Papers by Manuela Marchesini
Beyond Pasolini and Calvino: Exordium and Closure in Carlo Emilio Gadda's Impure Literature
Nuova Rivista di Letteratura Italiana, Jun 1, 2006
Carla Benedetti, nell'ambito del dibattito "Pasolini contro Calvino. Per una lettura imp... more Carla Benedetti, nell'ambito del dibattito "Pasolini contro Calvino. Per una lettura impura", ha cercato di porre a confronto l'intellettualismo di Calvino contro il vitalismo di Pasolini sottolineandone l'importanza e la rilevanza. Differente e, invece, l'opinione offerta da Antonio Moresco che vede in Carlo Emilio Gadda un completamento e una svolta nel mondo letterario italiano. L'intervento e corredato da una bibliografia delle opere citate.
Forum Italicum: A Journal of Italian Studies, 2014
In his film The Wedding Director (2006), Marco Bellocchio expresses his view of the ‘Italian diff... more In his film The Wedding Director (2006), Marco Bellocchio expresses his view of the ‘Italian difference’ that demarcates this national tradition from others with the refrain ‘In Italy the dead rule.’ This adage is repeated throughout his film and provides the motivation behind it. For Bellocchio, the dead in question belong primarily, though not solely, to the Italian parochial heritage exemplified by Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed (1840), and in particular by Mario Camerini’s film adaptation of the same novel (1941). In The Wedding Director, Bellocchio enacts yet another, albeit eclectic, adaptation of these palimpsests, desecrating them and the values they supposedly stand for. Crowned by a happy ending, The Wedding Director surpasses its targets, advocating for their visual and conceptual inadequacy. This essay analyzes Bellocchio’s film using a theoretical approach that I see articulated in two critical texts and four creative instances. Firstly, I analyze The Wedding Direct...
per un "Gadda narratore (…) persino più temerario del Gadda stilista" Gianfranco Contini, Quarant... more per un "Gadda narratore (…) persino più temerario del Gadda stilista" Gianfranco Contini, Quarant'anni di amicizia, 53.
Le Ragioni Di Alatiel (Decameron II. 7)
Studi sul Boccaccio, 1994
In a 1996 essay entitled ‘Comedia’, Giorgio Agamben argues that Dante’s title accounts for the co... more In a 1996 essay entitled ‘Comedia’, Giorgio Agamben argues that Dante’s title accounts for the comic but reparable ontological split of the Christian Middle Ages, which is intrinsically opposed to the tragic, irreparable conflict proper to ancient classical theatre. The Italian philosopher leaves aside the traditional explanations of comedy (a sad beginning with a felicitous ending, a mixed literary style). He finds Dante’s ‘poema sacro’ to be a ‘comedy’ because its Christian framework allows for […]
Pizzuto e Beckett, ovvero la scrittura come pittogramma: «Signorina Rosina»
Strumenti Critici, 2003
... | Ayuda. Pizzuto e Beckett, ovvero la scrittura come pittogramma: «Signorina Rosina». Autores... more ... | Ayuda. Pizzuto e Beckett, ovvero la scrittura come pittogramma: «Signorina Rosina». Autores:Manuela Marchesini; Localización: Strumenti Critici, ISSN 0039-2618, Nº. 102, 2003 , pags. 183-201. © 2001-2010 Universidad de La Rioja · Todos los derechos reservados. ...
Manuela Marchesini - the Montesi Scandal: The Death of Wilma Montesi and the Birth of the Paparazzi in Fellini's Rome (Review) - South Central Review 24:2
Scrittori in funzione d'altro : Longhi, Contini, Gadda, 2005
The Reenchantment of Literature. An Italian Case
Política Común, 2015
"le catene dell'identità che ci portano alla rovina". Gadda e Lakhous, stranieri e basta, 2019
Abstract: Delle catene identitarie non si fa a meno, eppure liberarsene è necessario (Appiah 201... more Abstract: Delle catene identitarie non si fa a meno, eppure liberarsene è necessario (Appiah 2018). Oggetto del saggio sono Scontro di civiltà (2006) di Lakhous e il Pasticciaccio di Gadda (1957), in cui Lakhous vede un modello. Ci si chiede: che luce retrospettiva getta il romanzo del nuovo italiano sul classico Pasticciaccio? La tesi avanzata è che l’avvertita semplicità del primo renda accessibili aspetti insoliti del notoriamente complesso Pasticciaccio. Ambedue esaminano il mito identitario, insufficiente sono come allora. Ma la mitografia espansa di Gadda e Lakhous non è nostalgica né reazionaria. Essa non restaura un ordine conservatore né dissolve nel frisson dell’irrazionale. Per Lakhous il punto sono identità e memoria etniche, nazionali e culturali; per Gadda è il loro enigma in accezione psicologica ed erotica, di genere queer. Ecco il loro carattere non-binario, antiromantico e antidealistico, cui Contini forse alludeva insinuando l’eventualità d’un “Gadda narratore” “persino più temerario del Gadda stilista”.
L'elica e il sistema: I miti del somaro di Carlo Emilio Gadda
Italica, 1997
Pietro Verri che Gadda porta ad esemplare di comprensione del va-lore normativo dell'esperie... more Pietro Verri che Gadda porta ad esemplare di comprensione del va-lore normativo dell'esperienze storica; cosi il cerchio si chiude sul bel cielo di Lombardia. Ma la settecentesca ed illuminata e una delle facce del mito positivo, cui l'altra e senz'altro il "positivismo" ottocentesco. E ...
—. “In Italy the Dead Rule: Marco Bellocchio’s Italian Difference between Manzoni-Camerini and Bene-Godard.” Forum Italicum, Fall 2014. Print.
In his film
The Wedding Director (2006), Marco Bellocchio expresses his view of the ‘Italian dif... more In his film
The Wedding Director (2006), Marco Bellocchio expresses his view of the ‘Italian difference’that demarcates this national tradition from others with the refrain ‘In Italy the dead rule.’ This adage is repeated throughout his film and provides the motivation behind
it. For Bellocchio, the dead in question belong primarily, though not solely, to the Italian parochial heritage exemplified by Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed (1840), and in particular by Mario Camerini’s film adaptation of the same novel (1941). In The Wedding Director, Bellocchio enacts yet another, albeit eclectic, adaptation of these pal-
impsests, desecrating them and the values they supposedly stand for. Crowned by a happy ending, The Wedding Director
surpasses its targets, advocating for their visual and con-
ceptual inadequacy. This essay analyzes Bellocchio’s film using a theoretical approach that I see articulated in two critical texts and four creative instances. Firstly, I analyze The
Wedding Directorin light of the concepts that Gilles Deleuze used for Carmelo Bene’s adaptations of classic works; secondly, through Richard Neer’s 2007 reflections on Jean-Luc Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma. My analyses result in a dual interpretation of Bellocchio’s film. I argue that in The Wedding Director Bellocchio enters into conversation with and implements the ideas of the intellectuals and artists mentioned above. He sets off from the conclusion of Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2. Nevertheless, The Wedding Director is also marred by ambiguities that, although perhaps unavoidable, detract from his accomplishments. Those ambivalences involve the issue of gender relations, which – as Bellocchio himself declares – are at the core of his concerns in The Wedding Director. I argue that on the one hand Bellocchio’s film is an empowering Deleuzian or Godardian adaptation of Manzoni’s source text. On the other, it may also be construed as professing an opportunistic, if not downright cynical, view of gender relations. While the film presents the audience with a principled Deleuzian becoming-minority as a becoming-woman it nonetheless declines the responsibility of distinguishing victim from perpetrator. By
leaving this issue an open question for the audience to decide, the film renders the question ultimately insoluble. The goals that Bellocchio professes and the diagnosis he offers in The Wedding Director
are valuable and deserve credit. Without question, the film
is a stunning cinematographic feat. However, a self-indulgent streak undercuts the viewer’s satisfaction. Unless we surpass irony (as the film attempts), we, regardless of our gender, will hardly be free from the hold of the dead, be they Italian or of any other nationality.
—. “Godard cuenta, y Serra también. El experimento en ética secular de El cant dels ocells.” Trans. in Spanish. Efectos de imagen: ¿qué fue y qué es el cine militante? Eds. Elixabete Ansa-Goicoechea and Oscar Ariel Cabezas. Santiago del Chile: LOM Ediciones. 2014. Print.
La cifra nel tappeto esiste e (…) su di essa, sul suo rinvenimento, si gioca la scommessa stessa ... more La cifra nel tappeto esiste e (…) su di essa, sul suo rinvenimento, si gioca la scommessa stessa della letteratura.
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Papers by Manuela Marchesini
The Wedding Director (2006), Marco Bellocchio expresses his view of the ‘Italian difference’that demarcates this national tradition from others with the refrain ‘In Italy the dead rule.’ This adage is repeated throughout his film and provides the motivation behind
it. For Bellocchio, the dead in question belong primarily, though not solely, to the Italian parochial heritage exemplified by Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed (1840), and in particular by Mario Camerini’s film adaptation of the same novel (1941). In The Wedding Director, Bellocchio enacts yet another, albeit eclectic, adaptation of these pal-
impsests, desecrating them and the values they supposedly stand for. Crowned by a happy ending, The Wedding Director
surpasses its targets, advocating for their visual and con-
ceptual inadequacy. This essay analyzes Bellocchio’s film using a theoretical approach that I see articulated in two critical texts and four creative instances. Firstly, I analyze The
Wedding Directorin light of the concepts that Gilles Deleuze used for Carmelo Bene’s adaptations of classic works; secondly, through Richard Neer’s 2007 reflections on Jean-Luc Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma. My analyses result in a dual interpretation of Bellocchio’s film. I argue that in The Wedding Director Bellocchio enters into conversation with and implements the ideas of the intellectuals and artists mentioned above. He sets off from the conclusion of Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2. Nevertheless, The Wedding Director is also marred by ambiguities that, although perhaps unavoidable, detract from his accomplishments. Those ambivalences involve the issue of gender relations, which – as Bellocchio himself declares – are at the core of his concerns in The Wedding Director. I argue that on the one hand Bellocchio’s film is an empowering Deleuzian or Godardian adaptation of Manzoni’s source text. On the other, it may also be construed as professing an opportunistic, if not downright cynical, view of gender relations. While the film presents the audience with a principled Deleuzian becoming-minority as a becoming-woman it nonetheless declines the responsibility of distinguishing victim from perpetrator. By
leaving this issue an open question for the audience to decide, the film renders the question ultimately insoluble. The goals that Bellocchio professes and the diagnosis he offers in The Wedding Director
are valuable and deserve credit. Without question, the film
is a stunning cinematographic feat. However, a self-indulgent streak undercuts the viewer’s satisfaction. Unless we surpass irony (as the film attempts), we, regardless of our gender, will hardly be free from the hold of the dead, be they Italian or of any other nationality.