Literary Criticism as Quadratic Position-Taking in Cultural Production: Symbolic and Pragmatic Implications. The Pirandello-Tilgher Case

This study aims to elucidate the key characteristics of the critical text from both a symbolic and a pragmatic viewpoint. My perspective combines the Bourdieusian notion of literary field with a development of Genette’s theories on the nature of paratext. On the one hand, critical texts should be considered, from a pragmatic viewpoint, as a quadratic position-taking: i.e., as a position-taking focused on another position-taking, which coincides with the literary text. On the other hand, critical texts can be regarded as part of the paratext, and, precisely, as a special allographic epitext that cannot be reduced to the author’s will. Hence, this material and interactional position-taking has crucial semantic consequences, being embodied in five hermeneutic devices, i.e.: selection, interpretative description, comparison, framing and explicit valorization. By providing a specific slant on the literary text, the critical text triggers assessment dynamics and sometimes paves the way to several forms of mutual interaction between authors and critics. To illustrate my point, I explore the relationship between the famous dramatist Luigi Pirandello and one of his most important critics, Adriano Tilgher, a philosopher and an intellectual under whose influence Pirandello reshaped his self-interpretation. First, I analyse their mutual exchange by taking into account their crossing trajectories within the complex and stratified field of cultural production of 1910-20s Italy. Then, I explore Tilgher’s critical reviews and papers on Pirandello’s works with a view to identifying his use of the five hermeneutical devices discussed above. In the conclusions, I highlight the importance of this double bind between author and critic, which had a huge impact on both the assessment dynamics and the creative outcomes of their careers

Mirko Lino, L’Apocalisse postmoderna tra letteratura e cinema. Catastrofi, oggetti, metropoli, corpi

Review of L’Apocalisse postmoderna tra letteratura e cinema. Catastrofi, oggetti, metropoli, corpi by Mirko LinoL’Apocalisse postmoderna tra letteratura e cinema di Mirko Lino tratta un tema di estrema rilevanza culturale: la rappresentazione del “tempo ultimo” – con la sua miriade di implicazioni antropologiche ed estetiche – chiama in causa problematiche che si spingono ben oltre le nicchie di genere o i recinti dell’intrattenimento mainstrea

Recensione di Andrea Zanzotto, la natura, l’idioma. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Pieve di Soligo, Solighetto, Cison di Valmarino, 10-11-12 ottobre 2014, a cura di Francesco Carbognin, Canova Edizioni, 2019

Recensione di Andrea Zanzotto, la natura, l’idioma. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Pieve di Soligo, Solighetto, Cison di Valmarino, 10-11-12 ottobre 2014, a cura di Francesco Carbognin, Canova Edizioni, 2019.Review of Andrea Zanzotto, la natura, l’idioma. Atti del Convegno internazionale, Pieve di Soligo, Solighetto, Cison di Valmarino, 10-11-12 ottobre 2014, edited by Francesco Carbognin, Canova Edizioni, 2019

Apofasi e presenza in No di Umberto Fiori

Il presente articolo propone un’analisi del poemetto No, incluso nella raccolta poetica La bella vista di Umberto Fiori. Il poemetto esemplifica alcune costanti della scrittura di Fiori, come la dominante visiva, il fuoco sul dettaglio e la riflessione filosofica. Inizialmente, analizzo le caratteristiche enunciative di No, basate su un’apostrofe alle cose, struttura tipica del genere lirico secondo Culler. Successivamente, applico alcuni strumenti recenti tratti dalla Stylistics inglese – gli attractors di Peter Stockwell e i rilievi di Joanna Gavins sulla poesia apofatica – per riflettere sullo stile del poemetto e sulle sue peculiarità concettuali

Perché Configurazioni

Il comitato direttivo di Configurazioni. Ricerche sulla poesia contemporanea spiega le linee guida e le direzioni di ricerca che caratterizzano la rivista

Efficacy of a new technique - INtubate-RECruit-SURfactant-Extubate - "IN-REC-SUR-E" - in preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Although beneficial in clinical practice, the INtubate-SURfactant-Extubate (IN-SUR-E) method is not successful in all preterm neonates with respiratory distress syndrome, with a reported failure rate ranging from 19 to 69 %. One of the possible mechanisms responsible for the unsuccessful IN-SUR-E method, requiring subsequent re-intubation and mechanical ventilation, is the inability of the preterm lung to achieve and maintain an "optimal" functional residual capacity. The importance of lung recruitment before surfactant administration has been demonstrated in animal studies showing that recruitment leads to a more homogeneous surfactant distribution within the lungs. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the application of a recruitment maneuver using the high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) modality just before the surfactant administration followed by rapid extubation (INtubate-RECruit-SURfactant-Extubate: IN-REC-SUR-E) with IN-SUR-E alone in spontaneously breathing preterm infants requiring nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) as initial respiratory support and reaching pre-defined CPAP failure criteria. Methods/design: In this study, 206 spontaneously breathing infants born at 24+0-27+6 weeks' gestation and failing nCPAP during the first 24 h of life, will be randomized to receive an HFOV recruitment maneuver (IN-REC-SUR-E) or no recruitment maneuver (IN-SUR-E) just prior to surfactant administration followed by prompt extubation. The primary outcome is the need for mechanical ventilation within the first 3 days of life. Infants in both groups will be considered to have reached the primary outcome when they are not extubated within 30 min after surfactant administration or when they meet the nCPAP failure criteria after extubation. Discussion: From all available data no definitive evidence exists about a positive effect of recruitment before surfactant instillation, but a rationale exists for testing the following hypothesis: a lung recruitment maneuver performed with a step-by-step Continuous Distending Pressure increase during High-Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation (and not with a sustained inflation) could have a positive effects in terms of improved surfactant distribution and consequent its major efficacy in preterm newborns with respiratory distress syndrome. This represents our challenge. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02482766. Registered on 1 June 2015

Apparati di legittimazione e poesia ‘indistruttibile’

This paper introduces the proceedings of the Fourth Annual Seminar on Contemporary Poetry, held at the University of Perugia on 10-11 November 2022 and dedicated to legitimation apparatus. Building on some excerpts of the introduction to the anthology Il pubblico della poesia (1975) signed by Alfonso Berardinelli, I propose a theoretical examination of the concepts of apparatus and legitimation, aimed at highlighting their pragmatic and negotiated nature. The poetry of the present (and of the past) appears more understandable by dropping an essentialist approach, based on the a priori of value, and instead opening up to the plural diversity of practices. A brief review of the five contributions collected in the proceedings follows.Lo scritto introduce gli atti del quarto Seminario Annuale di Poesia Contemporanea, svoltosi presso l’Università degli Studi di Perugia il 10-11 novembre 2022 e dedicato agli apparati di legittimazione. Partendo da alcuni passi dell’introduzione all’antologia Il pubblico della poesia (1975) firmata da Alfonso Berardinelli, propongo un esame teorico dei concetti di apparati e di legittimazione, volto a metterne in luce la natura pragmatica e negoziale. La poesia di oggi (e di ieri) appare più comprensibile abbandonando un approccio essenzialista, basato sull’a priori del valore, e aprendosi invece alla diversità plurale delle pratiche. Segue una sintetica rassegna dei cinque contributi raccolti negli atti. &nbsp

Verso la grana incostruibile : da Dietro il paesaggio a Pasque di Stefano Agosti

This study is devoted to the analysis of Stefano Agosti's second essay on Andrea Zanzotto's poetry. Published in 1973 as the introduction to a key anthology of Zanzotto's poems, Poesie (1951-1973), and later re-named Da Dietro il paesaggio a Pasque, this groundbreaking essay represents a milestone both in Agosti's interpretation of Zanzotto's work and in the later reception of the poet's entire corpus. Da Dietro il paesaggio a Pasque is grounded in a phenomenological-stylistic approach, greatly indebted to Gianfranco Contini's critical method. In particular, I identify several similarities between Agosti's text and Contini's Dagli Ossi alle Occasioni, published in 1938 as a review of the upcoming Le occasioni by Eugenio Montale. Indeed, Agosti shares with Contini an inclination to describe a poetic corpus as a conic section, a curve which is teleologically oriented towards a peak of maturity. In my paper I carry out a close reading of Agosti's introduction, with a view to disclosing his methodological assumptions and argumentative strategies, such as the frequent adoption of a conjunctive logic, in which the opposites melt without losing their character. This analysis shows that Agosti was heavily affected by Lacanian, structuralist and deconstructionist theories. In addition, I highlight some similarities between the depiction of Zanzotto's poetry as provided in the essay and Agosti's own ideas about the essence of poetic language. Lastly, I compare Da Dietro il paesaggio a Pasque with the 1970 essay Derivable et inderivable, written by the French philosopher Jean-Joseph Goux and inspired by a vexed question in Mathematics. Zanzotto told Agosti privately that he had read Goux's essay in "Critique", and had been greatly impressed by it. Following this exchange, Agosti relied on Goux's theories in his interpretation of Zanzotto's most experimental poetry : poems from La Belta and Pasque, indeed, are comparable to the "continuous nowhere differentiable functions", the mathematical entities which triggered Goux's broad confutation of linear thought. In those curves, in fact, any point is at the same time separated from and connected to the next. From a textual viewpoint, thus, Zanzotto truly destroys conventional cohesion, and replaces it with new rules, often based on phonetic and syntactical repetitions

Apophasis and presence in Umberto Fiori’s No

This article provides an analysis of the poem No, part of the poetic collection La bella vista by Umberto Fiori. No exemplifies some of the traits that characterize Fiori’s writing, such as the emphasis on the visual, overexposure of details and philosophical reflection. Initially, I examine the key-features of No’s enunciative structure, based on an apostrophe to things, a key-feature of the lyric genre according to Culler. I then apply some recent tools offered by English Stylistics – Peter Stockwell’s attractors and Joanna Gavins’ insights on apophatic poetry – to investigate the style of the poem and its conceptual features.Il presente articolo propone un’analisi del poemetto No, incluso nella raccolta poetica La bella vista di Umberto Fiori. Il poemetto esemplifica alcune costanti della scrittura di Fiori, come la dominante visiva, il fuoco sul dettaglio e la riflessione filosofica. Inizialmente, analizzo le caratteristiche enunciative di No, basate su un’apostrofe alle cose, struttura tipica del genere lirico secondo Culler. Successivamente, applico alcuni strumenti recenti tratti dalla Stylistics inglese – gli attractors di Peter Stockwell e i rilievi di Joanna Gavins sulla poesia apofatica – per riflettere sullo stile del poemetto e sulle sue peculiarità concettuali

Why Configurations

Il comitato direttivo di Configurazioni. Ricerche sulla poesia contemporanea spiega le linee guida e le direzioni di ricerca che caratterizzano la rivista.The steering committee of Configurations. Research on Contemporary Poetry explains the guidelines and research directions that characterise the journal