Aldo Rossi, autobiografia scientifica: scrittura come progetto. Indagine critica tra scrittura e progetto di architettura

«In altri termini mi sfuggiva e ancora oggi mi sfugge gran parte del significato dell’evoluzione del tempo; come se il tempo fosse una materia che osservo dall’esterno. Questa mancanza di evoluzione è fonte di alcune mie sventure ma anche mi appartiene con gioia.» Aldo Rossi, Autobiografia scientifica. The temporal dimension underpinning the draft of Autobiografia scientifica by Aldo Rossi may be referred to what Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, the well-known French anthropologist, defines as “primitive mentality” and “prelogical” conscience : the book of life has lost its page numbers, even punctuation. For Lévy-Bruhl, but certainly for Rossi, life or its summing up becomes a continuous account of ellipses, gaps, repetitions that may be read from left to right or viceversa, from head to foot or viceversa without distinction. Rossi’s autobiographical writing seems to accept and support the confusion with which memories have been collected, recording them after the order memory gives them in the mental distillation or simply according to the chronological order in which they have happened. For Rossi, the confusion reflects the melting of memory elements into a composite image which is the result of a fusion. He is aware that the same sap pervades all memories he is going to put in order: each of them has got a common denominator. Differences have diminished, almost faded; the quick glance is prevalent over the distinction of each episode. Rossi’s writing is beyond the categories dependent on time: past and present, before and now. For Rossi, the only repetition – the repetition the text will make possible for an indefinite number of times – gives peculiarity to the event. As Gilles Deleuze knows, “things” may only last as “singleness”: more frequent the repetition is, more singular is the memory phenomenon that recurs, because only what is singular magnifies itself and happens endlessly forever. Rossi understands that “to raise the first time to nth forever”, repetition becomes glorification . It may be an autobiography that, celebrating the originality, enhances the memory event in the repetition; in fact it greatly differs from the biographical reproduction, in which each repetition is but a weaker echo, a duller copy, provided with a smaller an smaller power in comparison with the original. Paradoxically, for Deleuze the repetition asserts the originality and singularity of what is repeated. Rossi seems to share the thought expressed by Kierkegaard in the essay Repetition: «The hope is a graceful maiden slipping through your fingers; the memory of an elderly woman, indeed pretty, but never satisfactory if necessary; the repetition is a loved friend you are never tired of, as it is only the new to make you bored. The old never bores you and its presence makes you happy [...] life is but a repetition [...] here is the beauty of life» . Rossi knows well that repetition hints at the lasting stability of cosmic time. Kierkegaard goes on: «The world exists, and it exists as a repetition» . Rossi devotes himself, on purpose and in all conscience, to collect, to inventory and «to review life», his own life, according to a recovery not from the past but of the past: a search work, the «recherche du temps perdu», as Proust entitled his masterpiece on memory. If you want the past time to be not wasted, you must give it presence. «Memoria e specifico come caratteristiche per riconoscere se stesso e ciò che è estraneo mi sembravano le più chiare condizioni e spiegazioni della realtà. Non esiste uno specifico senza memoria, e una memoria che non provenga da un momento specifico; e solo questa unione permette la conoscenza della propria individualità e del contrario (self e non-self)» . Rossi wants to understand himself, his own character; it is really his own character that requires to be understood, to increase its own introspective ability and intelligence. «Può sembrare strano che Planck e Dante associno la loro ricerca scientifica e autobiografica con la morte; una morte che è in qualche modo continuazione di energia. In realtà, in ogni artista o tecnico, il principio della continuazione dell’energia si mescola con la ricerca della felicità e della morte» . The eschatological incipit of Rossi’s autobiography refers to Freud’s thought in the exact circularity of Dante’s framework and in as much exact circularity of the statement of the principle of the conservation of energy: in fact it was Freud to connect repetition to death. For Freud, the desire of repetition is an instinct rooted in biology. The primary aim of such an instinct would be to restore a previous condition, so that the repeated history represents a part of the past (even if concealed) and, relieving the removal, reduces anguish and tension. So, Freud ask himself, what is the most remote state to which the instinct, through the repetition, wants to go back? It is a pre-vital condition, inorganic of the pure entropy, a not-to-be condition in which doesn’t exist any tension; in other words, Death. Rossi, with the theme of death, introduces the theme of circularity which further on refers to the sense of continuity in transformation or, in the opposite way, the transformation in continuity. «[...] la descrizione e il rilievo delle forme antiche permettevano una continuità altrimenti irripetibile, permettevano anche una trasformazione, una volta che la vita fosse fermata in forme precise» . Rossi’s attitude seems to hint at the reflection on time and – in a broad sense – at the thought on life and things expressed by T.S. Eliot in Four Quartets: «Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future is contained in time past. / I all time is eternally present / All time is unredeemable. / What might have been is an abstraction / Remaining perpetual possibility / Only in a word of speculation. / What might have been and what has been / Point to one end, which is always present. [...]» . Aldo Rossi’s autobiographical story coincides with the description of “things” and the description of himself through the things in the exact parallel with craft or art. He seems to get all things made by man to coincide with the personal or artistic story, with the consequent immediate necessity of formulating a new interpretation: the flow of things has never met a total stop; all that exists nowadays is but a repetition or a variant of something existing some time ago and so on, without any interruption until the early dawnings of human life. Nevertheless, Rossi must operate specific subdivisions inside the continuous connection in time – of his time – even if limited by a present beginning and end of his own existence. This artist, as an “historian” of himself and his own life – as an auto-biographer – enjoys the privilege to be able to decide if and how to operate the cutting in a certain point rather than in another one, without being compelled to justify his choice. In this sense, his story is a matter very ductile and flexible: a good story-teller can choose any moment to start a certain sequence of events. Yet, Rossi is aware that, beyond the mere narration, there is the problem to identify in history - his own personal story – those flakings where a clean cut enables the separation of events of different nature. In order to do it, he has to make not only an inventory of his own “things”, but also to appeal to authority of the Divina Commedia started by Dante when he was 30. «A trent’anni si deve compiere o iniziare qualcosa di definitivo e fare i conti con la propria formazione» . For Rossi, the poet performs his authority not only in the text, but also in his will of setting out on a mystical journey and handing it down through an exact descriptive will. Rossi turns not only to the authority of poetry, but also evokes the authority of science with Max Plank and his Scientific Autobiography, published, in Italian translation, by Einaudi, 1956. Concerning Planck, Rossi resumes an element seemingly secondary in hit account where the German physicist «[...] risale alle scoperte della fisica moderna ritrovando l’impressione che gli fece l’enunciazione del principio di conservazione dell’energia; [...]» . It is again the act of describing that links Rossi to Planck, it is the description of a circularity, the one of conservation of energy, which endorses Rossi’s autobiographical speech looking for both happiness and death. Rossi seems to agree perfectly to the thought of Planck at the opening of his own autobiography: «The decision to devote myself to science was a direct consequence of a discovery which was never ceased to arouse my enthusiasm since my early youth: the laws of human thought coincide with the ones governing the sequences of the impressions we receive from the world surrounding us, so that the mere logic can enable us to penetrate into the latter one’s mechanism. It is essential that the outer world is something independent of man, something absolute. The search of the laws dealing with this absolute seems to me the highest scientific aim in life» . For Rossi the survey of his own life represents a way to change the events into experiences, to concentrate the emotion and group them in meaningful plots: «It seems, as one becomes older. / That the past has another pattern, and ceases to be a mere sequence [...]» Eliot wrote in Four Quartet, which are a meditation on time, old age and memory . And he goes on: «We had the experience but missed the meaning, / And approach to the meaning restores the experience / In a different form, beyond any meaning [...]» . Rossi restores in his autobiography – but not only in it – the most ancient sense of memory, aware that for at least 15 centuries the Latin word memoria was used to show the activity of bringing back images to mind: the psychology of memory, which starts with Aristotele (De Anima), used to consider such a faculty totally essential to mind. Keith Basso writes: «The thought materializes in the form of “images”» . Rossi knows well – as Aristotele said – that if you do not have a collection of mental images to remember – imagination – there is no thought at all. According to this psychological tradition, what today we conventionally call “memory” is but a way of imagining created by time. Rossi, entering consciously this stream of thought, passing through the Renaissance ars memoriae to reach us gives a great importance to the word and assumes it as a real place, much more than a recollection, even more than a production and an emotional elaboration of images.

Eduardo Zamacois: attività editoriale e opera letteraria

Eduardo Zamacois (Pinar del Río, 1873- Buenos Aires, 1971) was a main actor of the spanish’s literature and edition movement from the first third of the 20th century. He was the founder of magazines that had a big impact like “Germinal”, introductive of the sicalipsis (“La Vida Galante”) or so innovative that deserved an special chapter in the history of literature (“El Cuento Semanal” e “Los Contemporáneos”). With this work, it is intended to recreate the most significant stages from his autobiography adventure including the new information that offers his non before published letters exchange with his last sentimental partner. As a writer, his work was very popular in his homeland, translated to the world and reissued in Ibero-America. His literature work is based in three different phases. He began with the use of gallant literature (with books like La enferma, Punto negro) and took an adventure with the pays of mystery and irony (El otro, El misterio de un hombre pequñito, La opinion ajena) to finally focused in a narrative style of a realistic kind, that includes social critique (Las raíces). His last published novel in Spain is a portrait of Madrid during its long siege by the nationalist troops (El asedio de Madrid), a profound tribute to the people’s heroism and a declaration of love to the capital, that was his place of residence for a long time. While his exile, that took him to Cuba, New York and Buenos Aires, he worked in the radio, the dubbing industry and in finishing his most detailed bibliography, Un hombre que se va, a valuable document of that time.

Diabete ed ischemia critica degli arti inferiori. Studio del danno della parete arteriosa e del ruolo dell'endotelio circolante nella riparazione tessutale e nella neoangiogenesi

Objectives In diabetic and non diabetic patients with peripheral artery obstructive disease (PAOD), we sought to establish whether the vascular wall damage, the mature circulating endothelium and the "in situ" neoangiogenesis are related with each other. Design In the peripheral blood of diabetic patients suffering critical ischaemia associated with peripheral artery disease, low levels and poor function of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were observed. Moreover, circulating endothelial cells (CECs) have been described in different conditions of vascular injury. In this type of disorders, which are all characterized by endothelial damage, neoangiogenesis plays a key role. Materials In the study we recruited 22 diabetic and 16 non diabetic patients, all of them suffering PAOD and critical ischaemia; healthy subjects and multiorgan donors have also been considered like controls. Methods Histopathologic characterization was performed on arterial tissue samples under a light microscope. Flow cytofluorimetric analysis was used to quantify CECs in peripheral blood samples. "In situ" expression of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and Metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) transcripts was quantified in a Real Time-PCR analysis. Circulating VEGF concentration was determined by an ELISA assay. Results Arterial wall from diabetic patients, compared with non diabetic subjects, revealed a higher incidence of serious lesions (60% vs 47%) and a lower number of capillaries (65% vs 87%). Mean number of CECs/ml was significantly increased in all patients, compared to healthy controls (p=0.001). Compared to healthy subjects, VEGF transcripts expression resulted significantly higher in diabetic patients and in all patients (p<0.05) and a similar result was obtained in the MMP-9 transcripts expression. Serum VEGF concentration was significantly increased in PAOD patients correlated with controls (p=0.0431). Conclusions Our study demonstrates that in all patients considered, probably, regressive phenomenons prevail on reparative ones, causing an inesorable and progressive degeneration of the vascular wall, worse by diabetes. The vascular damage can be monitored by determining CECs number and its severity and development are emphasized by the MMP-9 transcripts expression. The "in situ" VEGF increased expression seems to be the evidence of a parietal cells bid to induce local angiogenesis. This reparing mechanism could induce the EPCs mobilitation by means the release of VEGF from the arterial wall. The mechanism, however, is ineffective like demonstrated by the EPCs reduced number and activities observed in patients suffering PAOD and critical ischaemia.

Come tradurre il metadiscorso letterario. Esempi di scrittura femminile nell'Ottocento austriaco

L’argomento affrontato nel presente lavoro di tesi dal titolo “Come tradurre il metadiscorso letterario. Esempi di scrittura femminile nell’Ottocento austriaco” è la versione interlinguistica di testi saggistici afferenti all’ambito del metadiscorso letterario. Nello specifico, non vengono analizzati testi di critica e/o metodologia ma scritti funzionali, di forte carattere pragmatico, che pur tuttavia rientrano tra le testimonianze di alta caratura letteraria, perché dovuti ad autrici che hanno fatto dell’espressione estetica la propria finalità primaria. I materiali scelti per l’analisi linguistico-testuale, compresi in un arco temporale tra la fine del Settecento e la metà dell’Ottocento, sono realizzati da donne che hanno operato in ambito teatrale facendo dell’attività di scrittura lo strumento della propria emancipazione intellettuale ed economica. La necessità di trovare una via alla pubblicazione le ha indotte a strategie di scrittura connotate da particolari stilemi e artifici retorici atti a favorire l’accettazione e la diffusione delle proposte editoriali di cui questi “paratesti” costituivano il momento giustificante. Il “lavoro di penna” è un’esperienza che viene ad assumere molteplici contorni, non privi di ricadute al momento della scelta delle strategie traduttive. Dal punto di vista formale, le testimonianze si collocano in una zona di modalità espressiva contigua alla testimonianza autobiografica. Il periodo storico e l’area di provenienza delle autrici hanno reso necessario un approccio capace di incrociare il piano diacronico con la dimensione diatopica, rendendo conto delle componenti diamesiche di una scrittura che nasce dal teatro per il teatro e ad esso e ai suoi frequentatori deve rapportarsi. Il modello traduttologico applicato ricava le sue linee fondamentali dalle riflessioni della linguistica testuale e dall’approccio integrato/multidisciplinare della “prototipologia dinamica”.

Anticorpi. La danza Butō come matrice epistemologica per una pedagogia critica del corpo

La presente tesi parte dalla poetica e dalla metodologia di costruzione dell’essere scenico proposta dai fondatori della danza Butō – Tatsumi Hijikata e Kazuo Ōno – cercando di individuarne alcuni dei principali elementi filosofici e tecnici, che potrebbero offrirsi come tessuto epistemologico nella proposta di una pedagogia critica del corpo. In questa direzione, rintraccia alcune caratteristiche di ambito storico, sociologico, tecnico e filosofico che sostengono il progetto politico-artistico d’“insurrezione” fisica messo in scena dalla danza Butō. Le sue proposte di reificazione delle memorie del corpo, d’instaurazione di processi metamorfici e di dissoluzione delle energie espressive di un self razionale, sono alcuni esempi di modalità di promulgazione di “politiche del corpo” che concedono una dimensione critica al gesto e, al contempo, una qualità sovversiva alla materialità della carne. La ribellione del corpo cui attinge la danza Butō, dunque, potrebbe servire come riferimento per la costruzione di “anticorpi”, ovvero di differenti concezioni del corpo che si contrappongano, come antitesi, al corpo sfidante e dominatore della contemporaneità e, al tempo stesso, possano servire come microrganismi di combattimento a favore della guarigione della società malata costruita dall’Occidente.

L' "opera mondo" di Paolo Volponi fra satira e morale

Nella mia tesi di dottorato mi propongo di indagare la metamorfosi del romanzo nella letteratura italiana contemporanea attraverso il lavoro di Paolo Volponi, che può essere descritto come un’«opera mondo», in accordo con la formula critica coniata da Franco Moretti. Volponi intende superare il divario fra l’io e il mondo e ricomporre il corpo come una mediazione umanistica di ragione e sensi. La sua opera può essere definita ‘epica’ perché recupera la tradizione del romanzo cavalleresco e la parodia esercitata su questa tradizione letteraria da Cervantes nel Don Chisciotte. Ma, come l’Ulysses di Joyce, è un’epica «moderna» perché fondata su una totalità disgiunta e sul conflitto dialogico, in una linea che accomuna la moltiplicazione dei punti di vista, propria del romanzo polifonico secondo Bachtin, alla pluralità di prospettive del discorso scientifico. Dopo un primo capitolo teorico, nel secondo e nel terzo capitolo della tesi i romanzi di Volponi vengono studiati in rapporto al filone dell’«epica moderna» e al genere satirico, che ha un suo modello fondativo nell’opera di Giacomo Leopardi. Il quarto capitolo si focalizza sulle ultime raccolte poetiche, che mostrano la tendenza a recuperare il linguaggio formulare e la matrice orale della poesia delle origini, servendosene per rappresentare in funzione contrappuntistica l’universo globale dell’età contemporanea.

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.