Attualità del divieto assoluto di procreazione medicalmente assistita eterologa in Italia e prospettive di superamento

La presente ricerca si fonda su un’attenta ed approfondita analisi della normativa vigente in Italia in materia di procreazione medicalmente assistita (P.M.A.), con particolare riferimento al divieto assoluto di P.M.A. eterologa, di cui all’art. 4, comma 3, L. 19 febbraio 2004, n. 40, consentita invece – sia pure con la previsione di limitazioni differenti – nella quasi totalità dei paesi europei. Dopo aver esaminato la “questione etica” del ricorso alle tecniche di fecondazione assistita e le normative vigenti in Europa in materia di P.M.A. eterologa, il presente lavoro analizza i profili civilistici della L. n. 40/2004 ed i conseguenti dubbi interpretativi che la normativa italiana pone in materia di fecondazione eterologa, con specifico riguardo al consenso prestato dai coniugi o conviventi, al divieto di disconoscimento di paternità e di anonimato della madre ed, infine, al diritto del nato da fecondazione eterologa di conoscere le proprie origini biologiche. Ne consegue che, in una materia che coinvolge la sfera più intima e personale della vita privata e familiare, quale quella della P.M.A., il legislatore avrebbe dovuto intervenire con misura, individuando soluzioni ragionevoli ed equilibrate nel rispetto della pluralità di etiche contrapposte ed interessi in conflitto. Attraverso una capillare analisi della recente giurisprudenza nazionale ed europea, la presente ricerca mira, dunque, a valutare possibili prospettive di superamento del divieto assoluto di P.M.A. eterologa previsto dalla L. n. 40/2004. I risultati a cui la presente indagine ha consentito di pervenire dimostrano quanto sia opportuna l’adozione in Italia di un “modello liberale”, in cui sia lecita anche la fecondazione eterologa (con la previsione di limiti e condizioni volti a tutelare primariamente il superiore interesse del nascituro), onde consentire l’adeguamento al nuovo concetto di “genitorialità” ormai prevalente e l’arresto del cd. “turismo procreativo”.

Estetica ed etica: un itinerario interpretativo, alla luce della ricerca di valori nel pensiero di Ingarden, Tischner, Levinas

The research is an itinerary from the discovery of the force of Love in the Song of Songs, where the human figure is given entirely through aesthetics, right to the agony of the other's death, where ethics, the "Severe Name of Love", is the only guard left; a journey through the contradictions of human mind, that, though aiming at Good, Beauty, Happiness, is completely immersed into the darkness of its finiteness and into evil. The consciousness leads to the creation of a world whose essential prefiguration is the Beauty; whose fundamental expression is the Good. Ethics must translate itself in responsability towards the other, in the history. This immersion into reality preserves the aesthetic and ethic dimension from the temptation of absolutizing the finite. In this work, the proximity and divergence between the aesthetic and ethic dimension is analysed, with reference to significant moments of the philosophical reflection, namely in the thought of Ingarden, Tishner and Levinas.

Application of FTIR microscopy to cultural heritage materials

Research in art conservation has been developed from the early 1950s, giving a significant contribution to the conservation-restoration of cultural heritage artefacts. In fact, only through a profound knowledge about the nature and conditions of constituent materials, suitable decisions on the conservation and restoration measures can thus be adopted and preservation practices enhanced. The study of ancient artworks is particularly challenging as they can be considered as heterogeneous and multilayered systems where numerous interactions between the different components as well as degradation and ageing phenomena take place. However, difficulties to physically separate the different layers due to their thickness (1-200 µm) can result in the inaccurate attribution of the identified compounds to a specific layer. Therefore, details can only be analysed when the sample preparation method leaves the layer structure intact, as for example the preparation of embedding cross sections in synthetic resins. Hence, spatially resolved analytical techniques are required not only to exactly characterize the nature of the compounds but also to obtain precise chemical and physical information about ongoing changes. This thesis focuses on the application of FTIR microspectroscopic techniques for cultural heritage materials. The first section is aimed at introducing the use of FTIR microscopy in conservation science with a particular attention to the sampling criteria and sample preparation methods. The second section is aimed at evaluating and validating the use of different FTIR microscopic analytical methods applied to the study of different art conservation issues which may be encountered dealing with cultural heritage artefacts: the characterisation of the artistic execution technique (chapter II-1), the studies on degradation phenomena (chapter II-2) and finally the evaluation of protective treatments (chapter II-3). The third and last section is divided into three chapters which underline recent developments in FTIR spectroscopy for the characterisation of paint cross sections and in particular thin organic layers: a newly developed preparation method with embedding systems in infrared transparent salts (chapter III-1), the new opportunities offered by macro-ATR imaging spectroscopy (chapter III-2) and the possibilities achieved with the different FTIR microspectroscopic techniques nowadays available (chapter III-3). In chapter II-1, FTIR microspectroscopy as molecular analysis, is presented in an integrated approach with other analytical techniques. The proposed sequence is optimized in function of the limited quantity of sample available and this methodology permits to identify the painting materials and characterise the adopted execution technique and state of conservation. Chapter II-2 describes the characterisation of the degradation products with FTIR microscopy since the investigation on the ageing processes encountered in old artefacts represents one of the most important issues in conservation research. Metal carboxylates resulting from the interaction between pigments and binding media are characterized using synthesised metal palmitates and their production is detected on copper-, zinc-, manganese- and lead- (associated with lead carbonate) based pigments dispersed either in oil or egg tempera. Moreover, significant effects seem to be obtained with iron and cobalt (acceleration of the triglycerides hydrolysis). For the first time on sienna and umber paints, manganese carboxylates are also observed. Finally in chapter II-3, FTIR microscopy is combined with further elemental analyses to characterise and estimate the performances and stability of newly developed treatments, which should better fit conservation-restoration problems. In the second part, in chapter III-1, an innovative embedding system in potassium bromide is reported focusing on the characterisation and localisation of organic substances in cross sections. Not only the identification but also the distribution of proteinaceous, lipidic or resinaceous materials, are evidenced directly on different paint cross sections, especially in thin layers of the order of 10 µm. Chapter III-2 describes the use of a conventional diamond ATR accessory coupled with a focal plane array to obtain chemical images of multi-layered paint cross sections. A rapid and simple identification of the different compounds is achieved without the use of any infrared microscope objectives. Finally, the latest FTIR techniques available are highlighted in chapter III-3 in a comparative study for the characterisation of paint cross sections. Results in terms of spatial resolution, data quality and chemical information obtained are presented and in particular, a new FTIR microscope equipped with a linear array detector, which permits reducing the spatial resolution limit to approximately 5 µm, provides very promising results and may represent a good alternative to either mapping or imaging systems.

Percorsi di gender performance: fotografia tra arte e moda dagli anni Novanta ad oggi

My project explores and compares different forms of gender performance in contemporary art and visual culture according to a perspective centered on photography. Thanks to its attesting power this medium can work as a ready-made. In fact during the 20th century it played a key role in the cultural emancipation of the body which (using a Michel Foucault’s expression) has now become «the zero point of the world». Through performance the body proves to be a living material of expression and communication while photography ensures the recording of any ephemeral event that happens in time and space. My questioning approach considers the gender constructed imagery from the 1990s to the present in order to investigate how photography’s strong aura of realism promotes and allows fantasies of transformation. The contemporary fascination with gender (especially for art and fashion) represents a crucial issue in the global context of postmodernity and is manifested in a variety of visual media, from photography to video and film. Moreover the internet along with its digital transmission of images has deeply affected our world (from culture to everyday life) leading to a postmodern preference for performativity over the more traditional and linear forms of narrativity. As a consequence individual borders get redefined by the skin itself which (dissected through instant vision) turns into a ductile material of mutation and hybridation in the service of identity. My critical assumptions are taken from the most relevant changes occurred in philosophy during the last two decades as a result of the contributions by Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze who developed a cross-disciplinary and comparative approach to interpret the crisis of modernity. They have profoundly influenced feminist studies so that the category of gender has been reassessed in contrast with sex (as a biological connotation) and in relation to history, culture, society. The ideal starting point of my research is the year 1990. I chose it as the approximate historical moment when the intersection of race, class and gender were placed at the forefront of international artistic production concerned with identity, diversity and globalization. Such issues had been explored throughout the 1970s but it was only from the mid-1980s onward that they began to be articulated more consistently. Published in 1990, the book "Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity" by Judith Butler marked an important breakthrough by linking gender to performance as well as investigating the intricate connections between theory and practice, embodiment and representation. It inspired subsequent research in a variety of disciplines, art history included. In the same year Teresa de Lauretis launched the definition of queer theory to challenge the academic perspective in gay and lesbian studies. In the meantime the rise of Third Wave Feminism in the US introduced a racially and sexually inclusive vision over the global situation in order to reflect on subjectivity, new technologies and popular culture in connection with gender representation. These conceptual tools have enabled prolific readings of contemporary cultural production whether fine arts or mass media. After discussing the appropriate framework of my project and taking into account the postmodern globalization of the visual, I have turned to photography to map gender representation both in art and in fashion. Therefore I have been creating an archive of images around specific topics. I decided to include fashion photography because in the 1990s this genre moved away from the paradigm of an idealized and classical beauty toward a new vernacular allied with lifestyles, art practices, pop and youth culture; as one might expect the dominant narrative modes in fashion photography are now mainly influenced by cinema and snapshot. These strategies originate story lines and interrupted narratives using models’ performance to convey a particular imagery where identity issues emerge as an essential part of fashion spectacle. Focusing on the intersections of gender identities with socially and culturally produced identities, my approach intends to underline how the fashion world has turned to current trends in art photography and in some case turned to the artists themselves. The growing fluidity of the categories that distinguish art from fashion photography represents a particularly fruitful moment of visual exchange. Varying over time the dialogue between these two fields has always been vital; nowadays it can be studied as a result of this close relationship between contemporary art world and consumer culture. Due to the saturation of postmodern imagery the feedback between art and fashion has become much more immediate and then increasingly significant for anyone who wants to investigate the construction of gender identity through performance. In addition to that a lot of magazines founded in the 1990s bridged the worlds of art and fashion because some of their designers and even editors were art-school graduates encouraging innovation. The inclusion of art within such magazines aimed at validating them as a form of art in themselves supporting a dynamic intersection for music, fashion, design and youth culture: an intersection that also contributed to create and spread different gender stereotypes. This general interest in fashion produced many exhibitions of and about fashion itself at major international venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Since then this celebrated success of fashion has been regarded as a typical element of postmodern culture. Owing to that I have also based my analysis on some important exhibitions dealing with gender performance like "Féminin-Masculin" at the Centre Pompidou of Paris (1995), "Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose. Gender performance in photography" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York (1997), "Global Feminisms" at the Brooklyn Museum (2007), "Female Trouble" at the Pinakothek der Moderne in München together with the workshops dedicated to "Performance: gender and identity" in June 2005 at the Tate Modern of London. Since 2003 in Italy we have had Gender Bender - an international festival held annually in Bologna - to explore the gender imagery stemming from contemporary culture. In few days this festival offers a series of events ranging from visual arts, performance, cinema, literature to conferences and music. Being aware that any method of research is neither race nor gender neutral I have traced these critical paths to question gender identity in a multicultural perspective taking account of the political implications too. In fact, if visibility may be equated with exposure, we can also read these images as points of intersection of visibility with social power. Since gender assignations rely so heavily on the visual, the postmodern dismantling of gender certainty through performance has wide-ranging effects that need to be analyzed. In some sense this practice can even contest the dominance of visual within postmodernism. My visual map in contemporary art and fashion photography includes artists like Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Hellen van Meene, Rineke Dijkstra, Ed Templeton, Ryan McGinley, Anne Daems, Miwa Yanagi, Tracey Moffat, Catherine Opie, Tomoko Sawada, Vanessa Beecroft, Yasumasa Morimura, Collier Schorr among others.

La hija de Cervantes: un dramma romantico inedito di Aureliano Fernández-Guerra y Orbe. Edizione critica e studio

Aureliano Fernandez-Guerra is known especially among Quevedo’s scholars because he published the first complete edition of Quevedo’s works. Few people know his plays and, for this reason, they have never been studied. These plays were written during his youth, when Fernández-Guerra hadn’t decided anything about his career yet. Therefore, these plays were always very important for him and, for this reason, he continued to correct and to revise them. Among them, the unpublished drama La hija de Cervantes (1840) was considered the most important play. In this doctoral thesis I have tried to describe this Spanish author, especially focusing on theatre. In the first part I wrote about the life and the literary works, giving particularly importance to his plays that are La peña de los enamorados (1939), La hija de Cervantes (1840), Alonso Cano (1842) and La Ricahembra (1845), this last one written in collaboration with Manuel Tamayo y Baus, another important and famous playwright. In the second part I deepened the study of La hija de Cervantes because it is a particular interesting drama: Aureliano Fernández-Guerra chose to represent the author of the Quixote as a character of his drama, especially dramatizing the most mysterious moments of his life, such as the Gaspar de Ezpeleta’s murder, his relationship with his daughter Isabel de Saavedra and his supposed love for a woman, whose existence his unknown. Besides, this drama is interesting because it is partially autobiographic: I found several letters and articles where it is emphasized the similarities between Cervantes’ and Aureliano’s life: both feel misunderstood and not appreciated by other people and both had to renounce a big love. In the final part I presented the critical edition of La hija de Cervantes based on the last three manuscripts that are today at the Institut de Teatre in Barcelona. A wide philological note shows the transcription criterions.

Il Lessico d’amore nei primi tre libri delle Odi di Orazio

Il presente studio si è posto come obiettivo quello di redigere un lessico dei termini d’amore nella poesia di Orazio, e, specificamente, dei lemmi presenti nei primi tre libri delle Odi. L’interesse per la lirica del Venosino ci ha indotti ad affrontarne la lettura non solo considerando quelle che sono le tematiche diremo topiche della sua poetica ( modus, angulus, mors, tempus, cura, solo per citare quelle più significative ), ma anche quelle meno note, quale appunto il tema dell’amore, oggetto di questo lavoro. Si è proceduto così all’analisi di ogni singolo libro di ogni ode, catalogandone ed analizzandone rispettivamente tutte le occorrenze di quei termini che abbiamo ritenuto essere propri del lessico amoroso. Il commento ad ogni libro è stato supportato dagli studi di Nisbet-Hubbard per il primo ed il secondo libro delle Odi ( cfr. R.G.M. Nisbet-M. Hubbard, A commentary on Horace: Odes Book 1, Oxford 1970; R.G.M. Nisbet-M. Hubbard, A commentary on Horace: Odes Book 2, Oxford 1978 ) e Nisbet-Rudd per il terzo ( cfr. R.G.M. Nisbet-Rudd, A commentary on Horace: Odes Book 3, Oxford, 2003 ). Trattandosi di un lessico è stato altresì fondamentale il contributo dell’ Index uerborum amatorium ( Cfr. R. Pichon, De sermone amatorio apud Latinos elegiarum scriptores, Paris 1902 ) e del ThLL. Si è infine proceduto ad individuare quei termini maggiormente significativi nell’ambito della poesia d’amore in generale, il cui riflesso è presente anche nella poesia oraziana, con una particolare attenzione al rapporto che intercorre tra Orazio e la tradizione neoterica ed elegiaca e al lessico dei colori, che vanta numerose occorrenze nella poesia d’amore, soprattutto in riferimento alla bellezza muliebre e maschile e che quindi appare di rilevante importanza per comprendere l’estetica della poesia oraziana nel ritrarre la forma degli amanti che popolano i suoi più celebri versi d’amore.