Adaptation-induced Tourism for Consumers of Literature on Screen: the Experience of Jane Austen Fans

My aim in this article is that of starting to relate the expanding research field of adaptation studies to the subject area of film-induced tourism. Adaptations are a specific typology of films: that is, films whose story was not originally intended for the screen but, more often than not, for the written page, and has, therefore, been ‘translated’ into a new medium. The phenomenon of adaptation has been at the center of a heated debate for a few years now, but the specific link between adaptation and tourism has not yet been studied in its own right. In my article I question why and how adaptations of literary texts for the screen can induce a desire to visit film locations (actual geographical places) in readers who are also inclined to enjoy the experience of “literature on screen”. In order to do this, I focus on the case study of adaptations from Jane Austen’s novels and on a specific kind of tourists, the so called ‘Janeites’, or Austen fans. In questo saggio intendo mettere in relazione il campo di studi sull’adattamento filmico, che specie in ambito anglosassone è molto fiorente, con l’area di ricerca del cineturismo. Gli adattamenti sono, infatti, una particolare tipologia di film: si tratta di film le cui storie non nascono originariamente per lo schermo ma quasi sempre per la pagina a stampa e sono, dunque, ‘letteratura’ tradotta in un nuovo mezzo audiovisivo. Il fenomeno dell’adattamento, nelle sue varie accezioni non solo cinematografiche, è da diversi anni al centro di un vivace dibattito, ma la specifica connessione fra adattamento e turismo non è ancora stata adeguatamente studiata dagli specialisti di entrambi i settori. La domanda da cui il presente saggio muove è invece: perché e come l’adattamento di testi letterari per lo schermo può indurre il desiderio di visitare una location (che è poi un reale luogo geografico) in lettori inclini a gradire anche l’esperienza della “letteratura su schermo”. Per cominciare a rispondere, ho deciso di concentrarmi sul caso di studio degli adattamenti dai romanzi di Jane Austen, analizzando una particolare tipologia di turisti: i fan di Austen, noti anche come ‘Janeites’

Theatre Strikes Back in the Digital Era: An Interview with Stephan Wolfert

In this edited interview, Stephan Wolfert, American actor and playwright, talks about his pluri-awarded play, Cry Havoc, a one-man show he has been performing since 2012 with several variations through the years; the play is autobiographical but it is also the exemplary story of many US veterans who cannot find a way to readjust to civilian rules once they come back home. The play tells of Wolfert’s struggle with Shakespeare’s words in order to find his own voice to speak what could not be said differently: his own trauma. By bringing to the fore a number of veterans in Shakespeare’s plays, starting from Richard III to Hotspur, Henry V, Coriolanus and many others, Wolfert fascinatingly lights up corners of the Shakespearean macro-text which we knew were there without really seeing them. Wolfert’s approach, in his show as well as in the use of Shakespeare within the DE-CRUIT Veterans Programme he founded, highlights the importance of human interaction through the mediation of the most ancient among media: theatre. Shakespeare’s writing for the theatre, with its characteristic intermedial quality (as it is suspended between page and stage) and cross-cultural inclination (as it has travelled the world), reactivates a holistic sense of the body and, in so doing, it channels powerful and deep physical emotions that can be expressed and shared with mutual benefit by actors and audience alike within the safe communication environment of theatre. Wolfert’s work makes the most of all this and even puts Shakespeare’s language to a therapeutic use for US veterans

Performance Review "Della rovina, di tempo e di bellezza: Shakespeare e il destino di Roma", a Palladium Theatre Production (2016)

This is a review article about a Palladium Theatre production which was performed as a contribution to the Rome celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Shakespeare 2016. The Memory of Rome (7-20 April 2016)

Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes

I protagonisti delle principali tragedie shakespeariane analizzati nei loro vari aspetti drammaturgici, psicologici, antropologici; alla ricerca di ciò che rende questi personaggi immortali, archetipi potenti e credibili dell'animo umano e per questo ancora oggi fonte di ispirazione per lo story telling in ogni sua forma, dalla narrativa al cinema, dal teatro alle serie tv. Interventi di esperti e interviste arricchiti da repertorio e materiale iconografico, si alternano all'interpretazione in lingua inglese dei principali monologhi tratti dalle tragedie di Shakespeare e a suggestive riletture che ripropongono i personaggi shakespeariani in chiave contemporanea

The Italian Dream. Learning English with Shakespeare

Documentario di RAI Scuola in quattro puntate sul format di PCTO dedicato all'insegnamento della lingua inglese attraverso Shakespeare e allo sviluppo delle competenze trasversal