, enriching the debate with precious insights; the scientific committee members, who meticulously reviewed the papers, guaranteeing the achievement of the standards required for such a publication, and finally Professor Carlo Vecce, for the constant and discreet support at all stages of our work

In Limine: Forme marginali e discorsi di confine

[Italiano]: La seconda Graduate conference organizzata dai dottorandi del Dottorato in Studi letterari, linguistici e comparati dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” (20-21 ottobre 2016) ha proposto all’attenzione dei giovani studiosi e ricercatori che hanno risposto al call for papers un tema di grande suggestione: il limen, inteso come margine, confine, frontiera, soglia testuale e metatestuale. Il tema è stato declinato nei vari ambiti disciplinari che concorrono nel progetto formativo del dottorato, non separatamente ma sempre in un dialogo proficuo e costruttivo. Di più, si inserisce perfettamente nella tradizione di studi e di impegno culturale e politico dell’Orientale. In un mondo in cui sempre di più si alzano muri e barriere tra civiltà e culture, bisogna insistere con forza sul valore positivo del limen come punto di contatto e di attraversamento, laboratorio in cui le lingue e le forme di espressione dell’umano si incontrano per creare sempre qualcosa di nuovo ./[English]: The second Graduate Conference organized by the PhD students in Literary, Linguistics and Comparative Studies at the University of Naples 'L'Orientale' (20-21 October 2016) has brought to the attention of young scholars and researchers a subject of great interest: the limen, understood as a margin, boundary, frontier, textual and metatextual threshold. The topic has been investigated in all the disciplinary horizons of the PhD programme, building a profound and constructive dialogue between different approaches. Moreover, it fits perfectly into the tradition of studies fostered at 'L'Orientale' and its cultural and political commitment: in a world where walls and barriers between civilizations and cultures are increasingly erected all over the world, we must strongly insist on the positive value of the limen as a point of contact and crossing, a laboratory where languages and forms of human expression meet with the purpose of creating something new

The role of immune suppression in COVID-19 hospitalization: clinical and epidemiological trends over three years of SARS-CoV-2 epidemic

Specific immune suppression types have been associated with a greater risk of severe COVID-19 disease and death. We analyzed data from patients >17 years that were hospitalized for COVID-19 at the “Fondazione IRCCS Ca′ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico” in Milan (Lombardy, Northern Italy). The study included 1727 SARS-CoV-2-positive patients (1,131 males, median age of 65 years) hospitalized between February 2020 and November 2022. Of these, 321 (18.6%, CI: 16.8–20.4%) had at least one condition defining immune suppression. Immune suppressed subjects were more likely to have other co-morbidities (80.4% vs. 69.8%, p < 0.001) and be vaccinated (37% vs. 12.7%, p < 0.001). We evaluated the contribution of immune suppression to hospitalization during the various stages of the epidemic and investigated whether immune suppression contributed to severe outcomes and death, also considering the vaccination status of the patients. The proportion of immune suppressed patients among all hospitalizations (initially stable at <20%) started to increase around December 2021, and remained high (30–50%). This change coincided with an increase in the proportions of older patients and patients with co-morbidities and with a decrease in the proportion of patients with severe outcomes. Vaccinated patients showed a lower proportion of severe outcomes; among non-vaccinated patients, severe outcomes were more common in immune suppressed individuals. Immune suppression was a significant predictor of severe outcomes, after adjusting for age, sex, co-morbidities, period of hospitalization, and vaccination status (OR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.23–2.19), while vaccination was a protective factor (OR: 0.31; 95% IC: 0.20–0.47). However, after November 2021, differences in disease outcomes between vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups (for both immune suppressed and immune competent subjects) disappeared. Since December 2021, the spread of the less virulent Omicron variant and an overall higher level of induced and/or natural immunity likely contributed to the observed shift in hospitalized patient characteristics. Nonetheless, vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, likely in combination with naturally acquired immunity, effectively reduced severe outcomes in both immune competent (73.9% vs. 48.2%, p < 0.001) and immune suppressed (66.4% vs. 35.2%, p < 0.001) patients, confirming previous observations about the value of the vaccine in preventing serious disease

Dante classico contemporaneo. Ricerche, letture, studi, a cura di Laura Cannavacciuolo e Margherita De Blasi, Napoli, Roberto Nicolucci Editore, 2022 (ISBN 978-88-946597-6-4)

Miscellanea dantesca per il settecentenari

Tra fremiti e scarpine di raso. La lingua della seduzione in Eros di Verga, in Scritture del corpo. Atti del XVIII convegno internazionale della MOD (22-24 giugno 2016), a cura di Marina Paino, Maria Rizzarelli, Antonio Sichera, Pisa, ETS, 2018, pp. 189-198 (ISBN 978-884675428-8)

Verga ‘disegna’ le donne di Eros con maestria: Adele, Velleda e la contessa Armandi sono descritte con modalità precise che rispondono con esattezza ai loro ruoli all’interno della vicenda. Ponendosi in linea con i romanzi europei coevi Verga conduce i suoi lettori attraverso le storie di Alberto che, nel corso della sua ‘educazione sentimentale’, subisce il fascino delle donne della sua vita, ma non riesce a gestire le tensioni che derivano dai rapporti con esse

Giovanni Verga, Eros, in Il romanzo in Italia, a cura di G. Alfano e F. de Cristofaro, II. L’Ottocento, Roma, Carocci, 2018, pp. 535-537.

Scheda del romanzo Eros di G. Verg