Al limite. L'infanzia, la follia, l'amore in Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras \ue8 stata una scrittrice continua: ha scritto molto e la sua produzione letteraria non ha attraversato fasi di totale interruzione. Questa continuit\ue0 riguarda anche i temi e le figure dei suoi testi: l\u2019opera della scrittrice si caratterizza infatti per la ripresa di temi e figure da un testo all\u2019altro. Nella continuit\ue0 sono tuttavia riconoscibili variazioni che coinvolgono, oltre ai temi e alle figure, anche le forme delle opere. Alcune di queste variazioni sono legate a dei momenti di crisi e di difficolt\ue0 che la scrittura durassiana ha conosciuto. Basti pensare, in questo senso, alla fatica che cost\uf2 a Duras portare a termine la stesura di Il viceconsole e alla successiva decisione di dedicarsi al cinema, oppure allo scoraggiamento che colp\uec la scrittrice, alla fine degli anni settanta, quando per obbligarsi a scrivere accett\uf2 l\u2019incarico di stendere la sceneggiatura di un nuovo film e, non sapendo pi\uf9 cosa e a chi scrivere, inizi\uf2 a comporre delle lettere a un interlocutore sconosciuto, dando forma cos\uec a quello che sarebbe diventato il ciclo di Aur\ue9lia Steiner. Questi momenti di crisi non segnano delle interruzioni della scrittura, ma danno piuttosto origine ad alcune delle variazioni e dei cambiamenti a cui si accennava sopra. Si pu\uf2 dire che ci\uf2 che \ue8 veramente continuo nell\u2019opera di Duras sia l\u2019esigenza di scrivere. Le variazioni dipendono dalle condizioni con cui tale esigenza si deve confrontare. Scrivere per Duras si configura come un\u2019intima esigenza allo stesso tempo estetica, conoscitiva e \u201cspirituale\u201d e come tale si mantiene nel corso di tutta la produzione della scrittrice. L\u2019esigenza di scrivere nel corso della produzione durassiana si spoglia sempre pi\uf9 di qualsiasi intenzione esterna alla scrittura stessa e, nella povert\ue0 che raggiunge, sembra voler attingere alla forza di un gesto inaugurale e arcaico qual \ue8 per la scrittrice quello con cui in epoca preistorica degli esseri umani lasciarono delle impronte delle loro mani sulle pareti delle grotte. Duras si sofferma su questo gesto in Les mains n\ue9gatives, un testo del 1979 che accompagna le immagini di un cortometraggio che ha lo stesso titolo. La scrittrice risale da quelle impronte al gesto di un uomo solo che grida, davanti all\u2019oceano e davanti all\u2019immensit\ue0 e all\u2019incomprensibilit\ue0 del mondo il suo amore per un \u201ctu\u201d, ancora prima che sia stata inventata la parola \u201cdesiderio\u201d. Del grido di quell\u2019uomo rimangono le impronte colorate delle mani sulla parete. Attraverso il grido e le impronte delle mani quell\u2019uomo preistorico, arcaico, nella lettura di Duras, si rivolge a un altro o a un\u2019altra sconosciuti, apre lo spazio a un altrove e a un altro tempo, dai quali non avr\ue0 alcuna risposta. Le impronte delle mani tuttavia sono testimonianza assoluta del fatto che l\u2019evento di una presenza (umana) \ue8 accaduto. Questo evento coincide con il rivolgersi a un altro, con l\u2019apertura a un altrove, all\u2019assoluto. La scrittura di Duras, nel suo avvicinarsi e sovrapporsi sempre di pi\uf9 alla vita, sembra voler attingere all\u2019urgenza di un simile gesto inaugurale, che \ue8 radicato profondamente nel vissuto e che apre quest\u2019ultimo all\u2019assoluto. Nel suo progressivo impoverimento, la scrittura durassiana sembra voler attingere a una dimensione del linguaggio che \u201cprecede\u201d la sua funzione significante, ma che recupera piuttosto l\u2019urgenza e la necessit\ue0 di una parola, per certi versi sacra, che si origina, senza premeditazione ma come bisogno, dal vissuto stesso. In questa parola e in questa scrittura, che avrebbero la necessit\ue0 di un gesto involontario e non soggettivo, di un gesto \uabd\u2019ispirazione\ubb, si condenserebbero la concretezza del vissuto e l\u2019esigenza di assoluto, trasfigurandosi in \u201cverit\ue0\u201d. Questa scrittura, lasciata al suo \uabstato di apparizione\ubb, rivela e allo stesso tempo presenta l\u2019apertura all\u2019assoluto del vissuto singolare. Il vissuto singolare nel quale si radica la scrittura durassiana non coincide quindi con ci\uf2 che si pu\uf2 chiamare un\u2019esperienza personale o soggettiva. Si tratta piuttosto di un\u2019esperienza non appropriabile soggettivamente, ma che apre il vissuto soggettivo a ci\uf2 che non \ue8 soggettivo, all\u2019assoluto. Pur non essendo appropriabile soggettivamente, tale esperienza non \ue8 qualcosa di vago, ma \ue8 piuttosto un evento singolare. Duras, con la scrittura, cerca di far emergere, raggiungere e suscitare il carattere assolutamente singolare del vissuto, cerca di trasfigurare l\u2019esperienza in \u201cverit\ue0\u201d, in un evento inaugurale e originario. Questa trasfigurazione \ue8 la scrittura; si tratta di una trasfigurazione che avviene, per usare un\u2019espressione durassiana, nell\u2019 \uabombra interna\ubb, dove il vissuto si forma e viene rivissuto, e che accompagna costantemente la vita. Nella produzione durassiana questa apertura all\u2019assoluto e questa trasfigurazione assumono una particolare sfumatura, che \ue8 peculiare all\u2019opera della scrittrice francese e molto significativa. L\u2019apertura all\u2019assoluto non coincide completamente n\ue9 con un ricorso alle risorse collettive del mito n\ue9 con uno scivolamento verso l\u2019impersonale. Sia il mito sia un orizzonte impersonale sono dimensioni in cui la soggettivit\ue0 si apre e si perde. Duras, nella sua opera, si dimostra consapevole del fatto che la soggettivit\ue0 non \ue8 e non pu\uf2 essere una sostanza chiusa. La sua scrittura stessa si configura come esperienza dei limiti. Tuttavia le esperienze dei limiti in Duras non si risolvono nella completa dispersione nell\u2019impersonale o nella sparizione dietro le forme del mito. Una volta rotta la chiusura della soggettivit\ue0, lo sguardo della scrittrice si rivolge a ci\uf2 che rimane di quell\u2019evento: rimangono presenti i corpi, le voci di persone folli, la parola della mendicante, le grida del viceconsole, le parole \u201csacre\u201d della donna di Il sigillatore dell\u2019acqua, la contiguit\ue0 dei corpi degli amanti di La malattia della morte e di Occhi blu capelli neri. Quei corpi, quelle voci, quelle parole e quella contiguit\ue0 non sanno pi\uf9 offrire un orientamento di senso, ma sono tuttavia presenti e vivi singolarmente. Chi vive un\u2019esperienza limite, chi si apre all\u2019assoluto, chi scrive, anche se non ha la pretesa o la forza di presentarsi come un soggetto, \ue8 nondimeno un essere singolare, non impersonale. Anche la sua esperienza, le sue parole e la sua scrittura sono singolari e non impersonale. Se le esperienze dei limiti rompono la chiusura della soggettivit\ue0, esse in Duras non portano alla dispersione, ma lasciano emergere una dimensione materiale che, anche se non \ue8 appropriabile soggettivamente, non \ue8 nemmeno impersonale. Le esperienze limite sono assolutamente singolari. Il problema della crisi della soggettivit\ue0 \ue8 completamente attraversato dalla scrittura durassiana. Si potrebbe dire che quest\u2019ultima, a partire da questa condizione critica, si spinga fino a vedere chi o cosa rimane al di l\ue0 di questa crisi. Rimane ancora qualcuno, consegnato ad una condizione particolare che \ue8 quella di essere cassa di risonanza di ci\uf2 che lo attraversa. A partire da questa prospettiva, a mio avviso, si pu\uf2 intuire il valore che per Duras ha scrivere a partire da s\ue9, dal proprio vissuto: si tratta di trovare e allo stesso tempo lasciar emergere l\u2019esigenza e la necessit\ue0 di scrivere, l\u2019esigenza di una parola \u201cvera\u201d che trasfiguri il vissuto in \u201cverit\ue0\u201d. Questa necessit\ue0 e questa parola non possono che essere singolari.TO THE LIMIT INFANCY, MADNESS AND LOVE IN MARGUERITE DURAS Marguerite Duras\u2019 writing often concerns what we can call experiences of limits. Not only the characters of Marguerite Duras\u2019 works express this experience of limits, but also writing itself becomes an experience of limits. In my study I\u2019ve tried to read Marguerite Duras' production in connection with this notion of experience of limits. I've considered it under three principal acceptations: psychoanalytic, narratological and philosophical. In psychoanalytic terms we can say, as Madeleine Borgomano wrote, that Marguerite Duras\u2019 writing is based on an experience of limits that separates the conscious from the unconscious . In Marguerite Duras\u2019 works the unconscious seems to irrupt through the language and to rouse its rational coherence. This irruption has evident effects on writing itself and on the structure of Marguerite Duras' works. The basic elements of the narrative form are called into question: Who is writing? Which relationship is there between the narrative voice and the writer? What can or can't we say with the language? These questions, on which narratology insists, have an immediate philosophical resonance. Subjectivity, language, social and political separation and limitation are considered. In general we can say that being at the limit of something means being at the threshold which separates something from something else, that we often cannot define, and, at the same time, it means considering this same separation. Whatever we are at the limit of, whatever is the process that has brought to the limit, on that limit rises an interrogation about the sense. This general and, at the same time, precise interrogation is effective and put us on hold between sense and non sense. The discourse can\u2019t be descriptive any more, but assumes a problematic feature which, just because it puts into question the sense of the discourse, puts into question also the form of the discourse. In this sense Marguerite Duras\u2019 writing is an experience of limits. From whatever perspective we read her works, they will always let an interrogation like this rise. This interrogation does not belong exclusively to philosophy but it involves it somehow, just because philosophy is a thinking about limits. This study is divided in three parts. Every one of them is dedicated to a different experience of limits. The first part concerns infancy, the second madness and the third love. These three experience of limits, so important in Duras\u2019 production, put under discussion different limits that build the human world. Infancy is a region of human experience in which nature and culture are not so clearly separated. Furthermore infancy has a relationship with the language that is not submitted to the logic of the signified but that is strictly connected with the singular emotional experience. Madness is an experience of limits that separates what we call reason and unreason. To follow the behaviour of the characters who cross these limits, as Duras\u2019 writing does, means to question this separation itself, that has social, political and subjective origin and effects. Madness makes appear forces and dynamics of desire which are not submitted to the rational logic of the sense but which move unconsciously human behavior. What can we say about this unconscious forces? How can we write about what escapes the rules of the language and the reason? Love and desire are themes that go right through the whole of Duras\u2019 production. They are experiences of limits: the limits that separate the one from the other, the subject of desire from the object of desire. Love and desire create a movement from the self to the other which takes into account their separation. How can we write about love if it tends to a unity in which subjectivities disappear? Can love really realize this unity? If not, what\u2019s love, what can we write about it? As we can see, all these experiences of limits involve writing, which is, in the end, the very experience of limits for Marguerite Duras. The need to write has a biographical origin in the infancy of Marguerite Duras, probably connected, as we can notice in the earliest works, with a desire of personal, social and \u201cspiritual\u201d emancipation which makes the act of writing an experience of limits related to the present condition and an opening to an absolute horizon. Soon this absolute horizon appears unattainable and writing becomes an endless proliferation of language around this fundamental lack. Desire has no other object but the desire itself. Writing has no other object but writing itself. The lack at the heart of the desire, of the subject and of the language has been well pointed out by Jacques Lacan and by some contemporary philosophers and critics, like, for example, Maurice Blanchot. This last one, who Duras knew very well, theorized the proliferation of the language around an unattainable absolute or an unattainable immediacy as the essential movement of the literary writing. In this way writing is not submitted to the writer's subjective and rational intentions any more, but becomes an impersonal writing at the third person. On one hand Duras\u2019 works let us see that she shared this kind of reflections, on the other hand we must underline some signifying differences. Carefully reading her works we can find another experience of the language that is not oriented by a lack, but that is linked to the presence and to the singular experience. This singular experience is not the subjective experience, about which we can compose some narratives, especially autobiographical narratives, but it must be considered as an event in which we have been involved. Duras\u2019 writing pays attention to the absolutely singular dimension of the event, as to something that happens in a precise moment and in a precise place in a certain way. Even if we cannot build any narratives about this event, because it eludes the subjective control, it happens and it involves us in our singular condition, which is not impersonal. This means to emphasize the element of the presence and not only the element of the absence. Duras seems to look for and tries to let emerge the need of a \u201ctrue word\u201d strictly connected with the singular experience. This need and this word can\u2019t be anything else but singular

Travels of a Rayed Head: imagery, fiber, structure and connotations of early textiles from the South Central Andes

The rayed head image has long been identified as a central symbol associated with the Paracas tradition, also called the sun face 1 and associated with the concept of Oculate Being developed by the Berkeley School. 2 Prominently repeated on the central ground of the famous Paracas Textile at the Brooklyn Museum, this image has much earlier antecedents in the region. Scholars disagree on the extent to which many Paracas, Topara and early Nasca images with large round eyes, grinning mouths, and serpentlike appendages emitting from the head and body may also be manifestations of a particular Oculate Being or of more general concepts of natural or supernatural power. Recently, contemporary textiles found in the Sihuas valley to the south (see Haeberli in this volume) challenge us to reexamine the similarities and distinctions among rayed heads. One of the great challenges of the history of material culture, envisioned as a history of philosophical concepts, social values and cultural practices through their inscription in material objects, is the degree to which a recurrent image, pattern or special arrangement reflects a similar idea. A number of quite different images have been associated with the concept of an Oculate Being proposed by John Rowe and others of the Berkeley school based on their analysis of Ica valley ceramics and Ocucaje gravelots in the 1950s. I here trace the rayed head or sun face image as it occurs over at least 500 years in the region of Ica and Paracas. I then briefly consider its relationship to other contemporary imagery and later imagery featuring ray-like elements emitted from the head, both in the same contexts where the rayed head appears, and in other cemeteries to the south in southern Peru and northern Chile. All the imagery discussed here is associated with a period between about 450 BC and AD 450 called the Formative in the South Central Andes (Bolivia and northern Chile) and called the Early Horizon (or late Formative) and Early Intermediate (or Regional Development) Period in the Central Andes. Most of the images I discuss are created on textiles. While only recovered from burials on the desert coast, textile materials draw on relationships of production and exchange that spanned the Andean cordillera to the montane rainforest to the east, and stretched to the north and south. Either as clothing or cargo, textiles themselves traveled and were no doubt a primary source of non-local imagery. I do consider related images on non-textile artifacts. I compare textile based imagery with contemporary imagery on engraved and painted ceramics and gourds to try to distinguish among design features specific to medium, style and iconography

Neural stem cell transplantation in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis: an open-label, phase 1 study

Innovative pro-regenerative treatment strategies for progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS), combining neuroprotection and immunomodulation, represent an unmet need. Neural precursor cells (NPCs) transplanted in animal models of multiple sclerosis have shown preclinical efficacy by promoting neuroprotection and remyelination by releasing molecules sustaining trophic support and neural plasticity. Here we present the results of STEMS, a prospective, therapeutic exploratory, non-randomized, open-label, single-dose-finding phase 1 clinical trial (NCT03269071, EudraCT 2016-002020-86), performed at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy, evaluating the feasibility, safety and tolerability of intrathecally transplanted human fetal NPCs (hfNPCs) in 12 patients with PMS (with evidence of disease progression, Expanded Disability Status Scale >= 6.5, age 18-55 years, disease duration 2-20 years, without any alternative approved therapy). The safety primary outcome was reached, with no severe adverse reactions related to hfNPCs at 2-year follow-up, clearly demonstrating that hfNPC therapy in PMS is feasible, safe and tolerable. Exploratory secondary analyses showed a lower rate of brain atrophy in patients receiving the highest dosage of hfNPCs and increased cerebrospinal fluid levels of anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective molecules. Although preliminary, these results support the rationale and value of future clinical studies with the highest dose of hfNPCs in a larger cohort of patients

A role for leukocyte-endothelial adhesion mechanisms in epilepsy

The mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder that affects approximately 1 percent of the world population, are not well understood1–3. Using a mouse model of epilepsy, we show that seizures induce elevated expression of vascular cell adhesion molecules and enhanced leukocyte rolling and arrest in brain vessels mediated by the leukocyte mucin P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) and leukocyte integrins α4β1 and αLβ2. Inhibition of leukocyte-vascular interactions either with blocking antibodies, or in mice genetically deficient in functional PSGL-1, dramatically reduced seizures. Treatment with blocking antibodies following acute seizures prevented the development of epilepsy. Neutrophil depletion also inhibited acute seizure induction and chronic spontaneous recurrent seizures. Blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage, which is known to enhance neuronal excitability, was induced by acute seizure activity but was prevented by blockade of leukocyte-vascular adhesion, suggesting a pathogenetic link between leukocyte-vascular interactions, BBB damage and seizure generation. Consistent with potential leukocyte involvement in the human, leukocytes were more abundant in brains of epileptics than of controls. Our results suggest leukocyte-endothelial interaction as a potential target for the prevention and treatment of epilepsy

Naveneva

Naveneva is the dance performance produced by the Company Naturalis Labor in 2013 for a young audience. Paolo Ottoboni, actor and dancer, recalls the performative and compositional process which led to the project. The performance is the work of a team and is focused on marine stories which are legendary and mimetic. The dancers are persuaded that «the child is a metaphysical being»

EVIDENCES ABOUT THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GRINDING AIDS AND CEMENT PARTICLES SURFACE,

reserved3siGronchi, Paolo; Paternò, Valerio Antonio; Ottoboni, SaraGronchi, Paolo; Paterno', VALERIO ANTONIO; Ottoboni, Sar

Characterization of an arbitrary medium voltage signal generator

Medium voltage transducers are calibrated by applying sinusoidal signals at their primary side and comparing the secondary output with that of a reference transducer. It is clear that this is a particular working condition that is often quite different from the actual one. In fact, voltage distortion in nowadays distribution networks can be not negligible. The measurement of these harmonic components is becoming more and more important, in particular for power quality monitoring. Therefore, the whole process of calibration should be reconsidered in order to take into account the behavior also under these operating conditions. A possible solution is to test the transducers by applying signals having a harmonic content similar to that which can be found in distribution networks. In order to perform such a kind of test an arbitrary medium voltage generator is required. This paper describes a voltage transducer testing setup based on a medium voltage generator proposed by the author in a recent paper. Moreover an evaluation of the generation accuracy is provided when the setup is used to test voltage transducers under realistic working conditions

Properties of steel surfaces coated with organic molecules

Superhydrophobic state is one of the most interesting and attractive topic in these years due to the wide application possibilities. Roughness and surface tension are the main parameters to be controlled to obtain a surface with hydrophobic properties. The topic of this thesis is to investigate how substrate roughness and coating deposition parameters influence wettability properties. Different chemo-physical surface properties were performed by creating different substrate roughness and by applying different coatings. As substrate has been chosen mild carbon steel, use both as received and after sandblasting treatment. Over these substrates a thin organic film coating has been applied. The employed coatings were purchased or were synthesized and characterized in laboratory. Their deposition procedure was made of three main steps: cleaning, etching and post thermal treatment. Etching time and post thermal treatment has been widely surveyed to respectively improve active sites concentration on the metallic substrate and to improve the strength of anchoring bonding. For each kind of coating, three different alkyl chain lengths have been studied to understand their role in the wettability. Optical contact angle analysis was used to establish wetting properties, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to characterize samples mechanical properties (roughness and coatings adhesion force). Glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES) characterization was used to quantify coatings thickness and to determine their chemical composition. Electrical samples properties were studied by electrochemical impedance (EI), while surface morphologies were detected by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM)