Italian Studies, Italian Theory and the politics of trans-lation (original) (raw)

Introduction: Critical issues in Transnational Italian Studies

Forum Italicum Vol. 57 (2), 2023

Almost a decade ago, scholar of Italian literature Emma Bond authored the article that anticipated (with its title as well as its argument) the so-called "trans-national turn" in Italian studies (Bond, 2014). That turn has since taken many shapes: large research projects, book series, journal issues, conference panels, symposia, working groups, undergraduate and graduate courses, departmental name changes, tenure track jobs and lectureships. The success of Transnational Italian Studies in the UK and the USA (and to a much lesser extent in Italy) has to do with its ability to multiply the vantage points from which we may look at Italy and at Italian culture as objects of inquiry, thereby demanding that we also ask increasingly theoretical questions about what a nation and its culture really are, how they come into being, how they are perceived and represented. A transnational approach to Italian Studies asks us to take into account the violent histories of nationalism, colonialism, emigration, and migration that continue to inform national identity formation, as well as the (thus far) marginal characters in the disciplinary stories we tell, who nonetheless stand at the very center of that process. The increasing popularity of the term "transnational" within Italian Studies, however, also points towards possible risks, such as the potential for the label (now mostly spelled without Bond's hyphen) to be used in increasingly paradigmatic ways, creating homogenizing effects or promoting a new orthodoxy, while only gesturing towards surface changes rather than encouraging deeper transformation. This special issue of Forum Italicum investigates the changes brought about by the "transnational turn" in Italian Studies as well as their effects by taking stock of developments in the field and, at

Vital Subjects: Race and Biopolitics in Italy

Transnational Italian Cultures will publish the best research in the expanding ield of postcolonial, global and transnational Italian studies and aim to set a new agenda for academic research on what constitutes Italian culture today. As such, it will move beyond the physical borders of the peninsula as well as identifying existing or evolving transnational presences within the nation in order to relect the vibrant and complex make-up of today's global Italy. Privileging a cultural studies perspective with an emphasis on the analysis of textual production, the series focuses primarily on the contemporary context but will also include work on earlier periods informed by current postcolonial/transnational methodology.

Italian Biopolitical Theory: Genealogy, Psychoanalysis, and Biology

Paragraph. A Journal in Modern Critical Theory, 2016

Over the last two decades Italian biopolitical theory has ignited a series of fierce debates, in both philosophy and the social sciences. On the one hand, so-called ‘Italian Theory’ remains to date a highly problematic phrase; it is both too general, attempting to coalesce under its label a vast array of positions that remain in the end incompatible, and too specific, given the risk of resurrecting the frankly outdated category of national philosophy that goes with it. On the other hand, it is beyond doubt that a growing number of Italian authors have, for good reasons, become very popular worldwide. A plethora of publications have been dedicated to understanding this phenomenon, especially in anglophone academia. The aim of this collection of essays is not simply to introduce, or further inspect, the wide range of Italian theories on the politics of life. The main objective of the present work is rather to take a step beyond, or aside, existing lines of investigation concerning Italian biopolitical theory, and establish a constructive dialogue with what persists as its extimacy, that is, as an otherness that already tacitly dwells at its core. This we identify in its relations with psychoanalysis and the life sciences.

On Contemporary French and Italian Political Philosophy: An Interview with Roberto Esposito

Minnesota Review, 2010

You are currently completing a book on Italian philosophy. Generally, how do you judge the relation between French and Italian thought? In your opinion, under what conditions is it possible to refer to an "Italian philosophy" without giving in to the demon of the history of philosophy and the tyranny of liberal political philosophy? Esposito I consider it possible and useful to speak in national, philosophical terms only if one inscribes such a question within the dialectic introduced by Deleuze between territorialization and deterritorialization. Here, Italian philosophy can be considered territorial but not national, since the birth of the nation-state occurs much later than the complete unfolding of Italian philosophy. The difference with French philosophy lies precisely in the centrality of the category of "life," which Italian philosophy registered right from the start. Campbell and Luisetti Does there exist in your opinion a "thing" or a category that, unlike in French thought, Italian philosophy is able to think or to furnish the conditions for thinking? What explains the current success of Italian thought in constructing the terms of the debate that runs from biotechnology to human rights? Esposito While French philosophy beginning with Descartes privileged the dimension of consciousness or the interior dialogue, as in Pascal, Italian philosophy in its origins-with Machiavelli, Bruno, Campanella, and Vico, up to Croce and Gramsciconcentrated on the category of life in its complex relation with the dimensions of history and politics. Without imagining linear paths or improbable precursors, I believe that this originary element has influenced the current Italian elaboration of the categories of "bio-history" and "bio-politics," which were of course influenced by Nietzsche and then Foucault. Yet the fact remains that before the Italian interpretations, Foucault's extraordinary research into biopolitics remained effectively inactive for the better part of twenty years. Why, in order to become a theme of global importance, did biopolitics have to pass through Italy? It is beginning with this

Postcolonial studies under erasure: The politics of the transnational in Italian studies

Forum Italicum, 2023

My position on Italy, Italian studies, and the future of the discipline focuses on the method of two recent ‘turns’ in Italian studies, the postcolonial turn and the transnational turn, pertinent to the study of Italy and migrant mobility. It is my contention that the discipline, in its institutional discourse and material practices has promoted their relevance unevenly, and I will explain why and to what effects. I contend that these two critical perspectives, while they have been theorized by a great variety of scholars in Italy and across continental Europe, the UK, Canada, Australia, and the United States, have not reached an equal status as legitimate fields within Italian studies. There are many points of convergence between these two approaches, yet I want to emphasize the imbalance of power in the dissemination of knowledge and institutional visibility of these two critical methods, an imbalance that is not simply epistemic but involves a disparity in the allocation of institutional resources and money, in the existence of publishing venues, and in the creation of scholarships and of academic positions.

Culture and Politics in the Age of Globalization: Some Suggestions from Two Italian Philosophers

Glocalism, 2018

Over the past few decades, the global phenomenology of political power has changed. Unlike what happened in the past, increasingly the practical applications of scientific discoveries are no longer immediately or exclusively used by the legally formalized political power. They are consumed and disseminated throughout civil society escaping from the old logic of the legitimate power or judicial power and generating a new political power, which could be defined as “glocal”. All these new dynamics can be better understood through the lenses offered by past philosophical dialogues on the same topics and in this case we can enrich our perspective from a discussion, which was developed in mid-twentieth century Italy. In 1950, the formal establishment of the Société Européenne de Culture took place in Venice with the hope of building a bridge between West and East political Europe. Through constant reflection on the general development of European society, this cultural institution tried to focus on priorities regarding theory and practice, in order to foster cultural positions that could take ethical-political responsibilities regarding understanding, collaboration and peace. This commitment was theoretically founded on the concept of “politics of culture”, formulated by Umberto Campagnolo and expressed in a session of the General Assembly in November 1951 and later in January of 1952, Norberto Bobbio gave notice of it in the “Rivista di Filosofia” (“Journal of Philosophy”), sharing the principles expressed by Campagnolo. The theoretical dialogue between the two philosophers intensified at the beginning of the 60s, when it became clear that the common civil commitment sprang from a different conception of philosophy and politics.

American Studies as Italian Theory.pdf

Considering Roberto Esposito's narrative of Italian Theory, according to which Italian Theory first started as a US-based phenomenon and only later irradiated in other parts of the world, this paper explores the consequences of that narrative and the questions that it might raise for American Studies: Might Italian Theory rightfully belong to the Americanist's domain of inquiry? If so, what impact might it have on the identity of the Americanist? What is an Americanist? The paper argues that this new wave of theory illuminates the confluence of American Studies and critical thought, both involved in a simultaneous movement of deterritorialization that pushes them outside their established boundaries.