LITERARY CURRICULUM
Marta Capossela
marta.capossela@phd.unipi.it
Transfiguration of text in V. Shklovsky: from the literary form to cinema
[L-LIN/21]
Within the framework of the theories elaborated by the Russian Formalists both in the literary and cinematographic spheres, the project aims to investigate the process of script adaptation and consequent ekranizatsiya (film adaptation) of a work of classical Russian literature. The critical and philological analysis will trace the methodological intuitions of Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (1893-1984), one of the founders of the formal method and one of the first theorists to identify the expressive and communicative potential of cinema, underlining its character of pure audiovisual writing, a syncretic writing made up of a singular interweaving of word and image.
Преображение текста у В. Шкловского: от литературной формы к кинематографической среде
В рамках теорий, разработанных русскими формалистами в области литературы и кинематографа в 1920-1930-х годах, проект ставит своей целью исследовать процесс адаптации в сценарий и последующей экранизации произведения классической русской литературы. Критический и филологический анализ прослеживает методологические интуиции Виктора Борисовича Шкловского (1893-1984), одного из основателей формального метода и одного из первых теоретиков, выявивших выразительный и коммуникативный потенциал кино и подчеркнувших его характер чистого аудиовизуального письма, синкретического письма, состоящего из своеобразного переплетения слова и изображения.
Supervisor: ProF. Marco Sabbatini – Pisa
Santa Vanessa Cavallari
s.cavallari1@studenti.unipi.it
À la croisée entre Self-translation Studies et Cultural Studies. Auto-traduction et production translingue dans l’émigration féminine dissidente au XXe Siècle. [L-LET03]
My research project aims to examine self-translation and translingual literary creation as manifestations of the emerging feminist consciousness in the 20th century. In the migration and exile, this underground female literature feeds specific forms of creation such as self-translated (auto)biography and four-handed translation, related to some linguistic phenomena (code-mixing and translingualism). The research deals with the value and meaning of these choices through a corpus of female writers that concerns three political realities: Soviet Russia, Fascist Italy and the Puerto Rican independence movement. This will allow us to strengthen the thesis by means of a literary analysis extended over the entire century and conducted on a diversified linguistic spectrum. The aim is to bring to light a slice of dissident literature that has fallen into oblivion, but which, through the practice of self-translation associated with the condition of the exile – not only from a strictly political point of view, but also in a broader social sense – gives birth to the contemporary gender equality approach.
Notre projet de recherche vise à approfondir l’auto-traduction et/ou la production littéraire translingue en tant que force motrice de la conscience féminine naissante au XXe siècle. L’étude portera sur une portion ciblée de la production littéraire féminine de la migrance et de l’exiliance, afin d’interroger les formes spécifiques de poïésis issues de la dissidence notamment l’(auto)biographie auto-traduite, la traduction à quatre mains, le code-mixing et le translinguisme. Notre propos sera étayé par une analyse étalée sur un spectre linguistique large et recouvrant trois contextes politiques diverses : Russie soviétique, Italie fasciste et mouvement pour l’indépendance portoricaine. Le but étant celui de faire resurgir une partie de littérature dissidente tombée dans l’oubli, mais qui grâce à l’auto-traduction sollicite la lutte de genre faisant l’objet de débats animés dans la société contemporaine.
Supervisor: Prof. Antonietta Sanna – Pisa
Federica Pietrapertosa
federica.pietrapertosa@phd.unipi.it
Postmodern lines: rhizomatic identities in Bernard-Marie Koltès’ theatre
[L-LIN/03]
Looking at the influences of the spatial turn on literary studies, the aim of my research is to show the connection between a reticular idea of space and the issues of Identity and Otherness. According to Lyotard, the 80s are characterised by the end of metanarratives and the rejection of all totalising thoughts. By analysing the spaces and the spatial relations in Koltès’ plays, my study aims to understand how the development of a modular idea of reality in the form of archipelago, a “logique sous forme d’archipel”, impacts on the dramaturgical choices and shows a renewed historical awareness. In order to achieve this goal, the corpus of my thesis will be made up of all Bernard-Marie Koltès’ plays. Today Koltès is considered as one of the greatest European playwrights able to express, in his theatre, the challenges that affected literature and culture in the late 20th century.
Lignes postmodernes: identités rhizomatiques dans le théâtre de Bernard-Marie Koltès
Situé dans le sillage des études sur les conséquences littéraires du tournant spatial, ce projet vise à montrer comment et dans quelle mesure l’analyse de l’écriture théâtrale peut contribuer aux réflexions sur l’espace qui intéressent la littérature et les études culturelles à partir des années 1980. À travers l’analyse des lieux et des relations spatiales dans l’écriture de Bernard-Marie Koltès, cette recherche vise à comprendre comment l’émergence d’une idée réticulaire d’espace, en affectant les notions d’identité et altérité, engendre des solutions – dramaturgiques – spécifiques, témoins d’un renouvelé lien entre littérature et société. L’effacement de l’image de l’Histoire en tant que ligne progressive s’accompagne à la dissolution des métarécits selon celle qui a été définie une “logique sous forme d’archipel”. Les éléments qui la constitue, affranchis des contraintes imposées par la ligne droite, s’ouvrent à la multiplicité des connections et directions possibles. Aujourd’hui considéré comme l’un de plus intéressants dramaturges européens, Koltès a su synthétiser, au niveau de son écriture, les changements et les défis qui ont traversé la littérature et la culture à la fin du XXe siècle. Le corpus de la thèse sera constitué par la totalité de ses pièces. En vertu de la nature littéraire de son théâtre, un regard sur ses autres textes sera également nécessaire.
Supervisor: Prof. Antonietta Sanna – Pisa
Valerie Tosi
valerie.tosi@phd.unipi.it
Charles Dickens and Australia: A Fictional Universe on the Periphery of the Empire in the History of English Culture [L-LIN/10]
The research project is concerned with the discursive construction of Australian colonial identity in Victorian literature and literary journals and consists of three interconnected investigation paths: the first explores the geographical and sociocultural representation of Australia in Charles Dickens’ journals Household Words and All the Year Round between 1850 and 1870; the second aims at explaining the influence of official reports, letters, tales, illustrations and paintings by imperial officers, colonisers, correspondents and emigrated artists on Dickens’ fictionalisation of Australia; the third intends to compare the Dickensian filtered view of the British colony and the related literary rendering of Australia with different characterisations of the Antipodes by contemporaries of Dickens such as William Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot and Charlotte Mary Yonge, in order to explain the preponderance and rooting of Dickens’ idea of Australia in the Victorian England. This study would be carried out from a postcolonial and geocritical research perspective and would outline a historical, cultural and ideological background which is essential to explain the existence of a wide range of contemporary rewritings and film versions of Dickens’ novels in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.
Supervisor: Prof. Biancamaria Rizzardi – Pisa
LINGUISTIC CURRICULUM
Chiara Cernicchiaro
chiara.cernicchiaro@phd.unipi.it
Zum DaF-Erwerb der Konstituentenabfolge im deutschen Mittelfeld [L-LIN/14]
This research project investigates the order of the constituents in the German Mittelfeld from a Deutsch als Fremdsprache (DaF) point of view. According to the topological model, it is possible to divide the German sentence in three syntactic fields, i.e. Vorfeld, Mittelfeld and Nachfeld, which are identified through the Verbalklammer (verbal brackets). The Mittelfeld is the central field and can host an undefined number of constituents. Constituents sequence abides by several constraints and depends on morphological (e.g. Gesetzt der wachsenden Glieder), syntactic (e.g. syntactic function) and semantic factors (e.g. Te.Ka.Mo.Lo.), but is also determined by the informational structure (e.g. Thema/Rhema-Gliederung, Fokussierung). These conditions define the markedness and acceptability of the whole sentence. This phenomenon has a multifaceted nature and it is still impossible to find a unique fixed rule for its didactic description. The order of the constituents in the Mittelfeld can be a difficult topic, especially in the academic context, since university students often have to face various complex texts. The knowledge of the Satzgliederabfolge in the Mittelfeld can be a valid aid in this sense. The aim of this research is to examine the results of some ad hoc tests of reading comprehension in order to investigate how DaF-students learn the order of constituents in the Mittelfeld. This will allow to identify some methodologies for the didactics of this topic.
Das Forschungsprojekt nimmt sich vor, die Satzgliederabfolge im Mittelfeld des deutschen Satzes aus einer DaF-didaktischen Perspektive zu untersuchen. Das topologische Modell erkennt durch die Verbalklammer drei syntaktische Felder: das Vorfeld, das Mittelfeld und das Nachfeld. Das Mittelfeld enthält eine unbestimmte Anzahl von Satzgliedern, die nach verschiedenen kombinatorischen Ordnungstendenzen aufeinanderfolgen. Diese sind diversen Variablen zuzuschreiben: morphologischen (z. B. Gesetzt der wachsenden Glieder), syntaktischen (z. B. syntaktische Funktion), semantischen (z. B. Te.Ka.Mo.Lo.) Faktoren sowie der pragmatischen Bedingungen und der Informationsstruktur des Satzes (s. Thema/Rhema-Gliederung, Fokussierung). Diese Variablen bestimmen sowohl die Markiertheit als auch die Grammatikalität des gesamten Satzes. Dieses Phänomen hat eine polyedrische Natur und deshalb gibt es keine eindeutige Regel dafür, was noch eine ausschlaggebende Frage im Bereich der DaF-Didaktik ist. Insbesondere im universitären Kontext ist diese Problematik erheblich: die Hochschulstudenten müssen sich nämlich mit besonders komplexen Texten auseinandersetzen. Für deren wirksames Verständnis spielt die Satzgliederabfolge im Mittelfeld eine wichtige Rolle. Anhand der Ergebnisse einiger ad hoc Tests zielt die Untersuchung darauf hin, einige Beobachtungen über das DaF-Erlenen der Satzgliederabfolge im Mittelfeld je nach dem Sprachniveau der Studenten anzustellen und einige Vorschläge für die Didaktik dieses Themas zu unterbreiten.
Supervisor: Prof. Marina Foschi – Pisa
Ludovica Cerini
ludovica.cerini@phd.unipi.it
Analyzing Conceptual Metaphors through Identification and Detection Computational Models [L-LIN/01]
The objective of this research project is to analyze how conceptual metaphors are formed, standardized in language, and what are the cognitive mechanisms that enable their recognition and motivate their use by humans and machines. Indeed, conceptual metaphors represent a particularly relevant mental mechanism. They are, as a matter of fact, identified as processes that aid human beings in the comprehension of abstract concepts and which, along with words and mental images, shape the human perception. The widespread use of social networks, and, more generally speaking, of Internet, allows us to observe how these very metaphors are widely used to convey messages and how they abruptly change meaning depending on what forces are acting on the socio-cultural context. Within the project, linguistic and multimodal datasets will be analyzed with computational models in order to find the most efficient approach to identify and detect conceptual metaphors automatically. The recognition of conceptual metaphors represents, as a matter of fact, a key element in the development of affective computing and sentiment analysis systems.
Supervisor: Prof. Alessandro Lenci – Pisa
Giulia Greco
giulia.greco@phd.unipi.it
Il futuro perfetto in greco antico: tra forma e funzioni.
[L-LIN01]
The aim of this project is to investigate the future perfect in Ancient Greek. The Homeric forms of future perfect will constitute the starting data base. We intend to analyse these forms on both formal and functional grounds. The project comprises three sections. In the first, we will address the issue of the origin of the future perfect, in comparison with Vedic desiderative and the Ancient Greek primary perfect. Firstly, the stems and reduplication types of Greek will be analysed. Then, we will examine the function of reduplication and its potential interplay with the desiderative form. In the second section, we will investigate the relationship between future perfect and middle voice. Our goal is to analyse semantically the properties of the predicates that show future perfect in Homer. Thus, we will be able to determine whether these predicates belong to the media tantum group or the selection of middle voice depends on the counterfactual nature of future tense. In the last section, we will address the relationship between future perfect and sigmatic future, by comparing Greek and Vedic data. The results of the present study might contribute to shed new lights on the original functions of the Ancient Greek future tense and its relationship with other categories and moreover it might bring us to a new understanding of the relationship between tense and modality.
Supervisor: Prof. Domenica Romagno – Pisa
Carolina Marescotti
carolina.marescotti@phd.unipi.it
The expansion of Indo-European middle voice: denominal verbs and voice alternation in ancient Greek and Latin [L-LIN01]
This project addresses the function and distribution of denominal verbs in ancient Greek and Latin, from a comparative and historical perspective, in order to clarify the principles underlying the derivation pattern and voice selection of these formations. It is known that Latin deponents expanded via denominal derivation. However, denominative verbs show a great degree of oscillation in the selection of active/middle endings, especially in the archaic period. In our MA thesis, we provided a possible account of this phenomenon in Latin. Here, we propose to investigate voice alternation in denominal verbs in ancient Greek, in comparison to Latin data. The morphosyntactic behaviour and the semantic properties of these verbs will be analysed, in order to clarify their function in relation to both formation pattern and diathesis. Moreover, an answer will be provided to the long-debated question of the relationship between the properties of the base noun, the actionality of the derived verb and the selection of voice. The results of our project could provide new evidence on the extension of middle category in ancient Greek and specifically contribute to understanding the derivation pattern and the voice selection of denominal verbs in ancient Indo-European languages in a unitary model.
Supervisor: Prof. Domenica Romagno – Pisa
Paolo Pedinotti
paolo.pedinotti@phd.unipi.it
Semantic knowledge and cases of enriched compositionality
[L-LIN01]
The project focuses on the factors that justify the production and facilitate the interpretation of expressions defined as examples of enriched compositionality (the meaning of an expression is not given by the meanings of its parts, cf. drink the bottle where bottle stands for a liquid). The project assumes a rich model of communication where interlocutors’ strategies are driven by semantic knowledge (knowledge of associations between concepts), a model of which can be obtained by exploiting distributional information (which words co-occur with others in a large corpus of text).
Supervisor: Prof. Alessandro Lenci – Pisa
Rosso Manuel Senesi
rosso.senesi@phd.unipi.it
Analisi empirica e teorica sul Disturbo Evolutivo di Dislessia [L-LIN01]
The goal of my Ph.D. research is the study of the linguistic competence of children with developmental dyslexia. We intend to develop an annotated corpus of spontaneously written texts produced by children between the age of 6-12 years old. Therefore, we will be able to observe the errors diachronically in order to highlight potential differences during cognitive development. A series of empirical tests will be designed to analyze the children’s competence in the different modules of the language architecture (i.e., phonology; graphemics; semantics morpho-syntax), as well as in other cognitive abilities (i.e., Working Memory; attention, etc.). We also plan on comparing the frequency and the kind of errors made by the children in written texts with their results in linguistic and cognitive tasks. Our analysis could also allow us to test the ideological primitives of single-deficit and multiple-deficit theories proposed in the literature by looking for statistical correlations between the kind of writing mistakes and cognitive abilities.
Supervisor: Prof. Giovanna Marotta – Pisa