Ezio Puglia - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Books by Ezio Puglia
Archeologia del fantastico e dei suoi oggetti, Modena, Mucchi, 2020
ezio puglia il lato oscuro delle cose ome nel capolavoro di Montesquieu che in qualche misura ina... more ezio puglia il lato oscuro delle cose ome nel capolavoro di Montesquieu che in qualche misura inaugura l'età dell'Illuminismo, la critica è una "lettera persiana", un messaggio che viene da un altrove rispetto alla pratica della letteratura e alla rete delle convenzioni sociali del presente, illuminando entrambe grazie a un felice straniamento. Il compito della critica, arte tutt'altro che inutile in un tempo complesso come questo, non deve necessariamente esser quello di aggiungere complessità a complessità, bensì di spezzare, come voleva Kafka, la crosta del mare ghiacciato dentro di noi: renderlo nuovamente liquido, mobile, vitale. E rovinare le sacre verità, come insegnò tra gli altri proprio Montesquieu, può essere anche una faccenda divertente. è una scienza di salvataggio, in primo luogo salvataggio della letteratura stessa, oppressa dai troppi libri e dal nessun senso di molti di essi. Per far questo occorrono nuovi occhi, nuove scritture, nuovi ardimenti.
E. Puglia, M. Fusillo, S. Lazzarin, A.M. Mangini (eds.), Bologna, il Mulino, 2018
Negli ultimi anni gli spettri sono tornati sulla scena intellettuale, diventando una metafora con... more Negli ultimi anni gli spettri sono tornati sulla scena intellettuale,
diventando una metafora concettuale ricorrente e multiforme. Il concetto
di spettralità viene usato per ripensare l’influenza esercitata dagli schermi
sui corpi e sulle menti, per gettare nuova luce sulla dimensione
immateriale della realtà in cui viviamo. Al di là di questo, dalla psicologia
alla politica, dagli studi di genere all’architettura, i contesti in cui tale
concetto compare sono così numerosi che nel mondo anglosassone si
parla ormai di «spectral turn». Nella maggior parte delle teorie recenti, la
dimensione spettrale non prevede si creda nella realtà delle rivelazioni
spiritiche: il fantasma è stato disancorato dall’armamentario
superstizioso ed è in buona sostanza ridotto a materia speculativa.
Questa spettralità senza fantasmi, in verità, ha una storia secolare, che
oggi viene spesso trascurata. «Ritorni spettrali» suggerisce di riallacciare
il filo col passato, e di leggere la spettralità contemporanea in relazione
a quell’ampio processo di «liberazione» dalla credenza nel soprannaturale
che si è intensificato parallelamente allo sviluppo tecnico e industriale,
alla modernizzazione urbana e abitativa e all’affermazione del paradigma
psicoanalitico, il quale ha contribuito non poco alla riduzione dello spettro
a «semplice metafora».
Book chapters by Ezio Puglia
Archeologia del fantastico e dei suoi oggetti, Modena, Mucchi, 2020
La legge 22 aprile 1941 sulla protezione del diritto d'Autore, modificata dalla legge 18 agosto 2... more La legge 22 aprile 1941 sulla protezione del diritto d'Autore, modificata dalla legge 18 agosto 2000, tutela la proprietà intellettuale e i diritti connessi al suo esercizio. Senza autorizzazione sono vietate la riproduzione e l'archiviazione, anche parziali, e per uso didattico, con qualsiasi mezzo, del contenuto di quest'opera nella forma editoriale con la quale essa è pubblicata. Fotocopie per uso personale del lettore possono essere effettuate nel limite del 15% di ciascun volume o fascicolo di periodico dietro pagamento alla SIAE del compenso previsto dall'art. 68, commi 4 e 5, della legge 22 aprile 1941 n. 633. Le riproduzioni per uso differente da quello personale potranno avvenire solo a seguito di specifica autorizzazione rilasciata dall'editore o dagli aventi diritto.
Ritorni spettrali. Storie e teorie della spettralità senza fantasmi, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018
A. Demeulenaere, F. Gernert, N. Roelens, S. Schneider (eds.), Chorographies : les mises en discours de la ville, Wiesbaden, Reichert Verlag, 2017
Esther Cohen (ed.), Glosario Walter Benjamin. Conceptos y figuras, Ciudad de México, UNAM, 2016
Edited Journals Issues by Ezio Puglia
Oblio, 2024
This article is aimed at providing some details about the presence of the fantastic and the phant... more This article is aimed at providing some details about the presence of the fantastic and the phantom in Giorgio Agamben's thought, which is hardly associated with the fields of study engaged in the analysis of this literary genre and of spectrality. The path I will follow starts from the very beginnings of the philosopher's career, lingers mostly over Stanze. La parola e il fantasma nella cultura occidentale, first published in 1977 (Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture, according to the English translation by Ronald L. Martinez), and ends with a few notes on Homo sacer. Il potere sovrano e la nuda vita, originally released in 1995 (Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, according to the English translation by Daniel Heller-Roazen). My aim is twofold: on the one hand, to briefly discuss Agamben's contribution to the study of literary fantastic; on the other hand, to show to what extent the construction of one of his most original and remarkable political concepts owes to a thorough reflection about the fantastic and the spectral dimension of reality.
California Italian studies, 2023
This article discusses Calvino’s idea of the fairy tale through the analysis of his theoretical w... more This article discusses Calvino’s idea of the fairy tale through the analysis of his theoretical works. On the one hand, such a discussion is crucial for the understanding of Six Memos for the Next Millennium, where the fairy tale is a central concern; on the other hand, it fills a patent gap. Despite Calvino’s thorough knowledge of the main trends in fairy-tale studies of his time, in fact, the leading scholars of this field have rarely discussed his views. I compare fairy tale and fantastic fiction, showing that according to Calvino the fairy tale is strikingly different, on a theoretical level, from the fantastic genre. Whereas the fantastic is conceived as a fully historical narrative typology, the fairy tale is something more than just a literary genre among others. The fairy tale is indeed very close to the most remote source of storytelling, and provides decisive evidence of the combinatory nature of fiction itself. This idea of the fairy tale raised for Calvino important issues about the notion of History itself, and the relationship between historical processes and ideal forms. Calvino tried to address these issues by splitting the fairy tale into two parts, and hypothesizing the existence of what I call a deep fairy tale, which is what this article is mostly about.
Multitudes, 73, 2018
The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses,... more The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses, is becoming ever wider and more powerful. This article suggests that the so-called “dematerialization” hides away the material conditions that are necessary to its dominance. It inquires into the role played by logistics in this systematic repression of the articulation between the material and the immaterial. By allowing commodities magically to “appear”, and trash no less magically to “disappear”, the logistical organization currently in place rests on a unique mix between transparency and opacity.
La dimension immatérielle de notre réalité, grâce aux prothèses informatiques et médiatiques, est devenue de plus en plus étendue et puissante. Cet article suggère que la prétendue « dématérialisation » comporte le recel des conditions matérielles nécessaires à son propre essor. Il examine le rôle joué par la logistique dans ce processus de refoulement systématique de la jointure entre matériel et immatériel. Permettant que la marchandise puisse « apparaître » presque magiquement sur les rayons des magasins ou directement chez nous, et que les déchets puissent « disparaître » tout aussi magiquement, l’organisation logistique actuelle repose sur un mix unique de transparence et d’opacisation.
Multitudes, 2018
L’idéal de transparence semble s’imposer à tous les esprits comme une évidence. Toute opacité est... more L’idéal de transparence semble s’imposer à tous les esprits comme une évidence. Toute opacité est suspecte de cacher des pratiques douteuses (népotisme, corruption, détournement, abus) en faisant obstacle à une indispensable soif de vérité. Prenant à contre-pied cette aspiration commune à tout rendre transparent, on s’efforce ici de souligner certains des coûts, des écueils et des victimes collatérales de l’impératif de transparence agité aujourd’hui de façon irréfléchie dans nos discours publics.
Alloa Emmanuel et Yves Citton: « Tyrannies de la transparence »
Emmanuel Alloa: « La transparence est notre censure »
Byung-Chul Han: « L’hypercapitalisme de la transparence »
Ippolita: « Onze thèses sur la transparence »
Claire Birchall: « Interrompre la distriveillance »
Thomas Berns et Salomé Frémineur: « Le reste de la transparence »
Loup Cellard et Anthony Masure: « Le design de la transparence »
Ezio Puglia: « Logistique de la "dématérialisation" »
Nathaniel Tkacz: « L’Index des clés performatives. Prendre la mesure de la mesure »
Monique Selim: « Des intimités transparentes ? »
Italogramma. Letteratura e spettacolo, 16, 2018
In this article, the author contends that the fictional world of some significant early-modern fa... more In this article, the author contends that the fictional world of some significant early-modern fairy tales is ecological, insofar as, when we deal with them, we cannot draw an impermeable boundary between the characters and their environment. After discussing the work of some scholars who foreshadowed this idea, and after arguing for the historical specificity of early-modern fairy tales, the author focuses on Basile’s La cerva fatata (Lo cunto de li cunti, I, 9), showing why and how its world can be called ecological. In this narrative, we do not see active protagonists performing against a motionless background; we see, instead, ecological intensities circulating across the world and tying together utterly diverse fictional beings, regardless of any categorical distinction between humans, animals, plants, objects and so forth. These intensities are shown to be the true protagonists of La cerva fatata and of Basile’s fairy tales in general.
Whatever, I.1, 2018
The late French writer Tony Duvert gave voice, scandalously, to the child-lover he never hid he w... more The late French writer Tony Duvert gave voice, scandalously, to the child-lover he never hid he was. He outlined, with rare precision, a desiring subjectivity struggling for existence in a hostile society, which portrayed him as a criminal. The right to homosexuality; the battle against the condemnation and the repression of underage sexuality; the deconstruction of the scary image of the ‘paedophile’, a bugbear typically represented as a rapist ogre; the invective against parents (the actual source of violence and of the castration forces deployed against children) and the institution of the family (the backbone of a morbid and unjust society); the ferocious criticism towards sexual and emotional capitalism, parenthood and the “bourgeois economic scheme of libidinal investment”: those are some of the themes Tony Duvert deals with in his essays, and on which we focus in this paper.
Esprit, 2016
La rhétorique de la dématérialisation, diffusée par les cercles néo-libéraux, évoque le désir d’a... more La rhétorique de la dématérialisation, diffusée par les cercles néo-libéraux, évoque le désir d’affranchissement des contraintes spatio-temporelles, le désir d’un monde lisse, translucide, à l’image de marchés financiers. Pourtant, une analyse de la financiarisation, de l’essor du numérique ou de l’économie immatérielle se doit d’interroger comment l’immatériel se territorialise. Un édifice comme le Freeport Luxembourg, zone franche créée en 2014, illustre justement une territorialisation de la dématérialisation. Nous le concevons comme un prisme à travers lequel il est possible d’observer la relation entre les flux financiers et numériques et les espaces concrets. En effet, dans ce lieu qui passe inaperçu, tout en étant situé au plus proche des voies de communication, les œuvres d’art et les objets précieux sont essentialisés par leur valeur financière : ils sont, en quelque sorte, volatilisés.
Between, IV.7, 2014
This paper examines the contribution that Warburg's theories can bring to thematology. It does so... more This paper examines the contribution that Warburg's theories can bring to thematology. It does so concretely, above all, through a discussion of historical-literary material. The author hypothesises that the literary representation of non-inert objects took place, in the 18th- and 19th-century fantastic genre, also by using spatio-temporal constants and recurring figurative formulae. By analysing not so much the linguistic, but rather the iconic or imaginative aspect of such constants and formulae (which can be considered as loci communes), these end up resembling Pathosformeln, or moving themes. Through the example of a canonical text such as Berenice, the author illustrates the basic characteristics of this sort of imaginative rhetoric. Subsequently, he shows how the image of things' gaze, which is arguably part of such rhetoric, in the 19th century is transposed also to non-literary texts, and above all to Lacan's psychoanalytic theory. Lastly, on the basis of the arguments and the data collected, the paper proposes an archaeological approach to the study of themes.
Studi e Problemi di Critica Testuale, 88, 2014
In this paper, the author examines the role of objects in Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction. It... more In this paper, the author examines the role of objects in Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction. It focuses especially on Due immagini in una vasca, L’uomo che ha perduto sé stesso, 453 lettere d’amore and Senza nessuna ragione. The author argues that the literary critic or theorist interested in describing the images of objects cannot avoid considering the fictional world that constitutes the background against which such objects appear. Therefore, he tries to bring to light the basic features of Papini’s fantastic world, also by comparing it with the works of Henry James and Franz Kafka. A pool of water, a black-and-white domino costume, a revolver gun, a collection of letters become lenses that allow us to look both at Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction as a whole, and at its relation to the tradition of the fantastic as a genre.
Drafts by Ezio Puglia
Depuis des décennies on nous répète que la confiance positiviste dans le progrès est perdue. Pour... more Depuis des décennies on nous répète que la confiance positiviste dans le progrès est perdue. Pourtant la métaphorique de l’avancement et du progrès est toujours soudée, peut-être inconsciemment, à la rhétorique de l’innovation, qui reste l’un des moteurs les plus puissants de notre temps. La métaphorique de l’avancement masque une tendance majeure de l’innovation technique, telle qu’elle s’est développée à partir de la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Ceci apparaît clairement si l’on réfléchit à des problématiques qui ont affaire aux espaces vécus, et notamment à l’habitat et aux manipulations, ou aux machinisations, auxquelles l’habitat est soumis. Je pense en particulier aux intérieurs, dont on peut dire qu’ils sont une des plus grandes inventions de la modernité, surtout si l’on considère leur rôle capital en tant que produits et agents de la subjectivité moderne.
Papers by Ezio Puglia
Multitudes, 2018
The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses, ... more The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses, is becoming ever wider and more powerful. This article suggests that the so-called “dematerialization” hides away the material conditions that are necessary to its dominance. It inquires into the role played by logistics in this systematic repression of the articulation between the material and the immaterial. By allowing commodities magically to “appear”, and trash no less magically to “disappear”, the logistical organization currently in place rests on a unique mix between transparency and opacity.
Archeologia del fantastico e dei suoi oggetti, Modena, Mucchi, 2020
ezio puglia il lato oscuro delle cose ome nel capolavoro di Montesquieu che in qualche misura ina... more ezio puglia il lato oscuro delle cose ome nel capolavoro di Montesquieu che in qualche misura inaugura l'età dell'Illuminismo, la critica è una "lettera persiana", un messaggio che viene da un altrove rispetto alla pratica della letteratura e alla rete delle convenzioni sociali del presente, illuminando entrambe grazie a un felice straniamento. Il compito della critica, arte tutt'altro che inutile in un tempo complesso come questo, non deve necessariamente esser quello di aggiungere complessità a complessità, bensì di spezzare, come voleva Kafka, la crosta del mare ghiacciato dentro di noi: renderlo nuovamente liquido, mobile, vitale. E rovinare le sacre verità, come insegnò tra gli altri proprio Montesquieu, può essere anche una faccenda divertente. è una scienza di salvataggio, in primo luogo salvataggio della letteratura stessa, oppressa dai troppi libri e dal nessun senso di molti di essi. Per far questo occorrono nuovi occhi, nuove scritture, nuovi ardimenti.
E. Puglia, M. Fusillo, S. Lazzarin, A.M. Mangini (eds.), Bologna, il Mulino, 2018
Negli ultimi anni gli spettri sono tornati sulla scena intellettuale, diventando una metafora con... more Negli ultimi anni gli spettri sono tornati sulla scena intellettuale,
diventando una metafora concettuale ricorrente e multiforme. Il concetto
di spettralità viene usato per ripensare l’influenza esercitata dagli schermi
sui corpi e sulle menti, per gettare nuova luce sulla dimensione
immateriale della realtà in cui viviamo. Al di là di questo, dalla psicologia
alla politica, dagli studi di genere all’architettura, i contesti in cui tale
concetto compare sono così numerosi che nel mondo anglosassone si
parla ormai di «spectral turn». Nella maggior parte delle teorie recenti, la
dimensione spettrale non prevede si creda nella realtà delle rivelazioni
spiritiche: il fantasma è stato disancorato dall’armamentario
superstizioso ed è in buona sostanza ridotto a materia speculativa.
Questa spettralità senza fantasmi, in verità, ha una storia secolare, che
oggi viene spesso trascurata. «Ritorni spettrali» suggerisce di riallacciare
il filo col passato, e di leggere la spettralità contemporanea in relazione
a quell’ampio processo di «liberazione» dalla credenza nel soprannaturale
che si è intensificato parallelamente allo sviluppo tecnico e industriale,
alla modernizzazione urbana e abitativa e all’affermazione del paradigma
psicoanalitico, il quale ha contribuito non poco alla riduzione dello spettro
a «semplice metafora».
Archeologia del fantastico e dei suoi oggetti, Modena, Mucchi, 2020
La legge 22 aprile 1941 sulla protezione del diritto d'Autore, modificata dalla legge 18 agosto 2... more La legge 22 aprile 1941 sulla protezione del diritto d'Autore, modificata dalla legge 18 agosto 2000, tutela la proprietà intellettuale e i diritti connessi al suo esercizio. Senza autorizzazione sono vietate la riproduzione e l'archiviazione, anche parziali, e per uso didattico, con qualsiasi mezzo, del contenuto di quest'opera nella forma editoriale con la quale essa è pubblicata. Fotocopie per uso personale del lettore possono essere effettuate nel limite del 15% di ciascun volume o fascicolo di periodico dietro pagamento alla SIAE del compenso previsto dall'art. 68, commi 4 e 5, della legge 22 aprile 1941 n. 633. Le riproduzioni per uso differente da quello personale potranno avvenire solo a seguito di specifica autorizzazione rilasciata dall'editore o dagli aventi diritto.
Ritorni spettrali. Storie e teorie della spettralità senza fantasmi, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018
A. Demeulenaere, F. Gernert, N. Roelens, S. Schneider (eds.), Chorographies : les mises en discours de la ville, Wiesbaden, Reichert Verlag, 2017
Esther Cohen (ed.), Glosario Walter Benjamin. Conceptos y figuras, Ciudad de México, UNAM, 2016
Oblio, 2024
This article is aimed at providing some details about the presence of the fantastic and the phant... more This article is aimed at providing some details about the presence of the fantastic and the phantom in Giorgio Agamben's thought, which is hardly associated with the fields of study engaged in the analysis of this literary genre and of spectrality. The path I will follow starts from the very beginnings of the philosopher's career, lingers mostly over Stanze. La parola e il fantasma nella cultura occidentale, first published in 1977 (Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture, according to the English translation by Ronald L. Martinez), and ends with a few notes on Homo sacer. Il potere sovrano e la nuda vita, originally released in 1995 (Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, according to the English translation by Daniel Heller-Roazen). My aim is twofold: on the one hand, to briefly discuss Agamben's contribution to the study of literary fantastic; on the other hand, to show to what extent the construction of one of his most original and remarkable political concepts owes to a thorough reflection about the fantastic and the spectral dimension of reality.
California Italian studies, 2023
This article discusses Calvino’s idea of the fairy tale through the analysis of his theoretical w... more This article discusses Calvino’s idea of the fairy tale through the analysis of his theoretical works. On the one hand, such a discussion is crucial for the understanding of Six Memos for the Next Millennium, where the fairy tale is a central concern; on the other hand, it fills a patent gap. Despite Calvino’s thorough knowledge of the main trends in fairy-tale studies of his time, in fact, the leading scholars of this field have rarely discussed his views. I compare fairy tale and fantastic fiction, showing that according to Calvino the fairy tale is strikingly different, on a theoretical level, from the fantastic genre. Whereas the fantastic is conceived as a fully historical narrative typology, the fairy tale is something more than just a literary genre among others. The fairy tale is indeed very close to the most remote source of storytelling, and provides decisive evidence of the combinatory nature of fiction itself. This idea of the fairy tale raised for Calvino important issues about the notion of History itself, and the relationship between historical processes and ideal forms. Calvino tried to address these issues by splitting the fairy tale into two parts, and hypothesizing the existence of what I call a deep fairy tale, which is what this article is mostly about.
Multitudes, 73, 2018
The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses,... more The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses, is becoming ever wider and more powerful. This article suggests that the so-called “dematerialization” hides away the material conditions that are necessary to its dominance. It inquires into the role played by logistics in this systematic repression of the articulation between the material and the immaterial. By allowing commodities magically to “appear”, and trash no less magically to “disappear”, the logistical organization currently in place rests on a unique mix between transparency and opacity.
La dimension immatérielle de notre réalité, grâce aux prothèses informatiques et médiatiques, est devenue de plus en plus étendue et puissante. Cet article suggère que la prétendue « dématérialisation » comporte le recel des conditions matérielles nécessaires à son propre essor. Il examine le rôle joué par la logistique dans ce processus de refoulement systématique de la jointure entre matériel et immatériel. Permettant que la marchandise puisse « apparaître » presque magiquement sur les rayons des magasins ou directement chez nous, et que les déchets puissent « disparaître » tout aussi magiquement, l’organisation logistique actuelle repose sur un mix unique de transparence et d’opacisation.
Multitudes, 2018
L’idéal de transparence semble s’imposer à tous les esprits comme une évidence. Toute opacité est... more L’idéal de transparence semble s’imposer à tous les esprits comme une évidence. Toute opacité est suspecte de cacher des pratiques douteuses (népotisme, corruption, détournement, abus) en faisant obstacle à une indispensable soif de vérité. Prenant à contre-pied cette aspiration commune à tout rendre transparent, on s’efforce ici de souligner certains des coûts, des écueils et des victimes collatérales de l’impératif de transparence agité aujourd’hui de façon irréfléchie dans nos discours publics.
Alloa Emmanuel et Yves Citton: « Tyrannies de la transparence »
Emmanuel Alloa: « La transparence est notre censure »
Byung-Chul Han: « L’hypercapitalisme de la transparence »
Ippolita: « Onze thèses sur la transparence »
Claire Birchall: « Interrompre la distriveillance »
Thomas Berns et Salomé Frémineur: « Le reste de la transparence »
Loup Cellard et Anthony Masure: « Le design de la transparence »
Ezio Puglia: « Logistique de la "dématérialisation" »
Nathaniel Tkacz: « L’Index des clés performatives. Prendre la mesure de la mesure »
Monique Selim: « Des intimités transparentes ? »
Italogramma. Letteratura e spettacolo, 16, 2018
In this article, the author contends that the fictional world of some significant early-modern fa... more In this article, the author contends that the fictional world of some significant early-modern fairy tales is ecological, insofar as, when we deal with them, we cannot draw an impermeable boundary between the characters and their environment. After discussing the work of some scholars who foreshadowed this idea, and after arguing for the historical specificity of early-modern fairy tales, the author focuses on Basile’s La cerva fatata (Lo cunto de li cunti, I, 9), showing why and how its world can be called ecological. In this narrative, we do not see active protagonists performing against a motionless background; we see, instead, ecological intensities circulating across the world and tying together utterly diverse fictional beings, regardless of any categorical distinction between humans, animals, plants, objects and so forth. These intensities are shown to be the true protagonists of La cerva fatata and of Basile’s fairy tales in general.
Whatever, I.1, 2018
The late French writer Tony Duvert gave voice, scandalously, to the child-lover he never hid he w... more The late French writer Tony Duvert gave voice, scandalously, to the child-lover he never hid he was. He outlined, with rare precision, a desiring subjectivity struggling for existence in a hostile society, which portrayed him as a criminal. The right to homosexuality; the battle against the condemnation and the repression of underage sexuality; the deconstruction of the scary image of the ‘paedophile’, a bugbear typically represented as a rapist ogre; the invective against parents (the actual source of violence and of the castration forces deployed against children) and the institution of the family (the backbone of a morbid and unjust society); the ferocious criticism towards sexual and emotional capitalism, parenthood and the “bourgeois economic scheme of libidinal investment”: those are some of the themes Tony Duvert deals with in his essays, and on which we focus in this paper.
Esprit, 2016
La rhétorique de la dématérialisation, diffusée par les cercles néo-libéraux, évoque le désir d’a... more La rhétorique de la dématérialisation, diffusée par les cercles néo-libéraux, évoque le désir d’affranchissement des contraintes spatio-temporelles, le désir d’un monde lisse, translucide, à l’image de marchés financiers. Pourtant, une analyse de la financiarisation, de l’essor du numérique ou de l’économie immatérielle se doit d’interroger comment l’immatériel se territorialise. Un édifice comme le Freeport Luxembourg, zone franche créée en 2014, illustre justement une territorialisation de la dématérialisation. Nous le concevons comme un prisme à travers lequel il est possible d’observer la relation entre les flux financiers et numériques et les espaces concrets. En effet, dans ce lieu qui passe inaperçu, tout en étant situé au plus proche des voies de communication, les œuvres d’art et les objets précieux sont essentialisés par leur valeur financière : ils sont, en quelque sorte, volatilisés.
Between, IV.7, 2014
This paper examines the contribution that Warburg's theories can bring to thematology. It does so... more This paper examines the contribution that Warburg's theories can bring to thematology. It does so concretely, above all, through a discussion of historical-literary material. The author hypothesises that the literary representation of non-inert objects took place, in the 18th- and 19th-century fantastic genre, also by using spatio-temporal constants and recurring figurative formulae. By analysing not so much the linguistic, but rather the iconic or imaginative aspect of such constants and formulae (which can be considered as loci communes), these end up resembling Pathosformeln, or moving themes. Through the example of a canonical text such as Berenice, the author illustrates the basic characteristics of this sort of imaginative rhetoric. Subsequently, he shows how the image of things' gaze, which is arguably part of such rhetoric, in the 19th century is transposed also to non-literary texts, and above all to Lacan's psychoanalytic theory. Lastly, on the basis of the arguments and the data collected, the paper proposes an archaeological approach to the study of themes.
Studi e Problemi di Critica Testuale, 88, 2014
In this paper, the author examines the role of objects in Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction. It... more In this paper, the author examines the role of objects in Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction. It focuses especially on Due immagini in una vasca, L’uomo che ha perduto sé stesso, 453 lettere d’amore and Senza nessuna ragione. The author argues that the literary critic or theorist interested in describing the images of objects cannot avoid considering the fictional world that constitutes the background against which such objects appear. Therefore, he tries to bring to light the basic features of Papini’s fantastic world, also by comparing it with the works of Henry James and Franz Kafka. A pool of water, a black-and-white domino costume, a revolver gun, a collection of letters become lenses that allow us to look both at Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction as a whole, and at its relation to the tradition of the fantastic as a genre.
Depuis des décennies on nous répète que la confiance positiviste dans le progrès est perdue. Pour... more Depuis des décennies on nous répète que la confiance positiviste dans le progrès est perdue. Pourtant la métaphorique de l’avancement et du progrès est toujours soudée, peut-être inconsciemment, à la rhétorique de l’innovation, qui reste l’un des moteurs les plus puissants de notre temps. La métaphorique de l’avancement masque une tendance majeure de l’innovation technique, telle qu’elle s’est développée à partir de la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Ceci apparaît clairement si l’on réfléchit à des problématiques qui ont affaire aux espaces vécus, et notamment à l’habitat et aux manipulations, ou aux machinisations, auxquelles l’habitat est soumis. Je pense en particulier aux intérieurs, dont on peut dire qu’ils sont une des plus grandes inventions de la modernité, surtout si l’on considère leur rôle capital en tant que produits et agents de la subjectivité moderne.
Multitudes, 2018
The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses, ... more The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses, is becoming ever wider and more powerful. This article suggests that the so-called “dematerialization” hides away the material conditions that are necessary to its dominance. It inquires into the role played by logistics in this systematic repression of the articulation between the material and the immaterial. By allowing commodities magically to “appear”, and trash no less magically to “disappear”, the logistical organization currently in place rests on a unique mix between transparency and opacity.
Studi E Problemi Di Critica Testuale, 2011
In the last decade, especially after the 2008 financial crisis, artwork has become a successful f... more In the last decade, especially after the 2008 financial crisis, artwork has become a successful financial asset. Improved logistical techniques and specific legal provisions (as the evergrowing spread of Free Economic Zones) have fostered this evolution. Created in 2014, Le Freeport Luxembourg is the first free zone in Luxembourg. It follows the exemple of the Geneva and Singapore freeports. Its creation coincides with the attempt to diversify the country’s national economy, and to develop a niche where finance, art, and logistics meet. The empirical analysis comprehends a document analysis, fieldwork (incl. photographs) and three semi-structured interviews with experts working at the Freeport Luxembourg. The contribution investigates how Le Freeport territorializes immaterial flows, thus imposing practices and contributing to establishing Luxembourg as a prominent node of the international art market. The paper demonstrates how this territorialization results into the enclaving of ...
Studi E Problemi Di Critica Testuale, 2011
La ricerca si propone di inquisire il modo in cui il fantastico del primo Novecento utilizza la r... more La ricerca si propone di inquisire il modo in cui il fantastico del primo Novecento utilizza la rappresentazione finzionale degli oggetti ai fini della propria emersione. Si ipotizza che certi schemi rappresentativi elaborati da autori fantastici come Hoffmann, Poe o Maupassant siano riscontrabili anche nella letteratura del XX secolo, e vengano reimpiegati per rispondere a una mutata situazione socioculturale. La tesi e bipartita: la prima parte, che e a sua volta suddivisa in due capitoli, funziona da cornice teorica e storica alle analisi testuali. Vi si discute del concetto di immagine; e da tale discussione viene derivata una precisa idea di spazio e di oggetto letterari. In seguito si procede a una ricostruzione della storia del fantastico ottocentesco (dalla quale non sono assenti riflessioni teoriche e in particolare genologiche), che da un lato e volta a storicizzare l’idea di “genere fantastico”; dall’altro ha come obiettivo l’identificazione di una tipologia di oggetti st...
Multitudes, 2018
The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses, ... more The immaterial dimension of our reality, powered by our computational and medialized prostheses, is becoming ever wider and more powerful. This article suggests that the so-called “dematerialization” hides away the material conditions that are necessary to its dominance. It inquires into the role played by logistics in this systematic repression of the articulation between the material and the immaterial. By allowing commodities magically to “appear”, and trash no less magically to “disappear”, the logistical organization currently in place rests on a unique mix between transparency and opacity.
Multitudes, 2018
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Testo Studi Di Teoria E Storia Della Letteratura E Della Critica, 2013
Studi E Problemi Di Critica Testuale, 2014
In this paper, the author examines the role of objects in Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction. It... more In this paper, the author examines the role of objects in Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction. It focuses especially on Due immagini in una vasca, L’uomo che ha perduto sé stesso, 453 lettere d’amore and Senza nessuna ragione. The author argues that the literary critic or theorist interested in describing the images of objects cannot avoid considering the fictional world that constitutes the background against which such objects appear. Therefore, he tries to bring to light the basic features of Papini’s fantastic world, also by comparing it with the works of Henry James and Franz Kafka. A pool of water, a black-and-white domino costume, a revolver gun, a collection of letters become lenses that allow us to look both at Giovanni Papini’s fantastic fiction as a whole, and at its relation to the tradition of the fantastic as a genre.
Between, May 31, 2014
In uno studio apparso poco tempo fa, ho proposto di riconsiderare il contributo che le idee di Wa... more In uno studio apparso poco tempo fa, ho proposto di riconsiderare il contributo che le idee di Warburg possono dare allo studio della letteratura, e in particolare alla tematologia. André Jolles, che ha dedicato un'attenzione speciale a quelle idee e ha cercato di fare ciò che lo stesso Warburg auspicava, cioè allacciare le riflessioni sul visivo con le riflessioni sulla testualità, non ha ricevuto l'attenzione a cui la sua opera più importante gli avrebbe consentito di aspirare. Chiunque conosca Jolles sa perché. Le ombre che avvolgono fittamente la sua vita sembrano avere screditato un tentativo che avrebbe dovuto far riflettere critica e teoria molto più di quanto non abbia fatto. Forse agli occhi di qualcuno, oggigiorno, quel tentativo può apparire inattuale e imperfetto. Non c'è dubbio. La necessità di superare l'apparato delle einfache Formen resta. Ma resta anche la necessità di recuperare lo spirito di quell'apparato, l'obiettivo in vista del quale fu costruito. Con il concetto di «gesto verbale», Jolles (2003) ha dischiuso alla genologia un orizzonte tutt'ora inesplorato, dove delle forme di genere si staccano dalla mera testualità e attraversano i sensi embricandosi con essi, incorporandosi. Vero è che nella 'semplificazione' jollesiana va in buona parte perduta la storicità dei generi; e cioè il loro elemento vitale, quel «tempo storico» che, come scrive giustamente Guillén, solo «può dimostrarci che un modello [concettuale] è effettivamente riuscito a costituirsi in genere» (Guillén 2008: 181). Ma queste forme generiche astratte, se vengono guardate attraverso la lente del «gesto verbale», acquisiscono uno spessore e una fisicità che normalmente non vengono