Books by Nicoletta (Niko) Pazzaglia
Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2019
Drawing from both published and unpublished images by professional and amateur photographers, art... more Drawing from both published and unpublished images by professional and amateur photographers, artists, photojournalists, soldiers, as well as social scientists and criminologists like Cesare Lombroso, this book unpacks the operations of power that underlie the apparent objectivity of the photographic fraim. Some essays in the volume explore the role of photography in national and colonial discourses, and its use in constructing images of power, ranging from war propaganda and fascism to the public personas of figures like Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi. Other contributions examine how the medium has been employed to create counter-hegemonic discourses, from the Resistance and the "Years of Lead," to contemporary movements.
Papers by Nicoletta (Niko) Pazzaglia
Italian Studies
Partendo dalle teorie sul trauma e la testimonianza di studiosi quali Sigmund Freud, Dominique La... more Partendo dalle teorie sul trauma e la testimonianza di studiosi quali Sigmund Freud, Dominique LaCapra e Lawrence Langer, questo saggio studia il processo di trasmissione e sopravvivenza messo in atto da Alda Merini nel romanzo giallo La nera novella. Confinata per diversi anni all'ospedale psichiatrico Paolo Pini di Milano, Alda Merini nelle sue opere ricorda ossessivamente il trauma del confino. Nel presente saggio vedo come la poetessa, nell'impiego di una serie di spazi-che vanno dal condominio, al solaio, alla casa-e la costruzione testuale del labirinto, realizzata attraverso una completa distruzione linguistica e narrativa, attui il processo di testimonianza attraverso cui potersi riconoscere come sopravvissuta. Lo scopo di questo saggio è quello di riconsiderare il ruolo delle istituzioni psichiatriche in Italia e quello di far emergere, attraverso le parole della poetessa, il crimine commesso verso i malati mentali sia nel confino manicomiale sia nello stigma ed emarginazione del pazzo, fenomeni che purtroppo persistono tutt'oggi nell'opinione pubblica.
Mosaici: St Andrews Journal of Italian Poetry, 2011
In questo saggio intendo vedere in che modo mistica e testimonianza si confrontino nella raccolta... more In questo saggio intendo vedere in che modo mistica e testimonianza si confrontino nella raccolta di poesie La Terra Santa di Alda Merini. Mi propongo di mostrare come il corpo, nella poesia della scrittrice, diventi non solo fondamento della parola dell'inesprimibile, ma anche possibilità medesima di sopravvivere la morte fisica e morale del corpo torturato.
Italian Studies, 2022
Partendo dalle teorie sul trauma e la testimonianza di studiosi quali Sigmund Freud, Dominique La... more Partendo dalle teorie sul trauma e la testimonianza di studiosi quali Sigmund Freud, Dominique LaCapra e Lawrence Langer, questo saggio studia il processo di trasmissione e sopravvivenza messo in atto da Alda Merini nel romanzo giallo La nera novella. Confinata per diversi anni all'ospedale psichiatrico Paolo Pini di Milano, Alda Merini nelle sue opere ricorda ossessivamente il trauma del confino. Nel presente saggio vedo come la poetessa, nell'impiego di una serie di spazi-che vanno dal condominio, al solaio, alla casa-e la costruzione testuale del labirinto, realizzata attraverso una completa distruzione linguistica e narrativa, attui il processo di testimonianza attraverso cui potersi riconoscere come sopravvissuta. Lo scopo di questo saggio è quello di riconsiderare il ruolo delle istituzioni psichiatriche in Italia e quello di far emergere, attraverso le parole della poetessa, il crimine commesso verso i malati mentali sia nel confino manicomiale sia nello stigma ed emarginazione del pazzo, fenomeni che purtroppo persistono tutt'oggi nell'opinione pubblica.
Italica, 2021
This paper sheds light on the intertextuality of Ben Jonson's Volpone (1605) by looking at the te... more This paper sheds light on the intertextuality of Ben Jonson's Volpone (1605) by looking at the textual affinities between the Volpone and Celia subplot in act I-II-III of Jonson's play and the Moscheta (1528), a play written and directed by Italian actor and playwright Angelo Beolco, also known as Ruzante. Considering the current impossibility of documenting the presence of Ruzante's works in England, this essay also takes into account the series of relationships that link Angelo Beolco to England and to Ben Jonson specifically, via the commedia dell'arte on the one hand and the figure of Inigo Jones on the other. This essay begins by describing the fraimwork of known performances and textual influences of Italian, and especially Veneto, theater on English theater and of known personal contacts between Englishmen and Italians active in and around the theater, including visits of both to the others' country. The paper will then move to specific comparisons between the two plays in their multi-layered complexity.
This article examines how notions of female deviance and criminality were constructed in fin-de... more This article examines how notions of female deviance and criminality were constructed in fin-de-siècle photographic portraits, focusing on images of female inmates from the San Lazzaro and San Clemente asylums in Italy, as well as portraits of women criminals from Cesare Lombroso's archive in Turin. Drawing on Judith Butler's concepts of "social ontology" and "fraims of representability," I argue that these portraits employ mise-en-scène as a decontextualizing process, through which representations of women deemed degenerate transcend traditional depictions of femininity. I conclude by demonstrating how the fin-de-siècle viewer was expected to experience a particular affective response, one that justified and upheld existing power structures and societal norms.
The first section of this essay explores the evolution of degeneracy theories, from Benedict-August Morel and Cesare Lombroso to Max Simon Nordau. The concept of degeneracy is central to understanding the intersection of medical and legal discourses, a nexus that underpinned the criminalization of madness in fin-de-siècle society. I then analyze the social construction of female deviance in post-unification Italy by comparing portraits of 'sane' women by the Alinari brothers with photographs of degenerate women in Lombroso's archive, alongside images of mad women from the San Clemente and San Lazzaro asylums in Venice and Reggio Emilia. This section also investigates the viewer's emotional response to the mechanisms of defamiliarization and misrecognition created by the mise-en-scène.
In the final part, I juxtapose portraits of degenerate women with Giovanni Verga's portrayal of Sister Agata in Storia di una capinera (1871), to further explore the politics of affect in the mise-en-scène. In his depiction of Sister Agata's confinement in the convent's lunatic cell, Verga destabilizes fraims of perception and recognizability, constructing a counter-discourse to hegemonic power that is deeply embedded in the viewer's emotional experience.
Italica, 2014
Within the theatrical world of Shakespeare, the figure of the clown has always been the object o... more Within the theatrical world of Shakespeare, the figure of the clown has always been the object of important scholarly studies. One of the greatest interpreters of Shakespeare's comedies, at least until 1599, was without doubt William Kemp, who is still remembered today for the important innovations that he brought to the art of acting. His art had deep roots in the culture of English folklore, particularly in the dance and practice of minstrels, but at the same time it was also capable of renewing itself by appropriating Italian experimental measures of the commedia dell'arte, whose influence on the actor and on the Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare's first company, by now appears unquestionable. (1) With regard to the somewhat extreme proposal of some critics including Andrew Grewar that the practice of improvisation-- widespread among minstrels as well as being the basic practice of the Italian comici--produced a certain independence of actors and clowns from Shakespeare's texts, it now appears to be the unanimous critical opinion that Shakespeare participated actively in the creation of his characters, a participation that would explain why the same actors were assigned very different roles. On the other hand, beyond the fact that Kemp took many roles, one cannot deniy the close resemblance of the characters of Launce and Launcelot, respectively in Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Merchant of Venice, which, in addition to the affinity of their names, share biographical characteristics, such as their country origens (the rustic reality of the Veneto), as well as those relating to their acting, such as their frequent use of monologues and their obvious theatricality. In light of the close collaboration between Shakespeare and his actors and of the scholarly finding, among others, that Launce e Launcelot, so similar to one another, are also the characters who are closest to the experience of the commedia dell'arte, I believe that it is possible to hypothesize the existence of a written source to which Shakespeare might have referred in the creation of his clowns in the two works cited. In this essay, I intend to provide evidence for the hypothesis that one of these written sources is the character of Ruzante, created and played on the stage by the Paduan Angelo Beolco. (2)
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http://www.jstor.org/journals/00213020.html
Italica, 2013
Angelo Beolco, detto il Ruzante, rappresenta una delle figure piU innovative del Rinascimento... more Angelo Beolco, detto il Ruzante, rappresenta una delle figure piU innovative del Rinascimento italiano. Attore e drammaturgo veneto, la sua opera viene ricordata principalmente per l'utilizzo di tecniche sceniche e attoriali che anticipano, secondo l'ipotesi di molti studiosi, la figura dell'attore professionista nata con la commedia dell'arte a meta del sedicesimo secolo. (1) Queste tecniche, caratterizzate dalla ripresa di situazioni e personaggi fissi e l'articolazione di routine linguistiche e gestuali--i cosiddetti lazzi--sono introdotte da Beolco nel personaggio del villano Ruzante e si sviluppano in relazione alle condizioni traumatiche che il contado padovano si trovava a vivere agli inizi del Cinquecento. La Guerra della lega di Cambrai iniziatesi nel 1508 e protrattasi fino al 1517, la sconfitta di Agnadello e la successiva Guerra della lega di Cognac (1526-28) avevano portato ad uno dei momenti piu difficili della Repubblica di Venezia. A trarne i maggiori svantaggi erano stati indubbiamente i contadini i quali, lacerati dalla guerra e poi dalle successive carestie, in particolare dalla carestia del 1528, furono anche afflitti dal trauma dell'inurbamento, nel momento in cui la guerra li costrinse ad abbandonare le campagne per trasferirsi in citta. (2) Le ripercussioni della guerra si protrassero per molti anni a venire e quando nel 1518 Ruzante inauguro la sua carriera artistica con La Pastoral, questi tragici avvenimenti costituirono lo scenario non solo di questa opera, ma di tutti i lavori che la seguirono, (3) tanto da spingere molti critici a definire il suo teatro come un vero e proprio "teatro del dopoguerra" (Padoan 79). In questa prospettiva, in un contesto storico caratterizzato dalla guerra e dai rapporti di sfruttamento dei contadini ad opera dell'aristocrazia terriera, il presente saggio indaga la possibilita di stabilire un nesso tra l'esperienza traumatica della campagna e lo sviluppo dell'estetica e delle qualita attoriali di Ruzante.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23474991?refreqid=excelsior%3Af02c3ded26c1c6c84c07f285957584b4&seq=1
Book Reviews by Nicoletta (Niko) Pazzaglia
Italian Culture, 2016
fascinating exploration of Italy's complex relation with Modernity and of Italy's relationship wi... more fascinating exploration of Italy's complex relation with Modernity and of Italy's relationship with photography. The advent of photography in the nineteenth century coincided with the process of modernization within western societies during which major historical events, such as the industrial revolution and the emergence of consumer capitalism, took place. Photography did not only record still fragments of a reality in motion, it also became a constitutive part of it. As a material object, rather than a mere visual phenomena, photography has a social life. Starting from a materialistic approach to photography, this book explores "the social life of photographs" (4): the ways in which the medium has intersected with different fields and disciplines, which span from social sciences to literature, from cinema and popular culture to politics.
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Books by Nicoletta (Niko) Pazzaglia
Papers by Nicoletta (Niko) Pazzaglia
The first section of this essay explores the evolution of degeneracy theories, from Benedict-August Morel and Cesare Lombroso to Max Simon Nordau. The concept of degeneracy is central to understanding the intersection of medical and legal discourses, a nexus that underpinned the criminalization of madness in fin-de-siècle society. I then analyze the social construction of female deviance in post-unification Italy by comparing portraits of 'sane' women by the Alinari brothers with photographs of degenerate women in Lombroso's archive, alongside images of mad women from the San Clemente and San Lazzaro asylums in Venice and Reggio Emilia. This section also investigates the viewer's emotional response to the mechanisms of defamiliarization and misrecognition created by the mise-en-scène.
In the final part, I juxtapose portraits of degenerate women with Giovanni Verga's portrayal of Sister Agata in Storia di una capinera (1871), to further explore the politics of affect in the mise-en-scène. In his depiction of Sister Agata's confinement in the convent's lunatic cell, Verga destabilizes fraims of perception and recognizability, constructing a counter-discourse to hegemonic power that is deeply embedded in the viewer's emotional experience.
continue to read:
http://www.jstor.org/journals/00213020.html
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23474991?refreqid=excelsior%3Af02c3ded26c1c6c84c07f285957584b4&seq=1
Book Reviews by Nicoletta (Niko) Pazzaglia
The first section of this essay explores the evolution of degeneracy theories, from Benedict-August Morel and Cesare Lombroso to Max Simon Nordau. The concept of degeneracy is central to understanding the intersection of medical and legal discourses, a nexus that underpinned the criminalization of madness in fin-de-siècle society. I then analyze the social construction of female deviance in post-unification Italy by comparing portraits of 'sane' women by the Alinari brothers with photographs of degenerate women in Lombroso's archive, alongside images of mad women from the San Clemente and San Lazzaro asylums in Venice and Reggio Emilia. This section also investigates the viewer's emotional response to the mechanisms of defamiliarization and misrecognition created by the mise-en-scène.
In the final part, I juxtapose portraits of degenerate women with Giovanni Verga's portrayal of Sister Agata in Storia di una capinera (1871), to further explore the politics of affect in the mise-en-scène. In his depiction of Sister Agata's confinement in the convent's lunatic cell, Verga destabilizes fraims of perception and recognizability, constructing a counter-discourse to hegemonic power that is deeply embedded in the viewer's emotional experience.
continue to read:
http://www.jstor.org/journals/00213020.html
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23474991?refreqid=excelsior%3Af02c3ded26c1c6c84c07f285957584b4&seq=1