Un paradosso apparente: Menzogna e Sortilegio, il primo romanzo di Elsa Morante

The work of Elsa Morante (1912-85) falls in two parts and the dividing line can be placed shortly before the middle of the 1960s. Almost all scholars of her work have denied the first two novels any substantial relationship with the historical and local context. The present contribution attempts to prove that in her own paradoxical way the author adheres strictly to some of the most fundamental sources of spiritual inspiration, active in her country in the years immediately following the Second World War in her first published novel, Menzogna e sortilegio (1948)

Persona-driven journalism at Radio24syv: Ditte Okman’s affective labor of performing an unashamed persona

The article proposes an analytical approach to the study of persona-driven journalism. Drawing on concepts from performance studies, the article builds an analytical framework for engaging with empirical material where the performance of the journalist’s personality becomes a central part of the journalistic product. The analysis of journalist and radio host Ditte Okman identifies a journalism practice that draws on bodily expressivity, outspoken attitudes and the creation of a socializing media space. This practice is used to showcase an unashamed persona that creates journalism based on a performance of authenticity and sincerity, which is read as an example of doing affective labor. The main contribution of the article is to conceptualize a methodological approach to the study of persona-driven journalism practices by drawing on ideas and concepts from performance studies, thus adding methodologically to journalism studies

L’isola di Arturo di Elsa Morante

The first two novels of Elsa Morante, Menzogna e sortilegio (1948) and L’isola di Arturo(1957), have always been considered texts without any recognizable relationship to their historical context, contrary to the view expressed by the author that any literary work of value will inevitably contain a portrait of its time. The aim of the present study is to cast light on those aspects of L’isola di Arturo that make it a typical product of the decade 1950-1960

Portrayal by Inappropriate Interaction: Persona meets persona in journalistic profiling

A close reading of three different profiles of Danish-Palestinian poet Yahya Hassan (1995-2020) showcases how interactions between journalists and subjects may become a mutual performative challenge and how, on such occasions, the personas of both parties may serve as a multi-layered journalistic resource in both an ethical and aesthetic sense. Applying the concept of “rhetorical maneuvers” (Phillips 2006) to describe reporters’ uses of an understated ‘first-person minor’ versus a demonstratively responsive ‘first-person major’ perspective (Phillips 2019), we highlight a principle that may reorient interview situations that are tense or out of control. The principle entails continuous shifts of subject form that are potentially inappropriate but enable both contextual transparency and a distinct textual structure or narrative style. By considering the mutual constitution and reconstitution of personas as rhetorical maneuvering we hope first to expand the analytical perspective of persona studies at the level of form while also, secondly, motivating journalists to explore the relational and interactive aspects of persona performances as a resource for occasional, productive disruption of their professional practice