Carla Locatelli | University of Pennsylvania (original) (raw)
PROFILE IN PROGRESS (incomplete)
Carla Locatelli is an Internationally established Professor of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature (Europe, North America and in Asia).
Her publications include 17 volumes (some edited) and more than160 articles and contributions to reference works and encyclopedias.
Her areas of research include: literary theory, hermeneutics, semiotics, gender studies, postcolonial theory, and comparative literature (in particular Italian, English, American, French and Filipino).
She was honored as "Professore Emerito" by the Italian Ministry for Research and the University because of an outstanding academic career (at the Universities of Trento, Bologna and Milan IULM).
She was Visiting Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA.) in the English Department till 2013 when she became Senior Lecturer in Romance Languages.
She was Vice Rector for International Relations at the University of Trento.
She was President of ASEA-Uninet (and was re-elected for a 2nd term in 2016).
She is a member of the Editorial Board of these journals: The Humanities Bulletin London Academic Publishing (https://www.journals.lapub.co.uk/hb/index); Testuale; The European Journal of Women's Studies e Limite(e) Beckett (www.limitebeckett.paris-sorbonne.fr). She is a member of the International Advisory Board of The Philippine Humanities Review, and of the Global Business Review Journal (Burapha University, Thailand).
Carla Locatelli has been Fulbright Exchange Research Fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2004, and Senior Fulbright Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana in 2002. She was nominated as a member of the International Visitor's Program (I.V.P.) dell’USIA nel 1983.
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Papers by Carla Locatelli
The Tragic Comedy of Samuel Beckett, 2009
A continuing reflective and reflexive stance characterizes Beckett's poems, from the Thirties to ... more A continuing reflective and reflexive stance characterizes Beckett's poems, from the Thirties to the Eighties. A recurrence of motives, a homogeneity of perspective, the recurrence of voice with its modulation of tones expresses Beckett's distinctive economy of writing. A diminishing economy of discourse confirms Beckett's pervasive aesthetic imperative of "unwording." His dramatic voice expresses his theatrical imagination throughout all the poems; my "spatial reading" of the poems valorizes the inside/outside of an immanent Beckettian writing, both poetic and dramatic.
Carla Locatelli interrogates the concepts of ‘contact’ and ‘zones’ in relation to the epistemolog... more Carla Locatelli interrogates the concepts of ‘contact’ and ‘zones’ in relation to the epistemology of literature. Literature is seen as a privileged tool allowing for a complex understanding of reality, and as a «‘zone’ in which codes can be radically questioned and transformed» even at a posthuman horizon. Locatelli draws on Derrida, Levinas, Hayles, Deleuze, and Haraway in her exploration of poems by Filipino poet Gémino Abad and Malay poet Fadzilah Amin to develop her idea of literature as «emphatic epistemology» and «world awareness».
Organization, 2007
... Milan: La Tartaruga. Cavarero, Adriana (1995) In Spite of Plato. ... University Park, PA: The... more ... Milan: La Tartaruga. Cavarero, Adriana (1995) In Spite of Plato. ... University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Lamberti, Raffaella (1993) 'Individualità e pluralità: il “pensiero della nascita''', in P. Bono (ed.) Questioni di teoria femminista. ...
S/Oggetti immaginari . Letterature comparate al femminile (ed. digitale), 2017
Per la prima volta in Europa nel 1995 un gruppo di studiose di varia provenienza sia geografica ... more Per la prima volta in Europa nel 1995 un gruppo di studiose di varia
provenienza sia geografica che disciplinare si interrogò sulla comparatistica al
femminile: da quella interrogazione ebbe poi origine questo volume e sempre
nel 1996 la Società Italiana delle Letterate. Come attraversare esperienze
letterarie a firma di donne eterogenee e diverse nei secoli e per le differenti
culture? La risposta, allora come adesso, sta nella costruzione di una lettrice
capace di ascoltare le proprie passioni letterarie, e quindi di addentrarsi nelle
forme di un S/Oggetto che si accommiata dal proprio essere oggetto come
modalità narrativa del desiderio, nella discesa agli Inferi in cerca dell'arcaico
sé materno e delle riscritture del mito, nella problematizzazione del rapporto
tra soggetto sessuato e linguaggio. Grazie al movimento tra parole che si
riappropriano del mito delle origini, le riletture operate dalle autrici dei vari
saggi entrano in dialogo tra loro, in una pratica performativa di superamento
o negoziazione dei confini tra discipline e letterature diverse. Molte quindi le
tematiche, le fascinazioni e gli interrogativi posti allora che fanno sì che si
possa guardare alla critica femminista nei caratteri di fondazione di un altro
sistema di coordinate interpretative, letterarie, culturali e politiche.
Abstract. Love of knowledge is at the core of women’s ways of knowing. The sustaining meditation ... more Abstract. Love of knowledge is at the core of women’s ways of knowing. The sustaining meditation of this article is the need to defi ne in gynocentric terms what knowledge is, and how it can be formed, represented, and transmitted. The goal is to make this knowledge equally recognizable, just as the patriarchial knowledge secured by cultural memory is recognized and honoured. The relational ambivalence of love captures well both women’s valorization of the relational quality of knowledge and the politics of desire that informs a feminist epistemology. Key words. co(n)text; (dis)identifi cation; (gynocentric) cultural memory; politics of desire; relational ambivalence The title of my talk is tongue-in-cheek ambivalent: on one hand it is provocative, to the extent that it implies a reference to the stereotype of passive care-giving ascribed to women’s ‘natural ’ loving attitude; it is a major cultural stereotype, often justifying women’s exploitation in the most diverse social situati...
Beckett challenges received notions of ‘classical’ tragedy in all of his works. In particular, in... more Beckett challenges received notions of ‘classical’ tragedy in all of his works. In particular, in Not I the very possibility of tragedy is at stake in relation to the construction of subjectivity and agency. The play points to a state of human infirmity, and to a series of “tupenny aches over life and death” which seem to ridicule the notion of tragedy while representing it. Is it a (non)tragedy that life and death are “tupenny aches”? Can the being of being find a tragic representation in the theatre? Can a linguistically determined subject acknowledge and inscribe his/her being with his/her suffering? If we define postmodernism as the age of the end of “master narratives” (Lyotard 1979), we might be limited to the illustration of particular examples of experience, so that the archetypal value of a human condition becomes a problematic issue. But, can there be tragedy without some form of ‘universality’? How can the individual subject be representative of a general human condition?...
Starting from Nietzsche’s notion of “truth and lying in a non moral sense” the essay develops a h... more Starting from Nietzsche’s notion of “truth and lying in a non moral sense” the essay develops a historical inquiry into the definitions of literature in relation to the possibility of literary errors and mistakes. The historical shift in hermeneutics from text to reading highlights the epistemological valorization of literature as a source of knowledge potentially susceptible to error and mistakes. Through the contributions of many writers and philosophers concerned with the truth of literary knowledge, a recurrent cognitive apprehension about literature is outlined, taking into consideration a long variety of different formulations, from Plato to Aristotle, from Bacon to Sidney, from the Romantics to the Formalists, and from Barthes to Derrida, and beyond. Their contributions highlight the ever-changing loci of error from text to reception, from hermeneutics to readability. They also help in defining the disciplinary boundaries that would differentiate literary texts from scientifi...
Modern Drama, 1996
Jitical , Beckett believed he had powerful moral obligations to those who were persecuted by the ... more Jitical , Beckett believed he had powerful moral obligations to those who were persecuted by the Nazi regime. This phase of Beckett's life is intensely dramatic and purposeful. His biographer's conclusion here that he was not "fragile and reclusive" but "sensitive and courageous" is persuasive. For any evaluation of Beckett's temperament and achievement, The World of Samuel Beckett provides invaluable information and balance. It covers his formative years and focuses on his life rather than on extensive critical analyses of his major works (many of which had not been written 'by the end of the period covered). Nevertheless, Gordon has provided a "missing link" in the saga of one of the West's greatest writers.
The Tragic Comedy of Samuel Beckett, 2009
A continuing reflective and reflexive stance characterizes Beckett's poems, from the Thirties to ... more A continuing reflective and reflexive stance characterizes Beckett's poems, from the Thirties to the Eighties. A recurrence of motives, a homogeneity of perspective, the recurrence of voice with its modulation of tones expresses Beckett's distinctive economy of writing. A diminishing economy of discourse confirms Beckett's pervasive aesthetic imperative of "unwording." His dramatic voice expresses his theatrical imagination throughout all the poems; my "spatial reading" of the poems valorizes the inside/outside of an immanent Beckettian writing, both poetic and dramatic.
Carla Locatelli interrogates the concepts of ‘contact’ and ‘zones’ in relation to the epistemolog... more Carla Locatelli interrogates the concepts of ‘contact’ and ‘zones’ in relation to the epistemology of literature. Literature is seen as a privileged tool allowing for a complex understanding of reality, and as a «‘zone’ in which codes can be radically questioned and transformed» even at a posthuman horizon. Locatelli draws on Derrida, Levinas, Hayles, Deleuze, and Haraway in her exploration of poems by Filipino poet Gémino Abad and Malay poet Fadzilah Amin to develop her idea of literature as «emphatic epistemology» and «world awareness».
Organization, 2007
... Milan: La Tartaruga. Cavarero, Adriana (1995) In Spite of Plato. ... University Park, PA: The... more ... Milan: La Tartaruga. Cavarero, Adriana (1995) In Spite of Plato. ... University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Lamberti, Raffaella (1993) 'Individualità e pluralità: il “pensiero della nascita''', in P. Bono (ed.) Questioni di teoria femminista. ...
S/Oggetti immaginari . Letterature comparate al femminile (ed. digitale), 2017
Per la prima volta in Europa nel 1995 un gruppo di studiose di varia provenienza sia geografica ... more Per la prima volta in Europa nel 1995 un gruppo di studiose di varia
provenienza sia geografica che disciplinare si interrogò sulla comparatistica al
femminile: da quella interrogazione ebbe poi origine questo volume e sempre
nel 1996 la Società Italiana delle Letterate. Come attraversare esperienze
letterarie a firma di donne eterogenee e diverse nei secoli e per le differenti
culture? La risposta, allora come adesso, sta nella costruzione di una lettrice
capace di ascoltare le proprie passioni letterarie, e quindi di addentrarsi nelle
forme di un S/Oggetto che si accommiata dal proprio essere oggetto come
modalità narrativa del desiderio, nella discesa agli Inferi in cerca dell'arcaico
sé materno e delle riscritture del mito, nella problematizzazione del rapporto
tra soggetto sessuato e linguaggio. Grazie al movimento tra parole che si
riappropriano del mito delle origini, le riletture operate dalle autrici dei vari
saggi entrano in dialogo tra loro, in una pratica performativa di superamento
o negoziazione dei confini tra discipline e letterature diverse. Molte quindi le
tematiche, le fascinazioni e gli interrogativi posti allora che fanno sì che si
possa guardare alla critica femminista nei caratteri di fondazione di un altro
sistema di coordinate interpretative, letterarie, culturali e politiche.
Abstract. Love of knowledge is at the core of women’s ways of knowing. The sustaining meditation ... more Abstract. Love of knowledge is at the core of women’s ways of knowing. The sustaining meditation of this article is the need to defi ne in gynocentric terms what knowledge is, and how it can be formed, represented, and transmitted. The goal is to make this knowledge equally recognizable, just as the patriarchial knowledge secured by cultural memory is recognized and honoured. The relational ambivalence of love captures well both women’s valorization of the relational quality of knowledge and the politics of desire that informs a feminist epistemology. Key words. co(n)text; (dis)identifi cation; (gynocentric) cultural memory; politics of desire; relational ambivalence The title of my talk is tongue-in-cheek ambivalent: on one hand it is provocative, to the extent that it implies a reference to the stereotype of passive care-giving ascribed to women’s ‘natural ’ loving attitude; it is a major cultural stereotype, often justifying women’s exploitation in the most diverse social situati...
Beckett challenges received notions of ‘classical’ tragedy in all of his works. In particular, in... more Beckett challenges received notions of ‘classical’ tragedy in all of his works. In particular, in Not I the very possibility of tragedy is at stake in relation to the construction of subjectivity and agency. The play points to a state of human infirmity, and to a series of “tupenny aches over life and death” which seem to ridicule the notion of tragedy while representing it. Is it a (non)tragedy that life and death are “tupenny aches”? Can the being of being find a tragic representation in the theatre? Can a linguistically determined subject acknowledge and inscribe his/her being with his/her suffering? If we define postmodernism as the age of the end of “master narratives” (Lyotard 1979), we might be limited to the illustration of particular examples of experience, so that the archetypal value of a human condition becomes a problematic issue. But, can there be tragedy without some form of ‘universality’? How can the individual subject be representative of a general human condition?...
Starting from Nietzsche’s notion of “truth and lying in a non moral sense” the essay develops a h... more Starting from Nietzsche’s notion of “truth and lying in a non moral sense” the essay develops a historical inquiry into the definitions of literature in relation to the possibility of literary errors and mistakes. The historical shift in hermeneutics from text to reading highlights the epistemological valorization of literature as a source of knowledge potentially susceptible to error and mistakes. Through the contributions of many writers and philosophers concerned with the truth of literary knowledge, a recurrent cognitive apprehension about literature is outlined, taking into consideration a long variety of different formulations, from Plato to Aristotle, from Bacon to Sidney, from the Romantics to the Formalists, and from Barthes to Derrida, and beyond. Their contributions highlight the ever-changing loci of error from text to reception, from hermeneutics to readability. They also help in defining the disciplinary boundaries that would differentiate literary texts from scientifi...
Modern Drama, 1996
Jitical , Beckett believed he had powerful moral obligations to those who were persecuted by the ... more Jitical , Beckett believed he had powerful moral obligations to those who were persecuted by the Nazi regime. This phase of Beckett's life is intensely dramatic and purposeful. His biographer's conclusion here that he was not "fragile and reclusive" but "sensitive and courageous" is persuasive. For any evaluation of Beckett's temperament and achievement, The World of Samuel Beckett provides invaluable information and balance. It covers his formative years and focuses on his life rather than on extensive critical analyses of his major works (many of which had not been written 'by the end of the period covered). Nevertheless, Gordon has provided a "missing link" in the saga of one of the West's greatest writers.
Beckett at 100: Revolving it All, 2008
Autobiography does not represent a subject but produces it, or more precisely, a reader produces ... more Autobiography does not represent a subject but produces it, or more precisely, a reader produces a subject as a subject of autobiography. We can ask: if the textual object becomes a subject, i.e., if a character functions as self-narrator, how does that happen? When the empirical subject is discarded as a (self-)referent, what happens to the text? In the case of Beckettian texts, what is the role of the reader in Interpreting Krapp or Mouth as Beckett doubles or even alter egos? The reader's desire for the autobiographical author is the text desire for a reader capable of imagining plausible projections. The text creates the plausibility of a projection (author-character; author-text), until it shows that the very possibility of this projection is only a reader's endeavor. Against referential evidence, Beckett's autobiography is constructed by Krapp and a "Not I", two protagonists showing the impossible referential statute of autobiographical narration.
Una sconfinata infatuazione. Firenze e la Toscana nelle metamorfosi della cultura anglo-americana 1861-1915, 2012
When is a portrait a portrait of someone? Is it imperative to recognize the person? Can verbal ar... more When is a portrait a portrait of someone? Is it imperative to recognize the person? Can verbal art represent visual portraits? How does avant-garde become tradition? The plurality of perceptive inferences makes narrative selection imperative. What are the selective criteria? do they respect or reformulate realism?
Challenges for the 21st Century, Dilemmas, Ambiguities, 2011
The issue of a hegemonic language imposed to “native speakers” has raised many inquiries, at diff... more The issue of a hegemonic language imposed to “native speakers” has raised many inquiries, at different interpretive levels: cultural, social, cognitive, epistemological, etc. The essay examines critically testimonies from significant Filipino writers who discuss the use of English, a language basically enforced as an instrument of education during and after the US occupation. The main orientation of the essay is epistemological, but obviously related to social and literary dilemmas faced by Filipino writers and speakers. The conclusion is that Filipinos do not write in English but from English.
Sex(t)ualities. Morfologie del corpo tra visioni e narrazioni, 2018
La storia della sessualita' passa da approcci organicistici a approcci culturali. Il tema della s... more La storia della sessualita' passa da approcci organicistici a approcci culturali. Il tema della sessualita' si arricchisce di molti contributi orientati a diversi ambiti: sociologia, antropologia, psicologia, religione, scienze giuridiche e mediche. Questa pluralita' di approcci rivela la fludita' della sua stessa definizione. Molti studiosi vengono citati, tra cui Freud, Lacan, Foucault, Barthes, Malinowski, J.L. Nancy, ed autori piu' recenti come A. Rich, M. Farley, J. Weinstein, F. Plante , J. Delamater e A. Dreger. Il saggio ambisce ad arricchire il dibattito attuale sui temi della sessualita'.