Silence and Voices in James’s Venice

Henry James’s descriptions, rich in visual details, often seem ‘muted’ from the point of view of sound. However, one particular sound seems to interest him more and more through the years: voices. In his works on Venice, voices seem to acquire a special value against the silence of the city, i.e. the absence of mechanical noises. Voices belong to people, but also to Venetian buildings, forecasting the use of voices regularly attributed to buildings in The American Scene. In Venice, gondoliers’ voices have a special relevance: in spite of their “contempt for consonants and other disagreeables” James does not seem to condemn them, on the contrary he appreciates them. An odd position for a writer who criticized harshly the language of American women and of ethnic groups in America. The reason may be ascribed to the fact that Italian is not the beloved language of Shakespeare and of American democracy, but also to the dreamlike quality of the city, or to the writer’s seeing Venice as a woman with whom he falls in love

Venice As Pedestrian City And Tourist Magnet Mass Events And Ordinary Life

In Venice the famous network of pedestrian foot-ways deserves attention and research since has to face very often mass events. Even the ordinary mobility has peculiar needs. The efficiency of main road and rail transportation infrastructures and of the principal hub of modal interchange, relays on the service quality of the pedestrian infrastructure in the old city. This is matter for an original investigation.En Venecia, la famosa red de vías peatonales merece atención y análisis ya que se enfrenta muy frecuentemente a eventos masificados. Incluso la movilidad ordinaria cuenta con necesidades particulares. La eficiencia de la carretera principal, las infraestructuras ferroviarias, y el hub principal de intercambio modal, depende de la calidad del servicio de la infraestructura peatonal de la antigua ciudad. Este es el tema de una original investigación.  

Insegnare la lingua italiana con le canzoni d’autore: perché e come utilizzarle nell’approccio didattico orientato all’azione

Il Centro linguistico dell’Università di Losanna propone un corso di lingua italiana basato su 13 canzoni d’autore. Il corso ha due obiettivi: 1. fare conoscere agli studenti la storia e la cultura italiane contemporanee; 2. sviluppare le loro competenze linguistiche per permettergli di discutere dei temi proposti. I testi delle canzoni sono la base per suscitare l’interesse verso questi argomenti e per stimolare il dibattito. Come un’opera letteraria, anche la canzone d’autore è specchio della società e della storia di un paese ed è quindi un ottimo strumento d’insegnamento della lingua. In questo intervento viene spiegato: 1. perché le canzoni d’autore sono il principale materiale didattico, 2. perché le attività e i compiti hanno un approccio orientato all’azione. Keywords: canzone d’autore, musica, storia, società, approccio didattico orientato all’azion

Venice as pedestrian city and tourist magnet: mass events and ordinary life

In Venice the famous network of pedestrian foot-ways deserves attention and research since has to face very often mass events. Even the ordinary mobility has peculiar needs. The efficiency of main road and rail transportation infrastructures and of the principal hub of modal interchange, relays on the service quality of the pedestrian infrastructure in the old city. This is matter for an original investigation.Peer Reviewe

L'importanza del programma Fulbright per Ca' Foscari

The paper deals with the Fulbright exchange program, started by Senator James W. Fulbright in 1946, and active in Italy from 1948, when the Italian government signed the agreement. The Fulbright program was essential in the life and career of many Italian scientists, artists, musicians, etc. and it was very important in opening up American studies at Ca' Foscari, one of the very first universities, with Roma La Sapienza, to start a separate course of American studies in Europe

Caracterización de perturbaciones en calidad de potencia en redes eléctricas.

En el presente trabajo se comparan de manera experimental distintos procedimientos para el análisis de calidad de potencia en redes eléctricas. Para ello se simula una serie de ondas de valores y tipos determinados por los estándares de calidad de potencia, para luego extraer algunas de sus características por medio de su análisis usando la transformada wavelet discreta (DWT). Estas transformadas se realizan con distintas wavelets madres y en distintos niveles de resolución. Posteriormente, calculando sus normas, se obtienen indicadores significativos que permiten la clasificación de las distintas perturbaciones. Las clasificaciones se realizan por cuatro métodos distintos: red neuronal, red bayesiana, árbol de decisión y máquina con soporte de vectores (SVM). Se han logrado resultados satisfactorios para el conjunto de las ondas simuladas, mediante distintas wavelets madres, y diferentes clasificadores. Finalmente, en base a los resultados experimentales obtenidos, se propone un procedimiento de obtención y clasificación de características de las perturbaciones simuladas de la calidad de potencia, mediante algoritmos de bajo costo computacional

Auf schwankendem Grund. Dekadenz und Tod im Venedig der Moderne

Anlass des Bandes ist das Centenarium von Thomas Manns Novelle "Der Tod in Venedig" (1912), in der Gustav von Aschenbach als ein der historischen Wissenschaft verpflichteter Schriftsteller in unsicheres Terrain jenseits rationaler Begrifflichkeit gerät, ins Sehnsuchtsland der Liebe und des Schönen, und schließlich in einen Grenzbereich, in dem alles Gestaltete ins Gestaltlose und schließlich in den Tod übergeht. Venedig um 1900, die auf Wasser gebaute, einstige Seerepublik in politischer Dekadenz ist nicht zufällig dafür topisch, und Aschenbach mit seinen ethischen, ästhetischen und epistemologischen Erschütterungen in Venedig nicht allein. Venedig prägte seine eigene Moderne aus und wurde als physisch erlebter wie imaginier­ter Ort für Dichter, Maler und Musiker zum Spiegel der Krisenerfahrungen um 1900. Anders gesagt: Die Stadt fungierte als Seismograph, mit dem sich der Verlust metaphysischer Gewissheiten, der Verlust des Vertrauens in die Evidenz des Wissens, in die Einheit der Person und der Zuverlässigkeit der Sprache aufzeichnen ließ. Die Unbestimmtheit, der Kontrollverlust, die der Lagu­nenstadt eigene Bewegung ›auf schwankendem Grund‹ wird bei Thomas Mann und seinen Zeitgenossen zum Motor der Kreativität