L'a(rche)tipico Brian O'Nolan. Comico e riso dalla tradizione al post-

This study aims at analysing Brian O'Nolans literary production in the light of a reconsideration of the role played by his two most famous pseudonyms ,Flann Brien and Myles na Gopaleen, behind which he was active both as a novelist and as a journalist. We tried to establish a new kind of relationship between them and their empirical author following recent cultural and scientific surveys in the field of Humour Studies, Psychology, and Sociology: taking as a starting point the appreciation of the comic attitude in nature and in cultural history, we progressed through a short history of laughter and derision, followed by an overview on humour theories. After having established such a frame, we considered an integration of scientific studies in the field of laughter and humour as a base for our study scheme, in order to come to a definition of the comic author as a recognised, powerful and authoritative social figure who acts as a critic of conventions. The history of laughter and comic we briefly summarized, based on the one related by the French scholar Georges Minois in his work (Minois 2004), has been taken into account in the view that humorous attitude is one of man’s characteristic traits always present and witnessed throughout the ages, though subject in most cases to repression by cultural and political conservative power. This sort of Super-Ego notwithstanding, or perhaps because of that, comic impulse proved irreducible exactly in its influence on the current cultural debates. Basing mainly on Robert R. Provine’s (Provine 2001), Fabio Ceccarelli’s (Ceccarelli 1988), Arthur Koestler’s (Koestler 1975) and Peter L. Berger’s (Berger 1995) scientific essays on the actual occurrence of laughter and smile in complex social situations, we underlined the many evidences for how the use of comic, humour and wit (in a Freudian sense) could be best comprehended if seen as a common mind process designed for the improvement of knowledge, in which we traced a strict relation with the play-element the Dutch historian Huizinga highlighted in his famous essay, Homo Ludens (Huizinga 1955). We considered comic and humour/wit as different sides of the same coin, and showed how the demonstrations scientists provided on this particular subject are not conclusive, given that the mental processes could not still be irrefutably shown to be separated as regards graduations in comic expression and reception: in fact, different outputs in expressions might lead back to one and the same production process, following the general ‘Economy Rule’ of evolution; man is the only animal who lies, meaning with this that one feeling is not necessarily biuniquely associated with one and the same outward display, so human expressions are not validation proofs for feelings. Considering societies, we found that in nature they are all organized in more or less the same way, that is, in élites who govern over a community who, in turn, recognizes them as legitimate delegates for that task; we inferred from this the epistemological possibility for the existence of an added ruling figure alongside those political and religious: this figure being the comic, who is the person in charge of expressing true feelings towards given subjects of contention. Any community owns one, and his very peculiar status is validated by the fact that his place is within the community, living in it and speaking to it, but at the same time is outside it in the sense that his action focuses mainly on shedding light on ideas and objects placed out-side the boundaries of social convention: taboos, fears, sacred objects and finally culture are the favourite targets of the comic person’s arrow. This is the reason for the word a(rche)typical as applied to the comic figure in society: atypical in a sense, because unconventional and disrespectful of traditions, critical and never at ease with unblinkered respect of canons; archetypical, because the “village fool”, buffoon, jester or anyone in any kind of society who plays such roles, is an archetype in the Jungian sense, i.e. a personification of an irreducible side of human nature that everybody instinctively knows: a beginner of a tradition, the perfect type, what is most conventional of all and therefore the exact opposite of an atypical. There is an intrinsic necessity, we think, of such figures in societies, just like politicians and priests, who should play an elitist role in order to guide and rule not for their own benefit but for the good of the community. We are not naïve and do know that actual owners of power always tend to keep it indefinitely: the ‘social comic’ as a role of power has nonetheless the distinctive feature of being the only job whose tension is not towards stability. It has got in itself the rewarding permission of contradiction, for the very reason we exposed before that the comic must cast an eye both inside and outside society and his vision may be perforce not consistent, then it is satisfactory for the popularity that gives amongst readers and audience. Finally, the difference between governors, priests and comic figures is the seriousness of the first two (fundamentally monologic) and the merry contradiction of the third (essentially dialogic). MPs, mayors, bishops and pastors should always console, comfort and soothe popular mood in respect of the public convention; the comic has the opposite task of provoking, urging and irritating, accomplishing at the same time a sort of control of the soothing powers of society, keepers of the righteousness. In this view, the comic person assumes a paramount importance in the counterbalancing of power administration, whether in form of acting in public places or in written pieces which could circulate for private reading. At this point comes into question our Irish writer Brian O'Nolan(1911-1966), real name that stood behind the more famous masks of Flann O'Brien, novelist, author of At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), The Hard Life (1961), The Dalkey Archive (1964) and, posthumously, The Third Policeman (1967); and of Myles na Gopaleen, journalist, keeper for more than 25 years of the Cruiskeen Lawn column on The Irish Times (1940-1966), and author of the famous book-parody in Irish An Béal Bocht (1941), later translated in English as The Poor Mouth (1973). Brian O'Nolan, professional senior civil servant of the Republic, has never seen recognized his authorship in literary studies, since all of them concentrated on his alter egos Flann, Myles and some others he used for minor contributions. So far as we are concerned, we think this is the first study which places the real name in the title, this way acknowledging him an unity of intents that no-one before did. And this choice in titling is not a mere mark of distinction for the sake of it, but also a wilful sign of how his opus should now be reconsidered. In effect, the aim of this study is exactly that of demonstrating how the empirical author Brian O'Nolan was the real Deus in machina, the master of puppets who skilfully directed all of his identities in planned directions, so as to completely fulfil the role of the comic figure we explained before. Flann O'Brien and Myles na Gopaleen were personae and not persons, but the impression one gets from the critical studies on them is the exact opposite. Literary consideration, that came only after O'Nolans death, began with Anne Clissmann’s work, Flann O'Brien: A Critical Introduction to His Writings (Clissmann 1975), while the most recent book is Keith Donohue’s The Irish Anatomist: A Study of Flann O'Brien (Donohue 2002); passing through M.Keith Booker’s Flann O'Brien, Bakhtin and Menippean Satire (Booker 1995), Keith Hopper’s Flann O'Brien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-Modernist (Hopper 1995) and Monique Gallagher’s Flann O'Brien, Myles et les autres (Gallagher 1998). There have also been a couple of biographies, which incidentally somehow try to explain critical points his literary production, while many critical studies do the same on the opposite side, trying to found critical points of view on the author’s restless life and habits. At this stage, we attempted to merge into O'Nolan's corpus the journalistic articles he wrote, more than 4,200, for roughly two million words in the 26-year-old running of the column. To justify this, we appealed to several considerations about the figure O'Nolan used as writer: Myles na Gopaleen (later simplified in na Gopaleen), who was the equivalent of the street artist or storyteller, speaking to his imaginary public and trying to involve it in his stories, quarrels and debates of all kinds. First of all, he relied much on language for the reactions he would obtain, playing on, and with, words so as to ironically unmask untrue relationships between words and things. Secondly, he pushed to the limit the convention of addressing to spectators and listeners usually employed in live performing, stretching its role in the written discourse to come to a greater effect of involvement of readers. Lastly, he profited much from what we labelled his “specific weight”, i.e. the potential influence in society given by his recognised authority in determined matters, a position from which he could launch deeper attacks on conventional beliefs, so complying with the duty of a comic we hypothesised before: that of criticising society even in threat of losing the benefits the post guarantees. That seemingly masochistic tendency has its rationale. Every representative has many privileges on the assumption that he, or she, has great responsibilities in administrating. The higher those responsibilities are, the higher is the reward but also the severer is the punishment for the misfits done while in charge. But we all know that not everybody accepts the rules and many try to use their power for their personal benefit and do not want to undergo law’s penalties. The comic, showing in this case more civic sense than others, helped very much in this by the non-accessibility to the use of public force, finds in the role of the scapegoat the right accomplishment of his task, accepting the punishment when his breaking of the conventions is too stark to be forgiven. As Ceccarelli demonstrated, the role of the object of laughter (comic, ridicule) has its very own positive side: there is freedom of expression for the person, and at the same time integration in the society, even though at low levels. Then the banishment of a ‘social’ comic can never get to total extirpation from society, revealing how the scope of the comic lies on an entirely fictional layer, bearing no relation with facts, nor real consequences in terms of physical health. Myles na Gopaleen, mastering these three characteristics we postulated in the highest way, can be considered an author worth noting; and the oeuvre he wrote, the whole collection of Cruiskeen Lawn articles, is rightfully a novel because respects the canons of it especially regarding the authorial figure and his relationship with the readers. In addition, his work can be studied even if we cannot conduct our research on the whole of it, this proceeding being justified exactly because of the resemblances to the real figure of the storyteller: its ‘chapters’ —the daily articles— had a format that even the distracted reader could follow, even one who did not read each and every article before. So we can critically consider also a good part of them, as collected in the seven volumes published so far, with the addition of some others outside the collections, because completeness in this case is not at all a guarantee of a better precision in the assessment; on the contrary: examination of the totality of articles might let us consider him as a person and not a persona. Once cleared these points, we proceeded further in considering tout court the works of Brian O'Nolan as the works of a unique author, rather than complicating the references with many names which are none other than well-wrought sides of the same personality. By putting O'Nolan as the correct object of our research, empirical author of the works of the personae Flann O'Brien and Myles na Gopaleen, there comes out a clearer literary landscape: the comic author Brian O'Nolan, self-conscious of his paramount role in society as both a guide and a scourge, in a word as an a(rche)typical, intentionally chose to differentiate his personalities so as to create different perspectives in different fields of knowledge by using, in addition, different means of communication: novels and journalism. We finally compared the newly assessed author Brian O'Nolan with other great Irish comic writers in English, such as James Joyce (the one everybody named as the master in the field), Samuel Beckett, and Jonathan Swift. This comparison showed once more how O'Nolan is in no way inferior to these authors who, greatly celebrated by critics, have nonetheless failed to achieve that great public recognition O’Nolan received alias Myles, awarded by the daily audience he reached and influenced with his Cruiskeen Lawn column. For this reason, we believe him to be representative of the comic figure’s function as a social regulator and as a builder of solidarity, such as that Raymond Williams spoke of in his work (Williams 1982), with in mind the aim of building a ‘culture in common’. There is no way for a ‘culture in common’ to be acquired if we do not accept the fact that even the most functional society rests on conventions, and in a world more and more ‘connected’ we need someone to help everybody negotiate with different cultures and persons. The comic gives us a worldly perspective which is at the same time comfortable and distressing but in the end not harmful as the one furnished by politicians could be: he lets us peep into parallel worlds without moving too far from our armchair and, as a consequence, is the one who does his best for the improvement of our understanding of things.

Elementi postmoderni nell'horror americano contemporaneo. Forme testuali e culturali della mutazione 1968-1998

This research argues for an analysis of textual and cultural forms in the American horror film (1968- 1998), by defining the so-called postmodern characters. The “postmodern” term will not mean a period of the history of cinema, but a series of forms and strategies recognizable in many American films. From a bipolar re-mediation and cognitive point of view, the postmodern phenomenon is been considered as a formal and epistemological re-configuration of the cultural “modern” system. The first section of the work examines theoretical problems about the “postmodern phenomenon” by defining its cultural and formal constants in different areas (epistemology, economy, mass-media): the character of convergence, fragmentation, manipulation and immersion represent the first ones, while the “excess” is the morphology of the change, by realizing the “fluctuation” of the previous consolidated system. The second section classifies the textual and cultural forms of American postmodern film, generally non-horror. The “classic narrative” structure – coherent and consequent chain of causal cues toward a conclusion – is scattered by the postmodern constant of “fragmentation”. New textual models arise, fragmenting the narrative ones into the aggregations of data without causal-temporal logics. Considering the process of “transcoding”1 and “remediation”2 between media, and the principle of “convergence” in the phenomenon, the essay aims to define these structures in postmodern film as “database forms” and “navigable space forms.” The third section applies this classification to American horror film (1968-1998). The formal constant of “excess” in the horror genre works on the paradigm of “vision”: if postmodern film shows a crisis of the “truth” in the vision, in horror movies the excess of vision becomes “hyper-vision” – that is “multiplication” of the death/blood/torture visions – and “intra-vision”, that shows the impossibility of recognizing the “real” vision from the virtual/imaginary. In this perspective, the textual and cultural forms and strategies of postmodern horror film are predominantly: the “database-accumulation” forms, where the events result from a very simple “remote cause” serving as a pretext (like in Night of the Living Dead); the “database-catalogue” forms, where the events follow one another displaying a “central” character or theme. In the first case, the catalogue syntagms are connected by “consecutive” elements, building stories linked by the actions of a single character (usually the killer), or connected by non-consecutive episodes about a general theme: examples of the first kind are built on the model of The Wizard of Gore; the second ones, on the films such as Mario Bava’s I tre volti della paura. The “navigable space” forms are defined: hyperlink a, where one universe is fluctuating between reality and dream, as in Rosemary’s Baby; hyperlink b (where two non-hierarchical universes are convergent, the first one real and the other one fictional, as in the Nightmare series); hyperlink c (where more worlds are separated but contiguous in the last sequence, as in Targets); the last form, navigable-loop, includes a textual line which suddenly stops and starts again, reflecting the pattern of a “loop” (as in Lost Highway). This essay analyses in detail the organization of “visual space” into the postmodern horror film by tracing representative patterns. It concludes by examining the “convergence”3 of technologies and cognitive structures of cinema and new media.

"Narrativa di frontiera". Fenomenologia di una forma aperta.

«Fiction of frontier». Phenomenology of an open form/voice. Francesco Giustini’s PhD dissertation fits into a genre of research usually neglected by the literary criticism which nevertheless is arousing much interest in recent years: the relationship between Literature and Space. In this context, the specific issue of his work consists in the category of the Frontier including its several implications for the XX century fiction. The preliminary step, at the beginning of the first section of the dissertation, is a semantic analysis: with precision, Giustini describes the meaning of the word “frontier” here declined in a multiplicity of cultural, political and geographical contexts, starting from the American frontier of the pioneers who headed for the West, to the exotic frontiers of the world, with whose the imperialistic colonization has come into contact; from the semi-uninhabited areas like deserts, highlands and virgin forests, to the ethnic frontiers between Indian and white people in South America, since the internal frontiers of the Countries like those ones between the District and the Capital City, the Centre and the Outskirts. In the next step, Giustini wants to focus on a real “ myth of the frontier”, able to nourish cultural and literary imagination. Indeed, the literature has told and chosen the frontier as the scenery for many stories; especially in the 20th Century it made the frontier a problematic space in the light of events and changes that have transformed the perception of space and our relationship with it. Therefore, the dissertation proposes a critical category, it traces the hallmarks of a specific literary phenomenon defined “ Fiction of the frontier” ,present in many literary traditions during the 20th Century. The term “Fiction” (not “Literature” or “Poetics”) does not define a genre but rather a “procedure”, focusing on a constant issue pointed out from the texts examined in this work : the strong call to the act of narration and to its oral traditions. The “Fiction of the Frontier” is perceived as an approach to the world, a way of watching and feeling the objects, an emotion that is lived and told through the story- a story where the narrator ,through his body and his voice, takes the rule of the witness. The following parts, that have an analytic style, are constructed on the basis of this theoretical and methodological reflection. The second section gives a wide range of examples into we can find the figure and the myth of the frontier through the textual analysis which range over several literary traditions. Starting from monographic chapters (Garcia Marquez, Callado, McCarthy), to the comparative reading of couples of texts (Calvino and Verga Llosa, Buzzati and Coetzee, Arguedas and Rulfo). The selection of texts is introduced so as to underline a particular aspect or a form of the frontier at every reading. This section is articulated into thematic voices which recall some actions that can be taken into the ambiguous and liminal space of the frontier (to communicate, to wait, to “trans-culturate”, to imagine, to live in, to not-live in). In this phenomenology, the frontier comes to the light as a physical and concrete element or as a cultural, imaginary, linguistic, ethnic and existential category. In the end, the third section is centered on a more defined and elaborated analysis of two authors, considered as fundamental for the comprehension of the “Fiction of the frontier”: Joseph Conrad and João Guimarães Rosa. Even if they are very different, being part of unlike literary traditions, these two authors show many connections which are pointed by the comparative analysis. Maybe Conrad is the first author that understand the feeling of the frontier , freeing himself from the adventure romance and from the exotic nineteenthcentury tradition. João Guimarães Rosa, in his turn, is the great narrator of Brazilian and South American frontier, he is the man of sertão and of endless spaces of the Centre of Brazil. His production is strongly linked to that one belonged to the author of Heart of Darkness.

Simulative Investigation on the Electronic, Vibrational and Optical Properties of the Ge2Sb2Te5 Chalcogenide

Chalcogenides are chemical compounds with at least one of the following three chemical elements: Sulfur (S), Selenium (Sn), and Tellurium (Te). As opposed to other materials, chalcogenide atomic arrangement can quickly and reversibly inter-change between crystalline, amorphous and liquid phases. Therefore they are also called phase change materials. As a results, chalcogenide thermal, optical, structural, electronic, electrical properties change pronouncedly and significantly with the phase they are in, leading to a host of different applications in different areas. The noticeable optical reflectivity difference between crystalline and amorphous phases has allowed optical storage devices to be made. Their very high thermal conductivity and heat fusion provided remarkable benefits in the frame of thermal energy storage for heating and cooling in residential and commercial buildings. The outstanding resistivity difference between crystalline and amorphous phases led to a significant improvement of solid state storage devices from the power consumption to the re-writability to say nothing of the shrinkability. This work focuses on a better understanding from a simulative stand point of the electronic, vibrational and optical properties for the crystalline phases (hexagonal and faced-centered cubic). The electronic properties are calculated implementing the density functional theory combined with pseudo-potentials, plane waves and the local density approximation. The phonon properties are computed using the density functional perturbation theory. The phonon dispersion and spectrum are calculated using the density functional perturbation theory. As it relates to the optical constants, the real part dielectric function is calculated through the Drude-Lorentz expression. The imaginary part results from the real part through the Kramers-Kronig transformation. The refractive index, the extinctive and absorption coefficients are analytically calculated from the dielectric function. The transmission and reflection coefficients are calculated using the Fresnel equations. All calculated optical constants compare well the experimental ones.

Collective effects for the LHC injectors: non-ultrarelativistic approaches

The upgrade of the CERN accelerator complex has been planned in order to further increase the LHC performances in exploring new physics frontiers. One of the main limitations to the upgrade is represented by the collective instabilities. These are intensity dependent phenomena triggered by electromagnetic fields excited by the interaction of the beam with its surrounding. These fields are represented via wake fields in time domain or impedances in frequency domain. Impedances are usually studied assuming ultrarelativistic bunches while we mainly explored low and medium energy regimes in the LHC injector chain. In a non-ultrarelativistic framework we carried out a complete study of the impedance structure of the PSB which accelerates proton bunches up to 1.4 GeV. We measured the imaginary part of the impedance which creates betatron tune shift. We introduced a parabolic bunch model which together with dedicated measurements allowed us to point to the resistive wall impedance as the source of one of the main PSB instability. These results are particularly useful for the design of efficient transverse instability dampers. We developed a macroparticle code to study the effect of the space charge on intensity dependent instabilities. Carrying out the analysis of the bunch modes we proved that the damping effects caused by the space charge, which has been modelled with semi-analytical method and using symplectic high order schemes, can increase the bunch intensity threshold. Numerical libraries have been also developed in order to study, via numerical simulations of the bunches, the impedance of the whole CERN accelerator complex. On a different note, the experiment CNGS at CERN, requires high-intensity beams. We calculated the interpolating Hamiltonian of the beam for highly non-linear lattices. These calculations provide the ground for theoretical and numerical studies aiming to improve the CNGS beam extraction from the PS to the SPS.

Reti socievoli: l’impatto dei social networks nella costruzione dello spazio pubblico

La tesi si è consolidata nell’analisi dell’impatto dei social networks nella costruzione dello spazio pubblico, nella sfera di osservazione che è la rete e il web2.0. Osservando che il paradigma della società civile si sia modificato. Ridefinendo immagini e immaginari e forme di autorappresentazione sui new media (Castells, 2010). Nel presupposto che lo spazio pubblico “non è mai una realtà precostituita” (Innerarity, 2008) ma si muove all’interno di reti che generano e garantiscono socievolezza. Nell’obiettivo di capire cosa è spazio pubblico. Civic engagement che si rafforza in spazi simbolici (Sassen, 2008), nodi d’incontro significativi. Ivi cittadini-consumatori avanzano corresponsabilmente le proprie istanze per la debacle nei governi.. Cultura partecipativa che prende mossa da un nuovo senso civico mediato che si esprime nelle “virtù” del consumo critico. Portando la politica sul mercato. Cultura civica autoattualizzata alla ricerca di soluzioni alle crisi degli ultimi anni. Potere di una comunicazione che riduce il mondo ad un “villaggio globale” e mettono in relazione i pubblici connessi in spazi e tempi differenti, dando origine ad azioni collettive come nel caso degli Indignados, di Occupy Wall Street o di Rai per una notte. Emerge un (ri)pensare la citizenship secondo due paradigmi (Bennett,2008): l’uno orientato al governo attraverso i partiti, modello “Dutiful Citizenship”; l’altro, modello “Self Actualizing Citizenship” per cui i pubblici attivi seguono news ed eventi, percepiscono un minor obbligo nel governo, il voto è meno significativo per (s)fiducia nei media e nei politici. Mercato e società civile si muovono per il bene comune e una nuova “felicità”. La partecipazione si costituisce in consumerismo politico all’interno di reti in cui si sviluppano azioni individuali attraverso il social networking e scelte di consumo responsabile. Partendo dall’etnografia digitale, si è definito il modello “4 C”: Conoscenza > Coadesione > Co-partecipazione > Corresposabilità (azioni collettive) > Cultura-bility.

Women writing Ireland, 1798 – 1921: il popular novel tra identità nazionale e immaginario religioso nelle autrici cattoliche e protestanti.

La presente tesi si concentra sul romanzo popolare irlandese scritto da donne, nel periodo compreso tra il 1798 e il 1921. Quattro sono le autrici prese in considerazione: Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, Sydney Owenson (meglio conosciuta come Lady Morgan), Edith Somerville e Katharine Tynan, le cui vite e opere coprono un periodo storico fondamentale per l’uscita dell’Irlanda dal dominio coloniale britannico e la formazione della nazione irlandese nel sud del paese. L’interesse principale è quello di analizzare il modo in cui nei loro testi prende forma la nazione, e in particolare attraverso quali immagini e riferimenti religiosi. Il senso è quello, dunque, di rileggere tali testi prestando maggiore attenzione alla religione, uno dei principali collanti tra autrici e pubblico: all’epoca in cui l’Irlanda stava acquisendo i confini che oggi ancora mantiene, esisteva un terreno d’incontro tra discorso politico e letterario, quello della nazione, e tale terreno veniva attraversato anche dal messaggio religioso. Il fine ultimo è quello di dimostrare che la letteratura popolare non è “seconda” ad altre quanto a valori che è in grado di trasmettere e a messaggi che è in grado di veicolare: trascurarla significa non capire i meccanismi attraverso i quali una società si sviluppa e si modifica.

Il geografo riluttante. R.K. Narayan e il mondo di Malgudi

Il presente lavoro è dedicato allo studio della geografia immaginaria creata dallo scrittore indiano di lingua inglese R.K. Narayan (1906-2001), allo scopo non solo di indagare la relazione che si stabilisce tra spazio, personaggi e racconto, ma anche di rilevare l’interazione tra il mondo narrativo e le rappresentazioni dominanti dello spazio indiano elaborate nel contesto coloniale e postcoloniale. Dopo un primo capitolo di carattere teorico-metodologico (che interroga le principali riflessioni seguite allo "spatial turn" che ha interessato le scienze umane nel corso del Novecento, i concetti fondamentali formulati nell’ambito della teoria dei "fictional worlds", e i più recenti approcci al rapporto tra spazio e letteratura), la ricerca si articola in due ulteriori sezioni, che si rivolgono ai quattordici romanzi dell’autore attraverso una pratica interpretativa di ispirazione geocritica e “spazializzata”. Nel secondo capitolo, che concerne la dimensione “verticale” che si estende dal cronotopo dei romanzi a quello dell’autore e dei lettori, si procede al rilevamento, all’interno del mondo narrativo, di tre macro-paesaggi, successivamente messi a confronto con le rappresentazioni endogene e esogene dello spazio extratestuale; da questo confronto, la cittadina di Malgudi emerge come proposta autoriale di riorganizzazione sociale e urbana dal carattere innovativo e dallo statuto eterotopico, sia in rapporto alla tradizione letteraria dalla quale origina, sia rispetto alle circostanze ambientali dell’India meridionale in cui essa è finzionalmente collocata. Seguendo una dinamica “orizzontale”, il terzo capitolo esamina infine il rapporto tra lo spazio frazionato di Malgudi, i luoghi praticati dai suoi abitanti e la relazione che questi instaurano con il territorio transfrontaliero e con la figura del forestiero; inoltre, al fine di stabilire la misura in cui la natura dello spazio narrativo influisce sulla forma del racconto, si osservano le coincidenze tra il tema dell’incompiutezza che pervade le vicende dei personaggi e la forma aperta dei finali romanzeschi.

Aging of nuclear power plant cables: in search of non-destructive diagnostic quantities

The safety systems of nuclear power plants rely on low-voltage power, instrumentation and control cables. Inside the containment area, cables operate in harsh environments, characterized by relatively high temperature and gamma-irradiation. As these cables are related to fundamental safety systems, they must be able to withstand unexpected accident conditions and, therefore, their condition assessment is of utmost importance as plants age and lifetime extensions are required. Nowadays, the integrity and functionality of these cables are monitored mainly through destructive test which requires specific laboratory. The investigation of electrical aging markers which can provide information about the state of the cable by non-destructive testing methods would improve significantly the present diagnostic techniques. This work has been made within the framework of the ADVANCE (Aging Diagnostic and Prognostics of Low-Voltage I\&C Cables) project, a FP7 European program. This Ph.D. thesis aims at studying the impact of aging on cable electrical parameters, in order to understand the evolution of the electrical properties associated with cable degradation. The identification of suitable aging markers requires the comparison of the electrical property variation with the physical/chemical degradation mechanisms of polymers for different insulating materials and compositions. The feasibility of non-destructive electrical condition monitoring techniques as potential substitutes for destructive methods will be finally discussed studying the correlation between electrical and mechanical properties. In this work, the electrical properties of cable insulators are monitored and characterized mainly by dielectric spectroscopy, polarization/depolarization current analysis and space charge distribution. Among these techniques, dielectric spectroscopy showed the most promising results; by means of dielectric spectroscopy it is possible to identify the frequency range where the properties are more sensitive to aging. In particular, the imaginary part of permittivity at high frequency, which is related to oxidation, has been identified as the most suitable aging marker based on electrical quantities.

Ground penetrating radar early-time technique for soil electromagnetic parameters estimation

In recent years, thanks to the technological advances, electromagnetic methods for non-invasive shallow subsurface characterization have been increasingly used in many areas of environmental and geoscience applications. Among all the geophysical electromagnetic methods, the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has received unprecedented attention over the last few decades due to its capability to obtain, spatially and temporally, high-resolution electromagnetic parameter information thanks to its versatility, its handling, its non-invasive nature, its high resolving power, and its fast implementation. The main focus of this thesis is to perform a dielectric site characterization in an efficient and accurate way studying in-depth a physical phenomenon behind a recent developed GPR approach, the so-called early-time technique, which infers the electrical properties of the soil in the proximity of the antennas. In particular, the early-time approach is based on the amplitude analysis of the early-time portion of the GPR waveform using a fixed-offset ground-coupled antenna configuration where the separation between the transmitting and receiving antenna is on the order of the dominant pulse-wavelength. Amplitude information can be extracted from the early-time signal through complex trace analysis, computing the instantaneous-amplitude attributes over a selected time-duration of the early-time signal. Basically, if the acquired GPR signals are considered to represent the real part of a complex trace, and the imaginary part is the quadrature component obtained by applying a Hilbert transform to the GPR trace, the amplitude envelope is the absolute value of the resulting complex trace (also known as the instantaneous-amplitude). Analysing laboratory information, numerical simulations and natural field conditions, and summarising the overall results embodied in this thesis, it is possible to suggest the early-time GPR technique as an effective method to estimate physical properties of the soil in a fast and non-invasive way.

Pedagogia e immaginario: Fiction e giovani dell'eta' post-moderna

La ricerca prende in esame le produzioni narrative, in particolare quelle dedicate agli adolescenti e ai giovani adulti, nei cui linguaggi e nelle cui trame si insinuano modelli di vita, comportamenti, valori, stereotipie, ecc. Attraverso le fiction dell'ultimo decennio, sono offerte interpretazioni alle costanti e alle variabili che percorrono i diversi prodotti culturali e che sono metafore di caratteristiche e di dinamiche della società post-moderna. Nella ricerca si studiano le trame e i personaggi delle narrazioni e, in parallelo, si individuano le correlazioni con studi pedagogici interessati alle ultime generazioni giovanili. La comparazione ha portato ad un sistema di decifrazione per individuare il giovane dell'era post-moderna tra gli elementi di finzione. Si sono prese in esame le più importanti icone dell'immaginario che, pur attraverso innumerevoli riscritture, continuano ad imporsi come metafore per identificazione, abnegazione, catarsi. Rispetto al passato, molte icone presenti nelle ultime produzioni di fiction subiscono alterazioni leggibili come spie (i.e. Ginzburg). È in queste trasformazioni, spinte fino alla metamorfosi dell'icona, che è possibile rintracciare alcune caratteristiche proprie del mondo giovanile in rapporto con la società contemporanea. L'immaginario può dunque essere lo specchio in cui l'uomo e la società possono riconoscersi, e studiarlo apre possibilità per sviluppare prospettive di interpretazione verso nuovi orizzonti.

Vidding Grrls. Pratiche di remix audiovisivo nella cultura digitale contemporanea

La pratica del remix è al giorno d’oggi sempre più diffusa e un numero sempre più vasto di persone ha ora le competenze e gli strumenti tecnologici adeguati per eseguire operazioni un tempo riservate a nicchie ristrette. Tuttavia, nella sua forma audiovisiva, il remix ha ottenuto scarsa attenzione a livello accademico. Questo lavoro esplora la pratica del remix intesa al contempo come declinazione contemporanea di una pratica di lungo corso all’interno della storia della produzione audiovisiva – ovvero il riuso di immagini – sia come forma caratteristica della contemporaneità mediale, atto di appropriazione grassroots dei contenuti mainstream da parte degli utenti. La tesi si articola in due sezioni. Nella prima, l’analisi di tipo teorico e storico-critico è suddivisa in due macro-aree di intervento: da una parte il remix inteso come pratica, atto di appropriazione, gesto di riciclo, decontestualizzazione e risemantizzazione delle immagini mediali che ha attraversato la storia dei media audiovisivi [primo capitolo]. Dall’altra, la remix culture, ovvero il contesto culturale e sociale che informa l’ambiente mediale entro il quale la pratica del remix ha conosciuto, nell’ultimo decennio, la diffusione capillare che lo caratterizza oggi [secondo capitolo]. La seconda, che corrisponde al terzo capitolo, fornisce una dettagliata panoramica su un caso di studio, la pratica del fan vidding. Forma di remix praticata quasi esclusivamente da donne, il vidding consiste nel creare fan video a partire da un montaggio d’immagini tratte da film o serie televisive che utilizza come accompagnamento musicale una canzone. Le vidders, usando specifiche tecniche di montaggio, realizzano delle letture critiche dei prodotti mediali di cui si appropriano, per commentare, criticare o celebrare gli oggetti di loro interesse. Attraverso il vidding il presente lavoro indaga le tattiche di rielaborazione e riscrittura dell’immaginario mediale attraverso il riuso di immagini, con particolare attenzione al remix inteso come pratica di genere.

Expériences du sacré et (dé)figurations du Christ. Artaud, Beckett, Pasolini

« Dieu est mort » proclame à l’envi le fou nietzschéen. C’est sous l’égide inquiète de cette assertion paroxystique, traduisant ce «malaise de la culture» qu’évoquait Freud, que la pensée, la littérature et l’art du XXe siècle européen évoluent. Cependant, le christianisme dont ce cri signe l’extrême décadence, n’est pas seul à imprégner les productions artistiques de ce siècle, même les plus prétendument athées, mais avant tout la figure du Christ - autour de laquelle sont structurés tant cette religion que son système de croyance – semble, littéralement et paradoxalement, infester l’imaginaire du XXe siècle, sous des formes plus ou moins fantasmatiques. Ce travail se propose ainsi précisément d’étudier, dans une optique interdisciplinaire entre littérature, art et cinéma, cette dynamique controversée, ses causes, les processus qui la sous-tendent ainsi que ses effets, à partir des œuvres de trois auteurs : Artaud, Beckett et Pasolini. L’objectif est de fournir une clé de lecture de cette problématique qui mette en exergue comment « la conversion de la croyance », comme la définit Deleuze, à laquelle ces auteurs participent, n’engendre pas un rejet purement profanatoire du christianisme mais, à l’inverse, la mise en œuvre d’un mouvement aussi violent que libératoire qualifié par Nancy de « déconstruction du christianisme ». Ce travail entend donc étudier tout d’abord à la lumière de l’expérience intérieure de Bataille, l’imaginaire christique qui sous-tend leurs productions ; puis, d’en analyser les mouvements et les effets en les questionnant sur la base de cette dynamique ambivalente que Grossman nomme la « défiguration de la forme christique ». Les excès délirants d’Artaud, l’ironie tranchante de Beckett et la passion ambiguë de Pasolini s’avèrent ainsi participer à un mouvement commun qui, oscillant entre reprise et rejet, débouche sur une attitude tout aussi destructive que revitalisante des fondements du christianisme.

La storia del cinema muto a Bologna attraverso la documentazione d'epoca. Protagonisti, imprese, spettacoli e luoghi per la gestione dell'immaginario della società urbana (1896-1925).

Studio storiografico condotto su fonti archivistiche, filmiche e sulla stampa locale e specializzata che ricostruisce dettagliatamente l'ambiente cittadino d'inizio Novecento nel quale si sono diffusi i primi spettacoli cinematografici, determinandone le caratteristiche e tracciandone l'evoluzione fra 1896 e 1925. L'avvento della cinematografia è strettamente connesso a un processo di modernizzazione del volto urbano, degli stili di vita, delle idee e il cinema si salda a queste istanze di rinnovamento, con una precisa ricaduta sull'immagine della città e sull'esperienza dei suoi cittadini appartenenti alle diverse classi sociali.

Raccontare la storia al tempo delle crisi

La ricerca analizza il tema della relazione tra storia e narrazione nella letteratura degli ultimi quindici anni in tre contesti nazionali: Italia, Spagna e Portogalo. Per indagare un campo così vasto si sono identificate tre direttrici principali connesse tra loro, coincidenti con tre "crisi": la crisi del rapporto tra letteratura e mercato, la crisi del concetto di verità e la crisi dello stato nazione. Attraverso le riflessioni sul postmoderno (Lyotard, Jameson Hutcheon) e l’analisi di Bourdieu si indaga il rapporto tra mercato e autore letterario, facendo particolare riferimento ai percorsi letterari di Rafael Chirbes, Mia Couto e Wu Ming. Il tema della forma letteraria è invece letto atttraverso le analisi di Hutcheon e analizzando i testi di Helder Macedo (Pedro e Paula), Isaac Rosa (¡Otra maldita novela sobre la guerra civil!) e Tommaso De Lorenzis-Guido Favale (L’aspra stagione). La crisi del concetto di verità viene analizzata alla luce del dibattito sulla storiografia nella seconda metà del Novecento. In particolare si evidenzia la tensione tra Hayden White e Carlo Ginzuburg. Per evidenziare come le relazioni di potere influenzino la narrazione della storia si fa inoltre riferimento alle analisi di Michel Foucault, Michel de Certeau, Stephen Greenbaltt e Gayatri Spivak. Si analizzano quindi Anatomía de un instante, di Javier Cercas, Romanzo criminale, di Giancarlo de Cataldo e As três vidas, di João Tordo. Infine ci si riferisce alla crisi dello stato-nazione individuando una tensione tra le analisi di György Lukács e Franco Moretti, e allargando la riflessione agli studi sociologici di Immanuel Wallerstein e Saskia Sassen. Inoltre, attraverso i testi di Benedict Anderson, Homi B. Bhabha, José Saramao e Eduardo Lourenço si articola una riflessione sull’immaginario politico nazionale. I testi analizzati sono Victus, di Albert Sánchez Piñol, Pro Patria, di Ascanio Celestini e A voz da terra di Miguel Real.