Traces de terre, traces d'encre... La rappresentazione dello spazio nella letteratura caraibica. (Francofona e Anglofona)

This study concerns the representation of space in Caribbean literature, both francophone and Anglophone and, in particular, but not only, in the martinican literature, in the works of the authors born in the island. The analysis focus on the second half of the last century, a period in which the martinican production of novels and romances increased considerably, and where the representation and the rule of space had a relevant place. So, the thesis explores the literary modalities of this representation. The work is constituted of 5 chapters and the critical and methodological approaches are both of an analytical and comparative type. The first chapter “The caribbean space: geography, history and society” presents the geographic context, through an analysis of the historical and political major events occurred in the Caribbean archipelago, in particular of the French Antilles, from the first colonization until the départementalisation. The first paragraph “The colonized space: historical-political excursus” the explores the history of the European colonization that marked forever the theatre of the relationship between Europe, Africa and the New World. This social situation take a long and complex process of “Re-appropriation and renegotiation of the space”, (second paragraph) always the space of the Other, that interest both the Antillean society and the writers’ universe. So, a series of questions take place in the third paragraph “Landscape and identity”: what is the function of space in the process of identity construction? What are the literary forms and representations of space in the Caribbean context? Could the writing be a tool of cultural identity definition, both individual and collective? The second chapter “The literary representation of the Antillean space” is a methodological analysis of the notions of literary space and descriptive gender. The first paragraph “The literary space of and in the novel” is an excursus of the theory of such critics like Blanchot, Bachelard, Genette and Greimas, and in particular the recent innovation of the 20th century; the second one “Space of the Antilles, space of the writing” is an attempt to apply this theory to the Antillean literary space. Finally the last paragraph “Signs on the page: the symbolic places of the antillean novel landscape” presents an inventory of the most recurrent antillean places (mornes, ravines, traces, cachots, En-ville,…), symbols of the history and the past, described in literary works, but according to new modalities of representation. The third chapter, the core of the thesis, “Re-drawing the map of the French Antilles” focused the study of space representation on francophone literature, in particular on a selected works of four martinican writers, like Roland Brival, Édouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant. Through this section, a spatial evolution comes out step by step, from the first to the second paragraph, whose titles are linked together “The novel space evolution: from the forest of the morne… to the jungle of the ville”. The virgin and uncontaminated space of the Antilles, prior to the colonisation, where the Indios lived in harmony with the nature, find a representation in both works of Brival (Le sang du roucou, Le dernier des Aloukous) and of Glissant (Le Quatrième siècle, Ormerod). The arrival of the European colonizer brings a violent and sudden metamorphosis of the originary space and landscape, together with the traditions and culture of the Caraïbes population. These radical changes are visible in the works of Chamoiseau (Chronique des sept misères, Texaco, L’esclave vieil homme et le molosse, Livret des villes du deuxième monde, Un dimanche au cachot) and Confiant (Le Nègre et l’Amiral, Eau de Café, Ravines du devant-jour, Nègre marron) that explore the urban space of the creole En-ville. The fourth chapter represents the “2nd step: the Anglophone novel space” in the exploration of literary representation of space, through an analytical study of the works of three Anglophone writers, the 19th century Lafcadio Hearn (A Midsummer Trip To the West Indies, Two Years in the French West Indies, Youma) and the contemporary authors Derek Walcott (Omeros, Map of the New World, What the Twilight says) and Edward Kamau Brathwaite (The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy). The Anglophone voice of the Caribbean archipelago brings a very interesting contribution to the critical idea of a spatial evolution in the literary representation of space, started with francophone production: “The spatial evolution goes on: from the Martiniques Sketches of Hearn… to the modern bards of Caribbean archipelago” is the new linked title of the two paragraphs. The fifth chapter “Extended look, space shared: the Caribbean archipelago” is a comparative analysis of the results achieved in the prior sections, through a dialogue between all the texts in the first paragraph “Francophone and Anglophone representation of space compared: differences and analogies”. The last paragraph instead is an attempt of re-negotiate the conventional notions of space and place, from a geographical and physical meaning, to the new concept of “commonplace”, not synonym of prejudice, but “common place” of sharing and dialogue. The question sets in the last paragraph “The “commonplaces” of the physical and mental map of the Caribbean archipelago: toward a non-place?” contains the critical idea of the entire thesis.

Each one teaches one: characterizing active forms of proteins by single molecule force spectroscopy

This Ph.D. candidate thesis collects the research work I conducted under the supervision of Prof.Bruno Samor´ı in 2005,2006 and 2007. Some parts of this work included in the Part III have been begun by myself during my undergraduate thesis in the same laboratory and then completed during the initial part of my Ph.D. thesis: the whole results have been included for the sake of understanding and completeness. During my graduate studies I worked on two very different protein systems. The theorical trait d’union between these studies, at the biological level, is the acknowledgement that protein biophysical and structural studies must, in many cases, take into account the dynamical states of protein conformational equilibria and of local physico-chemical conditions where the system studied actually performs its function. This is introducted in the introductory part in Chapter 2. Two different examples of this are presented: the structural significance deriving from the action of mechanical forces in vivo (Chapter 3) and the complexity of conformational equilibria in intrinsically unstructured proteins and amyloid formation (Chapter 4). My experimental work investigated both these examples by using in both cases the single molecule force spectroscopy technique (described in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6). The work conducted on angiostatin focused on the characterization of the relationships between the mechanochemical properties and the mechanism of action of the angiostatin protein, and most importantly their intertwining with the further layer of complexity due to disulfide redox equilibria (Part III). These studies were accompanied concurrently by the elaboration of a theorical model for a novel signalling pathway that may be relevant in the extracellular space, detailed in Chapter 7.2. The work conducted on -synuclein (Part IV) instead brought a whole new twist to the single molecule force spectroscopy methodology, applying it as a structural technique to elucidate the conformational equilibria present in intrinsically unstructured proteins. These equilibria are of utmost interest from a biophysical point of view, but most importantly because of their direct relationship with amyloid aggregation and, consequently, the aetiology of relevant pathologies like Parkinson’s disease. The work characterized, for the first time, conformational equilibria in an intrinsically unstructured protein at the single molecule level and, again for the first time, identified a monomeric folded conformation that is correlated with conditions leading to -synuclein and, ultimately, Parkinson’s disease. Also, during the research work, I found myself in the need of a generalpurpose data analysis application for single molecule force spectroscopy data analysis that could solve some common logistic and data analysis problems that are common in this technique. I developed an application that addresses some of these problems, herein presented (Part V), and that aims to be publicly released soon.

Letteratura postmoderna e comunicazione pubblicitaria, problemi teorici e analisi testuali

Premise: In the literary works of our anthropological and cultural imagination, the various languages and the different discursive practices are not necessarily quoted, expressly alluded to or declared through clear expressive mechanisms; instead, they rather constitute a substratum, a background, now consolidated, which with irony and intertextuality shines through the thematic and formal elements of each text. The various contaminations, hybridizations and promptings that we find in the expressive forms, the rhetorical procedures and the linguistic and thematic choices of post-modern literary texts are shaped as fluid and familiar categories. Exchanges and passages are no longer only allowed but also inevitable; the post-modern imagination is made up of an agglomeration of discourses that are no longer really separable, built up from texts that blend and quote one another, composing, each with its own specificities, the great family of the cultural products of our social scenario. A literary work, therefore, is not only a whole phenomenon, delimited hic et nunc by a beginning and an ending, but is a fragment of that complex, dense and boundless network that is given by the continual interrelations between human forms of communication and symbolization. The research hypothesis: A vision is delineated of comparative literature as a discipline attentive to the social contexts in which texts take shape and move and to the media-type consistency that literary phenomena inevitably take on. Hence literature is seen as an open systematicity that chooses to be contaminated by other languages and other discursive practices of an imagination that is more than ever polymorphic and irregular. Inside this interpretative framework the aim is to focus the analysis on the relationship that postmodern literature establishes with advertising discourse. On one side post-modern literature is inserted in the world of communication, loudly asserting the blending and reciprocal contamination of literary modes with media ones, absorbing their languages and signification practices, translating them now into thematic nuclei, motifs and sub-motifs and now into formal expedients and new narrative choices; on the other side advertising is chosen as a signification practice of the media universe, which since the 1960s has actively contributed to shaping the dynamics of our socio-cultural scenarios, in terms which are just as important as those of other discursive practices. Advertising has always been a form of communication and symbolization that draws on the collective imagination – myths, actors and values – turning them into specific narrative programs for its own texts. Hence the aim is to interpret and analyze this relationship both from a strictly thematic perspective – and therefore trying to understand what literature speaks about when it speaks about advertising, and seeking advertising quotations in post-modern fiction – and from a formal perspective, with a search for parallels and discordances between the rhetorical procedures, the languages and the verifiable stylistic choices in the texts of the two different signification practices. The analysis method chosen, for the purpose of constructive multiplication of the perspectives, aims to approach the analytical processes of semiotics, applying, when possible, the instruments of the latter, in order to highlight the thematic and formal relationships between literature and advertising. The corpus: The corpus of the literary texts is made up of various novels and, although attention is focused on the post-modern period, there will also be ineludible quotations from essential authors that with their works prompted various reflections: H. De Balzac, Zola, Fitzgerald, Joyce, Calvino, etc… However, the analysis focuses the corpus on three authors: Don DeLillo, Martin Amis and Aldo Nove, and in particular the followings novels: “Americana” (1971) and “Underworld” (1999) by Don DeLillo, “Money” (1984) by Martin Amis and “Woobinda and other stories without a happy ending” (1996) and “Superwoobinda” (1998) by Aldo Nove. The corpus selection is restricted to these novels for two fundamental reasons: 1. assuming parameters of spatio-temporal evaluation, the texts are representative of different socio-cultural contexts and collective imaginations (from the masterly glimpses of American life by DeLillo, to the examples of contemporary Italian life by Nove, down to the English imagination of Amis) and of different historical moments (the 1970s of DeLillo’s Americana, the 1980s of Amis, down to the 1990s of Nove, decades often used as criteria of division of postmodernism into phases); 2. adopting a perspective of strictly thematic analysis, as mentioned in the research hypothesis, the variations and the constants in the novels (thematic nuclei, topoi, images and narrative developments) frequently speak of advertising and inside the narrative plot they affirm various expressions and realizations of it: value ones, thematic ones, textual ones, urban ones, etc… In these novels the themes and the processes of signification of advertising discourse pervade time, space and the relationships that the narrator character builds around him. We are looking at “particle-characters” whose endless facets attest the influence and contamination of advertising in a large part of the narrative developments of the plot: on everyday life, on the processes of acquisition and encoding of the reality, on ideological and cultural baggage, on the relationships and interchanges with the other characters, etc… Often the characters are victims of the implacable consequentiality of the advertising mechanism, since the latter gets the upper hand over the usual processes of communication, which are overwhelmed by it, wittingly or unwittingly (for example: disturbing openings in which the protagonist kills his or her parents on the basis of a spot, former advertisers that live life codifying it through the commercial mechanisms of products, sons and daughters of advertisers that as children instead of playing outside for whole nights saw tapes of spots.) Hence the analysis arises from the text and aims to show how much the developments and the narrative plots of the novels encode, elaborate and recount the myths, the values and the narrative programs of advertising discourse, transforming them into novel components in their own right. And also starting from the text a socio-cultural reference context is delineated, a collective imagination that is different, now geographically, now historically, and from comparison between them the aim is to deduce the constants, the similarities and the variations in the relationship between literature and advertising.

Kraus e/o Shakespeare. Intertestualità in prospettiva: tradurre, citare, inscrivere

The thesis focuses on Karl Kraus’s rewritings of some Shakespeare plays and copes with the concepts of “translation” and “quotation” as commensurable forms of intertextuality. Building his Shakespeare’s Bearbeitungen as a montage of quotations of previous German translations, Karl Kraus creates a new kind of hybrid intertextuality that goes beyond the boundaries between quotation and translation. In my opinion, Karl Kraus understands quotation and translation as spatial concepts: in his rewritings he puts Shakespeare’s text into his geometrical and critical “perspective”. The thesis focuses also on the evolution of quotation and translation in Karl Kraus’s work: even maintaining their satirical and destruens function, they develop an “affirmative” role and are used in order to redefine the literary canon. The thesis investigates this form of intertextuality from a comparative point of view, referring to the translation studies (Hermans, Bassnett, Lefevere, Apel, Berman, Meschonnic), theories of intertextuality (Genette, Barthes, Worton, Orr), studies on quotation and montage (Compagnon; Möbius, Hage), and studies on Karl Kraus (Kraft, Ribeiro, Scheichl, Fischer, Timms, Canetti and the famous essay of Walter Benjamin). It also contains a survey of Theater der Dichtung’s historical framework and several comparisons between Karl Kraus’s and other early 20th translations of Shakespeare’s plays.

Preparation of new crystal forms via photochemical, mechanochemical and sol-gel methods

This work of thesis involves various aspects of crystal engineering. Chapter 1 focuses on crystals containing crown ether complexes. Aspects such as the possibility of preparing these materials by non-solution methods, i.e. by direct reaction of the solid components, thermal behavior and also isomorphism and interconversion between hydrates are taken into account. In chapter 2 a study is presented aimed to understanding the relationship between hydrogen bonding capability and shape of the building blocks chosen to construct crystals. The focus is on the control exerted by shape on the organization of sandwich cations such as cobalticinium, decamethylcobalticinium and bisbenzenchromium(I) and on the aggregation of monoanions all containing carboxylic and carboxylate groups, into 0-D, 1-D, 2-D and 3-D networks. Reactions conducted in multi-component molecular assemblies or co-crystals have been recognized as a way to control reactivity in the solid state. The [2+2] photodimerization of olefins is a successful demonstration of how templated solid state synthesis can efficiently synthesize unique materials with remarkable stereoselectivity and under environment-friendly conditions. A demonstration of this synthetic strategy is given in chapter 3. The combination of various types of intermolecular linkages, leading to formation of high order aggregation and crystalline materials or to a random aggregation resulting in an amorphous precipitate, may not go to completeness. In such rare cases an aggregation process intermediate between crystalline and amorphous materials is observed, resulting in the formation of a gel, i.e. a viscoelastic solid-like or liquid-like material. In chapter 4 design of new Low Molecular Weight Gelators is presented. Aspects such as the relationships between molecular structure, crystal packing and gelation properties and the application of this kind of gels as a medium for crystal growth of organic molecules, such as APIs, are also discussed.

La représentation du pathétique masculin dans le roman sentimental européen: une réflexion sur l'imaginaire littéraire

Ce travail est une analyse de la représentation du pathétique masculin dans le roman dit sentimental dans la deuxième moitié du dix-huitième siècle en Europe, ou plutôt dans les littératures anglaise, française, allemande et italienne. La thèse soutenue est celle de la dérivation du pathétique romanesque de l’âge des Lumières des pratiques de prédication religieuse du siècle précédent et donc de la valeur normative du roman sentimental à ses débuts : celui-ci aurait relayé le rôle des manuels de conduite des siècles précédents et se serait posé comme un répertoire d’exempla comportementaux adaptés aux différentes situations de la vie. Nous avons suivi les évolutions historiques du genre à travers l’analyse thématique du motif des larmes masculines. Pour ce faire, nous avons examiné la complexe proxémique de représentation de l’émotion et la diégèse qui en résulte, qui peut être nuancée, selon une terminologie récente, en pathétique attendrissant, sentimental et spectaculaire. Cela a entraîne la prise en compte de diverses formes artistiques, de la peinture au théâtre. La méthodologie utilisé conjugue l’histoire des idées et l’étude des formes de l’imaginaire, le pathétique appartenant au domaine de la philosophie autant qu’à celui de la représentation artistique : le concept glisse au dix-huitième siècle du champ rhétorique et stylistique à une dimension esthétique et anthropologique. Le travail a donc été divisé en trois grandes parties qui analysent les trois dimensions anthropologiques fondamentales : l’imaginaire religieux et l’héritage des anciens, c’est–à-dire le rapport que l’époque établit avec la tradition culturelle qui la précède ; l’imaginaire amoureux, qui se concentre sur les rapports entre les deux sexes et sur la « féminisation » du héros romanesque sentimental ; l’imaginaire familial, qui aborde les conséquences de ce changement dans la représentation de la masculinité au sein de la représentation de la famille et des rapports intergénérationnels.

Il repertorio italiano del Ms Gr. Rés. Vm7 676 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Parigi

La tesi esamina il codice musicale Gr. Rés Vm7 676 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Parigi, che rappresenta una fonte di grande interesse per lo studio della musica vocale italiana tra Quattro e Cinquecento. Compilato nel 1502, il codice è stato oggetto di analisi da parte di vari studiosi, che ne hanno preso in esame singoli brani o intere sezioni, allo scopo di attestare procedimenti compositivi particolari (Torrefranca) o caratteri stilistici locali, in particolare relativi alla frottola mantovana e ferrarese (Prizer). Un’accurata ricognizione sul repertorio è stata effettuata da Nanie Bridgman in un saggio degli anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso, ma non è mai stato realizzato uno studio organico sul manoscritto. Pertanto la ricerca si è proposta di riconsiderare l’intero repertorio italiano tramandato dal codice, per proporre un plausibile inquadramento stilistico nella cultura della poesia per musica coeva. La trascrizione dei testi e delle musiche, supportata dal confronto con le fonti manoscritte e a stampa, letterarie e musicali, ha consentito di formulare alcune ipotesi in merito alla circolazione del repertorio tramandato e all’ambiente di produzione del documento. L’inconsueta varietà di forme musicali riscontrate nel codice consente inoltre di assumere questo manoscritto come una delle principali fonti della tradizione musicale che precede immediatamente la ‘sistemazione’ del repertorio frottolistico effettuata da Ottaviano Petrucci, a partire dal 1504, con la pubblicazione dei suoi undici libri di frottole (1501-1514).

Rare and complicated forms of infantile hemangiomas: new therapeutic outlooks

Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) are the most common benign neoplastic pathology of childhood; their natural history generally involves three phases: after the onset, which usually occurs in the first weeks of life, there is the proliferation phase where the IH reaches its maximum development and it is followed by the spontaneous involution which leads to the IH regression. The duration and the extent of these phases may vary widely even though in most of the cases the involution process begins around twelve months of life and the regression, complete or partial, is completed around seventh-ninth year of life. The majority of the IHs does not require any treatment. However, 10%-20% is likely to develop serious complications, functional impairments or aesthetic alterations and entail a timely treatment. Although there is no treatment protocol currently shared, therapies usually used in cases with a complication risk consist in: systemic or intralesional steroids as a first choice; interferon α, vincristine and/or bleomicin as second or third choice and/or surgical treatment. Propranolol, a non-selective beta-blocker, has been used for cardiovascular diseases even in childhood for decades. Since 2008 it has been widely used in the IHs treatment, although it is still "off-label". In literature there are hundreds of cases and some clinical studies that show the effectiveness and safety of this drug for this indication. Thanks to a multidisciplinary team (Dermatologists, Cardiologists, Paediatricians, and Radiologists) of S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, a clinical study, which has been previously approved by the ethics committee, is carried out in order to evaluate the efficacy and safety of systemic propranolol in the treatment of IHs in paediatric age. At the end of 2012, 78 patients underwent this treatment: the results we have obtained so far show a good efficacy and safety profile in agreement with the data provided by the literature.

Dalle ambivalenze della Storia alla “cosmopolitical fiction”: la rappresentazione dell'alterità nel romanzo di Anita Desai

Varcare le frontiere della Storia attraverso le storie personali dei suoi personaggi ha sempre affascinato la sensibilità creatrice di Anita Desai, i cui romanzi possono essere considerati un interessante esempio di letteratura di confine, che riesce nel difficile compito di misurarsi, con eleganza e sensibilità, nella rappresentazione delle più feroci forme di marginalizzazione. Proponendo un dialogo tra alterità, che apre alle complessità storico-culturali in maniera del tutto a-ideologica e imparziale, la scrittrice indoinglese procede alla “provincializzazione” dell’India attraverso le numerose ambivalenze prodotte nelle zone frontaliere analizzate. Dalla rappresentazione della frontiera identitaria esterna, ovvero dall’ambivalente rapporto intrattenuto con il colonizzatore/ex-colonizzatore inglese, alla rappresentazione della frontiera identitaria interna, ovvero l’analisi delle contraddittorie relazioni tra le componenti etniche del subcontinente, Desai arriva infine a problematizzare storie di ambivalenti processi di marginalizzazione prodotti da mondi culturali così diversi come la Germania nazista, o gli indiani Huichol del lontano Messico, tracciando geografie culturali inedite della grande ragnatela della Storia. Desai riesce così a recuperare voci liminali spesso trascurate dalla postcolonialità stessa, per riconfigurarle in un’esplorazione profonda del comune destino dell’umanità, voci straniate e stranianti che acquisiscono un vero e proprio status di agency discorsiva, proiettando la sua scrittura verso una dimensione cosmopolitica. L’opera di Desai diventa indubbiamente un’opportunità concreta per scorgere nella differenza l’universalità di una comune umanità, vale a dire un’opportunità per vedere nell’alterità un’identità ribaltata.

Forma breve e fotografia: una narrativa del Mozambico

La relazione interdisciplinare tra letteratura e fotografia, nella rilettura della storia recente del Mozambico, è l’oggetto di studio della presente tesi. Il presupposto coincide in primo luogo con la disamina interna della dialettica esistente tra archivio coloniale e oralità, modalità narrativa in parte transitata nella estória, declinazione lusofona della forma breve che permette di recuperare l’eredità popolare del racconto tradizionale. Il dialogo tra verbale e visuale consente a sua volta di stabilire nuovi paradigmi interpretativi nel dibattito postcoloniale tra memoria, trauma e rappresentazione. L’analisi comparativa tra la narrativa di João Paulo Borges Coelho e la fotografia di Ricardo Rangel rivela sguardi diversi sul mondo circostante, ma anche convergenze contemplative che si completano nell’incorporazione reciproca delle “omologie strutturali” comuni alle due modalità espressive. La fotografia colma delle lacune fornendoci delle visioni del passato, ma, in quanto “rappresentazione”, ci mostra il mondo per come appare e non per come funziona. Il testo letterario, grazie al suo approccio dialogico-narrativo, consente la rielaborazione museologica della complessa pletora di interferenze semantiche e culturali racchiuse nelle immagini, in altre parole fornisce degli “indizi di verità” da cui (ri)partire per l’elaborazione di nuovi archetipi narrativi tra l’evento rappresentato e la Storia di cui fa parte. Il punto di tangenza tra i due linguaggi è la cornice, espediente fotografico e narrativo che permette di tracciare i confini tra l’indicibile e l’invisibile, ma anche tra ciò che si narra e ciò che sta fuori dalla narrazione, ovvero fuori dalla storia. La tensione dialettica che si instaura tra questi due universi è seminale per stabilire le ragioni della specificità letteraria mozambicana perché, come afferma Luandino Vieira, “nel contesto postcoloniale gli scrittori sono dei satelliti che ruotano intorno ai «buchi neri della storia» la cui forza di attrazione permette la riorganizzazione dell’intero universo letterario.

"A la búsqueda de nuevos horizontes". La scrittura della migrazione africana in Spagna

La migrazione genera spesso nei soggetti migranti forme di spaesamento, poiché lo spostamento fisico condiziona la sfera emotiva: in loro può emergere il senso di nostalgia verso la patria e il desiderio del ritorno, oppure la volontà di annullare le proprie radici e di conformarsi ai modelli della società ricevente. Spesso tali sensazioni di spaesamento possono essere superate grazie alla pratica creativa della scrittura; è per questo che nelle varie realtà di immigrazione ha preso campo la pratica della scrittura migrante, dove si dà spazio all’altro che cerca di far sentire la propria voce, ricorrendo alla lingua del Paese d’arrivo, senza rinunciare ai tratti distintivi della sfera culturale d’origine, creando testi ibridi, che disegnano un ponte tra le culture. Focus della ricerca è la scrittura della migrazione africana in Spagna, studiata sia in prospettiva generale che specifica, mediante quattro autori e le relative opere selezionate: Laila (2010) della marocchina Laila Karrouch, Las tres vírgenes de Santo Tomás (2008) dell’equatoguineana Guillermina Mekuy, Una vida de cuento (2006) del camerunese Boniface Ofogo, Amina (2006) del senegalese Sidi Seck. L’analisi dei testi è effettuata sulla base di due filoni tematici, la famiglia e il rapporto con la società d’arrivo, ed è corredata dallo studio del lessico relativo ai due temi di riferimento. Leggere fra le righe il microcosmo della famiglia significa porre l’attenzione sulle diverse dinamiche affettive che stanno dietro alla parola “migrazione” e sulle particolari dimensioni familiari che caratterizzano la vita odierna, dove spesso avviene il contatto fra più culture. Un contatto che si riflette nel macrocontesto della realtà ospite dove si ha modo di avviare un dialogo fra nativi e stranieri, poiché spesso le iniziali forme di contrasto si tramutano in sete di conoscenza e volontà di avvicinarsi, facendo emergere l’idea che la diversità non separa ma arricchisce.

Negativi di memoria. La rappresentazione del trauma nel romanzo del Novecento. Samuel Beckett, Georges Perec, Agota Kristof

Oggetto di questa tesi è l’analisi delle modalità di rappresentazione del trauma nel romanzo del Novecento e, in particolare, nelle opere di Samuel Beckett, Georges Perec e Agota Kristof. Fondamento dello studio sarà una disamina dei procedimenti linguistici e narrativi di rappresentazione del trauma nelle prose degli autori citati, al fine tracciare le linee di un’estetica in grado di descrivere le caratteristiche peculiari delle narrazioni in cui la dimensione antinarrativa della memoria traumatica assume il ruolo di principio estetico guida. L’analisi si soffermerà sulla cruciale relazione esistente, in tutti e tre gli autori, tra rappresentazione del trauma e sviluppo di strategie narrativi definibili come “denegative”. L’analisi dei testi letterari è condotta sulla base del corpus critico dei Trauma Studies, dell’ermeneutica della narrazione di stampo ricœuriano e della teoria del linguaggio psicoanalitica e affiancata, ove possibile, da uno studio filologico-genetico dei materiali d’autore. Alla luce di tali premesse, intendo rivalutare il carattere rappresentativo e testimoniale della letteratura del secolo scorso, in contrasto con la consuetudine a vedere nel romanzo novecentesco il trionfo dell’antimimesi e il declino del racconto. Dal momento che le narrazioni traumatiche si costruiscono intorno e attraverso i vuoti di linguaggio, la tesi è che siano proprio questi vuoti linguistici e narrativi (amnesie, acronie, afasie, lapsus, omissioni e mancanze ancora più sofisticate come nel caso di Perec) a rappresentare, in modo mimetico, la realtà apparentemente inaccessibile del trauma. Si tenterà di dimostrare come questi nuovi canoni di rappresentazione non denuncino l’impossibilità del racconto, bensì una sfida al silenzio, celata in più sottili e complesse convenzioni narrative, le quali mantengono un rapporto di filiazione indiretto − per una via che potremmo definire denegativa − con quelle del romanzo tradizionale.

Optimization of molecular and crystalline forms of drugs, agrochemicals, pesticides in relation to activity, bioavailability, patentability and to the fabrication of polymorphs, solvates, co-crystals with green chemistry methods

This doctorate was funded by the Regione Emilia Romagna, within a Spinner PhD project coordinated by the University of Parma, and involving the universities of Bologna, Ferrara and Modena. The aim of the project was: - Production of polymorphs, solvates, hydrates and co-crystals of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and agrochemicals with green chemistry methods; - Optimization of molecular and crystalline forms of APIs and pesticides in relation to activity, bioavailability and patentability. In the last decades, a growing interest in the solid-state properties of drugs in addition to their solution chemistry has blossomed. The achievement of the desired and/or the more stable polymorph during the production process can be a challenge for the industry. The study of crystalline forms could be a valuable step to produce new polymorphs and/or co-crystals with better physical-chemical properties such as solubility, permeability, thermal stability, habit, bulk density, compressibility, friability, hygroscopicity and dissolution rate in order to have potential industrial applications. Selected APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) were studied and their relationship between crystal structure and properties investigated, both in the solid state and in solution. Polymorph screening and synthesis of solvates and molecular/ionic co-crystals were performed according to green chemistry principles. Part of this project was developed in collaboration with chemical/pharmaceutical companies such as BASF (Germany) and UCB (Belgium). We focused on on the optimization of conditions and parameters of crystallization processes (additives, concentration, temperature), and on the synthesis and characterization of ionic co-crystals. Moreover, during a four-months research period in the laboratories of Professor Nair Rodriguez-Hormedo (University of Michigan), the stability in aqueous solution at the equilibrium of ionic co-crystals (ICCs) of the API piracetam was investigated, to understand the relationship between their solid-state and solution properties, in view of future design of new crystalline drugs with predefined solid and solution properties.

L’Orientalismo tra vocazione imperialista, suggestioni esotiche e omoerotiche. Le rappresentazioni storiche del passaggio tra l’epoca omayyade e abbaside.

Lo studio si tratta di mettere in evidenza il cambiamento che ha subito il termine Oriente nel secolo XX in alcuni testi della letteratura italiana contemporanea. L’opera di Edward Said, L’Orientalismo è un testo di riferimento per i nostri studi. Nel quale abbiamo focalizzato l’attenzione su alcuni aspetti salienti: il concetto di orientalismo; l’interesse nei confronti dell’Oriente sul piano politico, scientifico, letterario; l’impossibilità di separare lo studioso dalle circostanze biografiche e sociali. Siamo riusciti, quindi, a stabilire che il cambiamento dell’immagine orientale dipende da tre fattori: lo scrittore (emittente), il soggetto (la fonte) ed il lettore (destinatario), dai quali si origina l’oggetto (il testo). Basandoci su questi tre elementi abbiamo cercato di inquadrare l’interesse letterario per l’Oriente vista da una triplice prospettiva: imperialismo, fascino ed erotismo. Per studiare le prime due prospettive, abbiamo scelto due opere. La prima presenta l’immagine dell’imperialismo, si tratta di Sanya, La moglie egiziana e il Romanzo dell’Oriente Moderno (1927) di Bruno Corra. La seconda prospettiva dove troviamo l’immagine dell’Oriente fascinoso è nello scritto di Annie Vivanti, La terra di Cleopatra (1925). Il punto centrale della tesi si tratta di studiare Annie Messina (1910-1996), è una scrittrice che ha uno stile peculiare ed un approccio tutto suo al tema dell’Oriente. I testi studiati sono : "Il mirto e la rosa" (1982), "Il banchetto dell'emiro" (1997) e "La principessa e il wâlî" (1996), tutti pubblicati dalla casa editrice Sellerio.L’unico pubblicato da Mondadori è "La palma di Rusafa" (1989). L’ultima parte del lavoro abbiamo esposto un profilo storico e socio-religioso della letteratura erotica araba. In cui abbiamo rintracciato le origini dell’immagine erotico dell’Oriente e il tema dell’omosessualità, mettendo a confronto il testo omosessuale di Messina con la letteratura italiana contemporanea.