Department of Culture and Language Studies

The formation of a country’s national identity is a complex phenomenon influenced by various factors. Scholarly perspectives on this topic diverge, with some arguing that a strong ideological framework and the widespread use of nationalistic pedagogy play a decisive role, while others contend that historical, cultural, economic, and anthropological factors naturally converge to shape national identity, with human agency playing an important but not conclusive role. There are also scholars who view national identity as a modern construct facilitated by the incorporation of made-up traditions and folklore into citizens’ daily lives to enhance cohesion within a specific territory.
In the case of Scottish national identity, which is the focus of this thesis, human and historical elements intertwine. The origins of Scottish literary tradition and the Celtic ethnicity of the Scottish people are ambiguous and debated. However, in the works of Sir Walter Scott, particularly in the series of historical novels known as The Waverley Novels, diverse perspectives on national identity converge, making it a compelling case study. Specifically, this thesis aims to highlight how Scott's novels, particularly The Heart of Midlothian, have helped to shape the historical and cultural foundation necessary for the contemporary Scottish national identity. This novel also offers insights into historical, ethical, moral, and reli-gious dimensions that contribute to the definition of Scottish identity, underscoring the pivotal role of this literary genre as an ideological tool in the conception of modern nations.

By drawing upon cognitive resources, professional court interpreters should uphold as a guiding principle for their choices the need to preserve the pragmatics of the ongoing interaction between legal experts and witnesses during the trial, since participants’ speech style, register and rhetorical strategies are bound to deeply influence the overall outcome of the judicial proceeding. In Italy, however, low quality standards and lack of specific training paint a grim picture of legal services with regard to the achievement of pragmatic equivalence in courtroom settings, thus suggesting the need for further research in this field. Given these premises, the aim of this paper is to propose a new didactic approach to provide adequate preliminary training for future consecutive court interpreters from English into Italian and vice-versa. In particular, after briefly discussing the issues, tasks and challenges of legal equivalence, an actual ESP course – developed in order to widen non-specialists’ pragmatic and sociolinguistic micro-skills in court interpreting – is taken as a reference for effective needs assessment, syllabus design and material selection. The rationale of this approach lies in the creation of a student-centred and rich learning environment where multi-layered teaching methodologies, audio-visual re- sources and corpus-linguistic evidence are tailored to the learners’ background knowledge and increasingly approximated to real-life situations. Specifically, this paper argues for the need for a  flexible syllabus suitable for enhancing students’ understanding of the spoken language of the law through the creation of ‘blended learning scenarios’ in which the analysis of popular legal movies can pave the way for more challenging activities aimed at identifying – in real-life trials – translation equivalents and pragmatic patterns from a cross-cultural perspective, with the ultimate goal of fostering students’ procedural knowledge, i.e. the ability to predict and find the best interpreting solutions in professional situations when constrained by time pressure and extremely high-level expectations.

The present article aims at exploring the issue of intertextuality with reference to the specific usage of numbers in legal discourse. In this regard, the analysis of legal citations seems to be of particular interest to legal linguistics and legal translation as it concerns semantic, pragmatic and stylistic issues related to legal language.  These aspects are discussed by analyzing European legislation and judicial decisions issued by the European Court of Human Rights, in order to demonstrate that legal citations are used to eliminate internal contradictions within the whole legal framework, thus reinforcing the systemic character of the law. Finally, this research focuses on the usage of numbers to achieve intelligibility and user-friendly layout in legal documents, as suggested by the Plain Language Movement.
Key words: numbers, legal citations, intertextuality, legal discourse, Plain Language Movement, European Legislation, European Court of Human Rights.

By analyzing Dantean echoes in English Modernist literature, this paper aims at focusing on the different reinterpretations given by T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett and Ezra Pound on the three canticles of the Divine Comedy. This excursus inevitably suggests the immortal character of Dante’s masterpiece in conveying, with vivid visual images, in-depth feeling analyses of individuals and society as well, capable of going beyond time and place. In this regard, while Eliot’s poems allusions to Dante’s Inferno have the purpose of promoting a spiritual rebirth, in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot the purgatorial dimension becomes the perfect stage to portray the absurdity of life in the twentieth Century. Finally, in Pound’s masterpiece, The Cantos, the ultimate dimension of joy, i.e. Paradise, appears to be broken and perceivable only through fragments, hence signalling the loss of absolute values in our post-modern society.

In the ever-growing and competitive global marketplace, companies must look for new ways to gain a competitive advantage. One of these ways is to negotiate provisions orally while drafting the contract in istanti with four hands. This practice-meant to foster trust, cooperation, and fair understanding-has made it imperative to seek collaboration with interpreters to navigate diverse laws, business practices, and above all, cultural differences. In this more nuanced, deeply interpersonal form of transaction, liaison interpreting in contract negotiations presents itself as a complex, challenging, and fruitful area of expertise. Yet, no previous study has explored this domain, whose originality for interpreters lies in that it combines two challenging aspects: the legal language of contracts with cooperative negotiation strategies in the business field. To address this gap, the study examines an authentic, interpreter-mediated meeting between German buyers and an Italian ceramic tile manufacturer. In this scenario, English serves as the lingua franca for the negotiation. Drawing on Wadensjö's (1998) framework for interpreting roles and renditions, along with Duranti's (2004) concept of Agency for related ethical and socio-cultural aspects, the interpreter's choices are ultimately evaluated from a purely unbiased and descriptive perspective within the cognitive-pragmatic framework of Relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson 1986). Findings reveal that legal interpreters need to constantly redefine and reconsider their role in this "hybrid" setting (Bhatia and Nodoushan 2015), thus blurring the boundaries between the purist vision of the impartial interpreter tasked with addressing crucial legal matters, and the involved cross-cultural mediator engaged in renegotiating identities and meanings when mutually beneficial business outcomes are expected to be achieved. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research, emphasizing the need to abandon broad interpreting clichés in favour of defining ad hoc quality standards for this area of expertise lying at the crossroads between legal and business domains.

Il migrare oggi Nostalgia -Frank Benassi Il dolore della partenza -Hamid Barole Abdu 1. La fotografia di un territorio La propria terra manca a tutti (Famiglia Sukhwinder, India) La cassetta del viaggiatore (Medardo Cheldi, Canada) Dodici anni in miniera (Paride, Belgio) La paura di essere clandestina (Ucraina) Tutti uguali (Rashida, Marocco) Mi chiamo Renato (Renato Pellegrini, Francia) La malinconia di essere sola (Coniugi Roberta e Francesco Bonucchi, Venezuela) CONCLUSIONI a cura di Claudio Cernesi Il compito che gentilmente mi è stato affidato di introdurre questo documento mi onora e mi affascina, dal momento che ho dedicato parecchi anni, alla ricerca, come autodidatta, di fatti emigratori avvenuti nel nostro Appennino. Sarebbe riduttivo pensare solo al "fascino" di queste storie, in gran parte dolorose, perché mentre prendevo coscienza dei drammi che l'emigrazione ha subito, riflettevo, come mai le Istituzioni e la nostra gente montanara, aveva lasciato cadere nell'oblio queste odissee (o epopee) che, non molto secoli addietro, ma dal 1800 e nel 1900, colpirono un vasto ed elevato numero di nostri concittadini, che dovettero lasciare le proprie realtà per ragioni "esclusivamente" di "necessità" in quanto la miseria e la disoccupazione imperavano all'epoca. La Regione Emilia Romagna, dopo la Calabria, era nel 1900 la Regione più povera d'Italia, il cui tessuto economico era prevalentemente basato sul settore agricolo, salvo alcune, ma poche realtà, esistenti in pianura, con tenui attività semindustriali. La nostra montagna, viveva di agricoltura, ove il latifondismo era imperante, in buona sostanza formato da grandi proprietà e da numerosi addetti definiti "mezzadri" la cui divisione del ricavato era al 70 o 60% a favore dei cosiddetti "padroni" i quali cedevano, per cambiamento di podere, la famiglia intera, la cui discriminante consisteva pure nell'avere numerosi figli piccoli, o anche da ideologie politiche le cui raccomandazioni per essere accettati dai nuovi padroni terrieri, erano all'ordine del giorno. Altri erano (e in questo caso i più poveri) i braccianti o i lavoratori stagionali, che venivano assunti, con paghe miserevoli e per poco tempo, insufficiente per sfamare le numerose famiglie. Poi esistevano piccoli proprietari di greggi di pecore che per sei mesi all'anno si trasferivano nel basso ferrarese o nella maremma toscana e laziale che veniva definita "transumanza", oppure emigrare all'Estero a fare i boscaioli. A riprova di questo, trascrivo letteralmente un passo di una relazione che il Governatore del Frignano fece al Duca di Modena nel 1849 (desunto dal fondo Iacoli nella Statistica Generale degli Stati Estensi) i meschini possessi, ed il reddito che danno, costringono la popolazione in molti luoghi ad emigrare coi loro armenti per sei mesi e più dell'anno: i pastori si portano col gregge per lo più nelle maremme: i lavoratori sono richiamati in molto numero nelle foreste della Corsica. Il prof. Galassini di Pievepelago letteralmente scriveva sull' "Appennino Modenese", giornale settimanale di informazione di fine '800, restano l'inverno nell'Alto Appennino donne, vecchi e ragazzi, vacche, pecore, poche galline, essendo partiti uomini, pecore molte e cavalli. I restanti si occupano di faccende domestiche e delle cure della montagna, mancando veramente una qualche utile industria che possa dare lavoro ai occupati nell'inverno.

La rivista "Schermi" è consultabile on-line al link : http://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/schermi/index

L'articolo intende fare una panoramica generale sul discorso elaborato dai cattolici italiani attorno alla sessualità, tra gli anni '40 e gli anni '70, soffermandosi sulla regolazione delle nascite, l'educazione sessuale, l'erotismo e la morale pubblica. Nel quadro delle trasformazioni del rapporto della Chiesa e dei cattolici con il problema della sessualità, il cinema ebbe un peso non secondario e, in alcune occasioni, divenne stimolo prezioso per alcuni dibattiti su questioni sostanziali in materia sessuale.

This article offers a panorama of debates on Sexuality by italian Catholics, between the 1940's and the '70's, focusing on the main questions regarding sexuality: birth control, sexual education, eroticism and public morality. Cinema played a significant role, and at times even become a valuable stimulus for debates on sexuality as far as the changing relationship between Catholics and sexuality was concerned.

Il presente lavoro ha l'obiettivo di identificare le strategie di ricontestualizzazione e di traduzione intralinguistica in atto nelle pagine volte alla divulgazione della legislazione sul copyright presenti sulla piattaforma istituzionale "gov.uk". L'analisi è stata condotta su 68 testi tratti dal sito istituzionale e su 18 atti legislativi, i quali insieme compongono il "COPYPOP corpus".

This work aims at identifying knowledge recontextualization strategies and processes of intralingual translation at work in pages devised for the mediation of copyright related legislation on the "gov.uk" institutional platform. The analysis was carried out on 68 texts taken from the institutional website and on 18 legislative instruments, which together make up the "COPYPOP corpus". The work is divided into two parts: the first one provides a theoretical introduction, where subjects such as the main features of popularization discourse in general, the main characteristics of legislative discourse and, finally, legal-lay communication are dealt with. This introductory section springs from research carried out by experts such as, among many others, Calsamiglia and Van Dijk, Ciapuscio, Cacchiani, Turnbull, Gotti, Engberg, Preite. The second section of this work, on the other hand, deals with the analysis of the texts collected in the COPYPOP corpus; first, an overview of the main features of the institutional platform are given, with particular attention to how it complies with usability criteria. Then, the rest of the work devotes its attention to a qualitative analysis of the corpus texts. One of the chapters analyses how mediators have carried out intralingual translation processes in mediating legislative instruments and how choices in terms of intralingual translation strategies differ from one genre to the other. Subsequently, the focus of the work shifts to the ways in which mediators have presented users with definitions of legal concepts; finally, the analysis is aimed at identifying strategies for creating engagement and involvement on the part of the lay user and ensure at the same time their attention and comprehension. The analysis carried out in the second part of this work, which has its theoretical roots in the very first chapters, has shown that a set of recurrent knowledge mediation and recontextualization strategies are employed, however with varying degrees of intensity according to the needs of users and to the genre to which the texts under scrutiny belong. Additionally, it has been observed that different lexico-semantic and syntactic choices made by mediators when providing definitions of issues related to copyright legislation result in popularization endeavours that are functional to the purposes and the target audience of the website. Finally, the predominance in certain text types and genres of recontextualizing strategies aimed at engaging users has suggested, once again, that mediators on the "gov.uk" website are extremely aware of the role played by the platform in the life of citizens: providing good value under the form of easily accessible, comprehensible and coherently presented information.

There has been a massive shift in Iraq, the transition from authoritarian to the democratic regime will not happen without tax or price. Therefore, as a risky society as Iraq where the international agenda has been played a significant role: one part with the previous regime instigated the violence and terror incidents.  The transmission has a disaster reflexive on the secure of the innocent people where there is many foreign agenda and influences in Iraq desire to destabilize the process of a new democratic regime, they endeavour to undermine a new regime. Another part of the coalition has diligently sought to fix a new principle of democracy.

Literature was uncontroversial in terms of theme and also was traditional in terms of style.
Scenes of tragic and absurd have affected social theme and concept. Although aesthetic has thrived for realism, which has been lost.
Nonetheless, we witnessed the emergence of several capable voices.
For instance:
Arabs,
Kurds,
Turkmen,
Assyrian
Jews
and  others

Trump’s administration has been quietly pushing ahead with a plan to create a NATO-like security and political alliance between Arab countries to confront Iran.
Security: ‘Migration between  ‘human rights’ and ‘security’ are three concepts that do not seem to have much to do with one another". EU Countries have seen the securing of external borders and the increasing difficulty in obtaining asylum or residence in the EU Member States encouraged illegal immigration. 

Increasing militants including apparatus will be fiscal burden perception for EU.

There has been a massive shift in Iraq, the transition from authoritarian to democratic regime will not happen without tax, to understand the changes necessary in the role of media. Both national and international media have different attitudes toward a new regime, although the role of media has been stimulated the humanity issues and sometimes it instigates extremism. Denial emphasized that "Since the tendency of organizations is to maintain a steady state, the major impetus for change comes from outside, rather than in side an organization. Since organizations are open systems, they have a self-regulating characteristic which causes them to revert to the original state following a minor change made to meet demands of the supra system." (Griffiths, 1964) Therefore, as a risky society as Iraq where the media have been played dual role: one part with the previous regime, instigated the violence and terror incidents. The transmission have a disaster reflexive on the secure the innocent people where there is many channels adopted foreign agenda and influences in Iraq to destabilize the process of a new democratic regime, they endeavor to display or print the news about the Pro-Saddam regime. Another part of media have diligently sought to fix a new principle of democracy.

There has been a massive shift in Iraq, the transition from authoritarian to democratic regime will not happen without tax, to understand the changes necessary in the role of media.  Both national and international media have different attitudes toward a new regime, although the role of media has been stimulated the humanity issues and sometimes it instigates extremism. Denial emphasized that “Since the tendency of organizations is to maintain a steady state, the major impetus for change comes from outside, rather than in ¬ side an organization. Since organizations are open systems, they have a self-regulating characteristic which causes them to revert to the original state following a minor change made to meet the demands of the supra-system.” (Griffiths, 1964) Therefore, as a risky society as Iraq where the media have been played a dual role: one part with the previous regime, instigated the violence and terror incidents.  The transmission has a disaster reflexive on the secure the innocent people where there are many channels adopted foreign agenda and influences in Iraq to destabilize the process of a new democratic regime, they endeavour to display or print the news about the Pro-Saddam regime. Another part of the media has diligently sought to fix a new principle of democracy.

ISIS dominance into Iraqi cities and the Iraqi popular Mobilisation Prominence as alternative military power, the logistic support by civilian people to sustain the battles based on Fatwa Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani into  Kurdish referendum as independent state.