Irina Marchesini

Florian Mussgnug – Matthew Reza (eds.), The Good Place. Comparative Perspectives on Utopia. Proceedings of Synapsis: European School of Comparative Studies XI

Il volume The Good Place. Comparative Perspectives on Utopia (2014), curato da Florian Mussgnug e da Matthew Reza e dedicato alla memoria di Paolo Zanotti (1971-2012), ospita gli atti dell’undicesima edizione della summer school europea di studi comparati “Synapsis”.

A Rhetoric of Absence. Japanese Motifs in V.V. Nabokov’s Last Novel

Il concetto di assenza sembra svolgere la funzione di pilastro portante all’interno della poetica nabokoviana: la sua azione, che e costantemente tematica in tutti i romanzi, cosi come nella poesia, diventa in certi casi strutturale. Cio e particolarmente evidente nella sua ultima opera, rimasta incompiuta, The Original of Laura (Dying is fun) (2009). Leggere questo libro attraverso il prisma della categoria di lotmaniana memoria pieno-vuoto rivela una strategia semantica e sintagmatica di significazione dell’esperienza tipicamente nabokoviana: il pieno viene evocato dal vuoto e dalla segmentazione. E proprio in quest’ottica che si vogliono indagare le strategie di rappresentazione del corpo femminile messe in atto in questo testo, concentrandosi in particolar modo sulla produttivita della figura retorica dell’asindeto. Si commentera poi la fascinazione dell’autore nei confronti della cultura giapponese, che si rivela decisamente in sintonia con l’immagine di ‘donna’ gia sviluppata da Nabokov nelle sue poesie russe.

Soviet Animation and the Thaw of the 1960s: not only for children

construction and reconstruction, inscription and reinscription. It is the place where we find ourselves, but also where we most intensely experience the feeling of being lost’ (p. 148). Throughout the book, McNeill offers enough historical and biographical context for readers to glean insights even from analyses of works they have not seen. She also helpfully includes quotations in the original French and her own translations, offering Francophones the option of referring to the source verbatim and Anglophones the benefit of clear, accurate conversions into English. Most important, her lucid and approachable review of memory theory and her compelling extension of the subfield, particularly regarding the formal manifestations of contemporary moving images, make her work a memorable contribution for media scholars and scholars across disciplines.

Teaching Russian Literature in Italian Universities: Problems and Possible Solutions

Vladimir Vladimirovic Nabokov is undoubtedly a key figure of world literature. Nonetheless, together with his legacy as a writer, his activity as a University teacher should be considered. This aspect, often marginalized by Nabokov criticism, deserves greater recognition. Indeed, it could stimulate interesting theoretical reflections on how to teach literature, especially Russian. In this perspective, this paper discusses some of the most common problems in teaching Russian literature in Italian universities, suggesting possible solutions inferred from Nabokov’s Lectures on Russian Literature (1981).

Small Generators of Desire. On the Meronimic Function of Objects in Ivan A. Pyr’ev’s Cinema

In a recent article, Olaf Moller has stressed the enigmatic character of Pyr’ev’s production, referring in particular to his “political wisdom” and to his profound understanding of the Soviet mind-set. “For Pyr’ev,” writes Moller, “cinema meant intelligent entertainment for the masses – a people’s art. He made films to be thoroughly understood, and he knew that stories and images everybody knew were a short-cut to the collective unconscious, the dream life of a nation, its desires and fears, angels and demons. He knew what people longed for” (2012: 215). On the basis of these premises, the essay analyses how desire is built within Pyr’ev’s language. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between gaze, film and stimulation of desire. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks provided by the Soviet cultural studies and the so-called “gaze theories”, this study examines several films belonging to the genre of the Kolchoz musical comedy, such as Svinarka i Pastuch (1941) and Kubanskie Kazaki (1950).

The character in Škola dlja Durakov . From the novel by Saša Sokolov to theatrical adaptations

Sokolov’s Shkola dlya Durakov ( A School for Fools , 1976) is an extremely complex novel, which “depicts [the] world”, as D. Barton Johnson (1986:640) [1] poignantly observes, “through the eyes, and pure, if eccentric, language, of a schizophrenic youth”. How is it possible to translate such linguistic features and the effects they create into another medium? This question lies at the core of my proposal, which aims to approach the problem of intermedial translation from prose to theatre through the presentation of an individual case-study. In fact, A School for Fools has been staged by the director Andrey Moguchy (Formalny Theatre, Saint Petersburg, Russia). With the intention of reproducing Sokolov’s aesthetic construction of illusion, Moguchy introduces a new genre in the theatrical context, the so-called “ vizualnaya associaciya ” (“visual association”). As the director explained in a recent interview, this original genre recalls the Impressionists’ position in observing and representing nature, in order to obtain the same effect generated by the reading of the novel. To comprehend this process better, special attention is devoted to the construction of unusual, hybrid characters, highlighting their constitutive features both in the novel and in the theatrical adaptation. Moreover, this research seeks to enrich discussion of the work of Sokolov and Moguchy. [1] Johnson, D. Barton (1986) “Sasha Sokolovs Twilight Cosmos: Themes and Motifs”, in: Slavic Review , 45, 4 (Winter 1986), pp. 639-649.