|
Bertinoro, 14-21 settembre 2003 Seminari
Le sujet principal de ce séminaire sera représentations
et utilisations de la Peste dans la littérature et la pensée
européennes à partir du 18e siècle jusqu'au 20e
siècle, en Angleterre, en Italie et en France. La discussion
abordera quatre grands thèmes: le document 'historique' (Defoe);
le roman à l'époque romantique (Manzoni); la crise culturelle
et l'avant-garde (Artaud); l'allégorie éthico-politique
(Camus). Massimo Fusillo, La contaminazione dionisiaca Nella Baccanti di Euripide l'arrivo a Tebe del dio Dioniso provoca
uno sconvolgimento toale della vita della polis, percepito da Penteo
come un'autentica contaminazione (vi compaiono infatti i nuclei tematici
di malattia, follia, delirio, devianza); un elemento che nella ricezione
novecentesca e nelle messinscene teatrali viene sviluppato in chiave
di conflitto fra modelli culturali. Il seminario si incentrerà
in particolare sulla rielaborazione di Wole Soyinka, caratterizzata
da un'ardita contaminazione sincretistica fra la cultura classica, cultura
cristiana, e tradizione Yoruba, che si riverbera anche sul piano stilistico.
Si passerà poi ad un periodo caratterizzato da un grande revival
della figura di Dioniso, sulla scorta di Nietzsche: la narrativa del
primo Novecento, in cui si ritrova lo schema dell'incontro-scontro con
l'alterità che sconvolge un equilibrio preesistente; si analizzeranno
così alcuni testi, in cui talvolta sono stati notati echi delle
Baccanti: la Morte a Venezia di Thomas Mann, in cui compare
anche il tema dell'epidemia; Il Giro di vite di Henry James,
in cui la contaminazione coinvolge la categoria del perturbante; e
Il servo di Robin Maugham; tre testi che hanno dato vita anche a
ben note trasposizioni cinematografiche e operistiche. Infine lo schema
base delle Baccanti verrà rintracciato in Teorema
di Pasolini, film-romanzo che narra la storia della contaminazione di
una famiglia altoborghese da parte di un ospite misterioso, leggibile
appunto (anche) come Dioniso. In Euripides' The Bacchae, when Dionysus arrives at Thebes he upsets the whole life of the polis, and Pentheus perceives this shock as a real contamination (in fact it is thematically characterised by illness, madness, frenzy, deviance). In the Twentieth Century's interpretations and stagings of Euripides' tragedy, this aspect will be read and developed as a conflict between different cultural models. The seminar will especially focus on Wole Soyinka's re-writing of The Bacchae, characterised by a daring syncretistic contamination among classical culture, Christian culture and Yoruba tradition, which is also reflected on the stylistic level. The seminar will then consider the beginning of the Twentieth Century, a period which is marked - along Nietzsche's lines - by a strong revival of the figure of Dionysus. In the early Twentieth Century fiction we find again the paridigm of the encounter/clash with "otherness" which is capable of upsetting a pre-existing equilibrium. Along these lines, we will tackle some early Twentieth Century texts which have been considered reminiscent of The Bacchae: Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, where we find the epidemic theme, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, in which contamination is interwoven with the cathegory of uncanny, and Robin Maugham's The Servant; furthermore, the film or opera adaptations of these texts will be taken into consideration. Finally, we will show that the paradigm of The Bacchae can be found in Pasolini's Teorema, a film-novel which tells the story of a upper middle class family contaminated by a mysterious guest whom can be seen (also) as Dionysus. Texts: Svend Erik Larsen, Contamination as cultural metaphor The contamination of something means a polluting or even poisonous
impact on it from something else, a contagious process that may result
in a state of serious illness. In this way contamination is thought
of as a unilateral process, from outside in or from inside out. Taking
literally, however, contamination is a more open and two sided phenomenon,
the mixing of two or more phenomena with a harmful outcome, the mixing
itself being the basic explanation for the decay. Given this suggestive
vagueness contamination does not mean very much as a concept. But the
semantic openness makes it a very strong metaphor whenever we face a
doubtful impact from outside or a difficult transgression of a boundary
allowing for interaction between what is located on both sides. Contamination,
then, may become a potent metaphor for a collective negative evaluation
of outside influences on a cultural sphere and its value system or of
the blending of different cultural systems, interpreting it as a process
of cultural debasement. On an individual level contamination also may
be related to the body as the center of identity, which is imagined
to be contaminated through some contagious attack on the body. Literature
is, among other things, a reflection on the unilateral or multidirectional
logic of contamination as a metaphorical interpretation of cultural
processes on a collective and individual level. The seminar aims to
discuss the complexity of literature's approach to the understanding
of the role of foreign in these processes in four dimensions, showing
the mutual interdependence of the factors involved in a contamination.
Jürgen Wertheimer, Vergiftete Gefühle (Sentimenti avvelenati)
Das Seminar befasst sich mit einer besonderen Art von Kontamination,
der literarischen Darstellung von Giftmorden. Welche Rolle spielt der
Giftmord als endgültiger Ausdruck extremer Leidenschaft? Inwiefern
können unbändige Gefühle selbst als ein Seelengift verstanden
werden? Wie verändert sich die Wahrnehmung von Giftmorden und die
künstlerische Auseinandersetzung mit ihnen im Lauf der Literaturgeschichte?
Anhand der Lektüre mehrerer kanonischer Texte (unter anderem Euripides
Medea, Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet und Schillers Kabale und Liebe)
werden wir uns bemühen, diesen Fragen nachzugehen und die literarische
Bedeutung"vergifteter Gefühle" zu erklären. Texts:
Theo D'Haen, A Darkness That Is Upon Us In this seminar, we will look at a number of instances of "contamination"
or "contagion" from a colonial/postcolonial point of view,
including the physical and cultural aspects involved. Optional bibliography: Texts Remo Ceserani, La casa infestata tutor: Francesco Ghelli Un esempio particolare di contaminazione è rappresentato dal tema letteraria della casa infestata, cioè di una casa in cui si avverta la presenza inquietante di esseri estranei (fantasmi, abitanti del passato, memorie e incubi ossessivi). Si tratta, in letteratura, di un tema di lunga durata, che ha avuto una forte presenza nella letteratura gotica e in quella fantastica, ma che continua a essere trattato in molta letteratura contemporanea, in particolare in quella postmoderna. Si analizzeranno alcuni testi molto noti, fra cui il bellissimo Le Horla di Maupassant (di cui esistono due versioni), ma anche testi meno noti, in particolare testi minori di grandi autori come Zola, James e Pirandello. An interesting example of contamination is offered by the literary theme of the haunted house, that is of a house in which the uncanny presence of alien beings (ghosts, past inhabitants, lingering memories and nightmares) are perceived. It is, in literature, a long lasting theme, which has been widely present in both the gothic and the fantastic tradition, but is still consistently present in contemporary, and especially post-modern, literature. We will analyze some well-known texts, among which splendid Le Horla by Maupassant (of which two version exist), but also less known texts, such as minor texts by great authots like Zola, James and Pirandello.
|