Nome dell'autore: Anglistica

“The Travelling Self: Tourism and Life-Writing in Eighteenth-Century Europe”

Title: “The Travelling Self: Tourism and Life-Writing in Eighteenth-Century Europe” Dates: 18-20 July 2024 Place: University of Oxford Organising committee: Catriona Seth (Oxford) and Giovanni Iamartino (Milan) Please submit abstracts in English or French (c. 200 words) by 15 February 2024 to Catriona.Seth@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk and giovanni.iamartino@unimi.it . The eighteenth century saw the invention of modern tourism and a startling proliferation of new kinds of life-writing. This conference will explore how travellers wrote about themselves while they were away from home, and how our historical understanding of the phenomenon of travel – including domestic travel, but focusing on the Grand Tour – has relied on, but also been restricted by, travellers’ own accounts, whether they seek to project a specific image of themselves (public or private, true or self-censored) or are unaware of how much they are giving up. Letters, diaries, journals, travelogues and any kind of personal reminiscences – either real or fictional – may provide textual evidence of the ‘travelling self’. Biotourism, the selves on tour, absent selves and the life-writing of travel are some of the approaches which colleagues might like to envisage. The conference is being planned under the aegis of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the Società Italiana di Studi sul Secolo Diciottesimo (who have so far organised six international joint conferences) with the support of the Société Française d’Etude du XVIIIe Siècle, All Souls College Oxford, the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages of the University of Oxford, and the Maison Française d’Oxford. A small number of bursaries to cover accommodation costs for unwaged or early career researchers will be provided. If you are applying for one, please indicate your current academic status in your proposal.

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“A Foil to the Hero: Antiheroic Characters in Language, Literature, and Translation”

Title: “A Foil to the Hero: Antiheroic Characters in Language, Literature, and Translation” Date: 4 April 2024 Place: Roma Sapienza University Organising committee: Angelo Arminio, Giovanni Raffa Please write to: giovanni.raffa@uniroma1.it and angelo.arminio@uniroma1.it for full call for papers and deadlines Antiheroic characters have not only embodied a forceful element of rebellion against the status quo, but have also become one of the most prolific and ubiquitous character types in non-literary fiction, to the point of contributing to intertextual awareness (Bruun Vage 2016, p.184) as well as subversively twisting gender-based expectations (Hagelin & Silverman 2022, p. 203). From a linguistic point of view, the figure of the antihero, especially in contemporary texts, raises numerous questions when it comes to its linguistic conformation and its translation. Antiheroes can be recognised as such because of the character’s personality, actions, morality and life choices, but the construction of antiheroic identities also happens by linguistic means (Schubert 2017). Their duality can be made manifest with powerful lexical choices, statements, use of swearings or even the use of peculiar accents or dialects. In turn, these features require effort on the part of the translator, and as the translation process is “the most recognizable type of rewriting” (Lefevere 1992, p. 9), the transfer of antiheroic features can demand creative solutions. The students of the 36th cycle of the PhD Programme in English Literatures, Language and Translation at Sapienza University of Rome invite to engage in a meaningful discussion that revolves around the idea of the antihero in its various forms. Submission deadline for abstracts: 31st January 2024.

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“New Trends in English Studies: Evolving Paradigms”

Title: “New Trends in English Studies: Evolving Paradigms” Dates: 23-24 April 2024 Place: Enna “Kore” University Scientific and organising committee: Annalisa Bonomo, Vivian M. De La Cruz, Laura Diamanti, Fernanda Verçosa, Paola Clara Leotta, Giuseppina Di Gregorio Please submit your proposals (max 300 words, ref. excluded) to: ntesconf@gmail.com by 10 February 2024, and check the website (up from December 2023) https://ntesconf2024.wixsite.com/kore for full call for papers and other info. The epistemics of English Studies has evolved rapidly in the last few decades, shaped by social and cultural changes, and by advances in technology. This leads to new frameworks in Linguistics, Literature, and Cultural Studies, as well as in Translation Studies, “generating traffic across increasingly unstable disciplinary borders” (Knežević 2016: 153). In particular, they intersect with social, cultural, educational, and environmental issues, and address concerns about ethics and social justice, with regard to the environment, ethnicity, gender identity, education, diaspora, migration, identity navigation, inclusivity, multimodality, etc. In light of these considerations, this conference aims to offer, though in a tentative and non-exhaustive manner, a positive forum for a productive collective reflection on possible future(s) for the discipline. Topics may include, without being restricted to, the following: Translation Studies: Being in the Beyond; Critical and Positive Discourse Analysis; Identities and Cultures in Transition; University Language Centres; Literary Studies in English; Sociolinguistics and Language History; Multilingualism and World English(es); English for Specific Purposes and English for Education; Multimodality and Audiovisual Translation.

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“22nd International Conference on Communication, Medicine, and Ethics (COMET)”

Title: “22nd International Conference on Communication, Medicine, and Ethics (COMET)” Dates: 26-28 June 2024 Place: University of Brescia Local organising committee: Annalisa Zanola, Umberto Gelatti Please check: https://comet2024.unibs.it/ for full call for papers and deadlines The COMET conference aims to bring together scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds involving various healthcare specialties and the human and social sciences. A special emphasis is on the dissemination of ongoing research in language/discourse/communication studies in relation to healthcare education, patient participation and professional ethics. Title: “After Shock: New Perspectives in Literary Studies and Linguistics” Dates: 10-11 June 2024 Place: Roma Sapienza University Steering and organising committee: Hal Coase, Paolo D’Indinosante, Sophie Eyssette, Giulia Magro, Sara Riccetti, Joanna Ryszka Please check: https://aftershock2024.us.edu.pl/ for full call for papers and deadlines Doctoral students of the 37th cycle of the PhD programme of Studies in English Literatures, Language and Translation at Sapienza University of Rome and Silesia University at Katowice are launching a call for papers for the graduate forum conference: “After Shock: New Perspectives in Literary Studies and Linguistics”. In the face of ongoing disasters including the climate crisis, the pandemic, war in Europe and conflicts worldwide, as well as blatant manifestations of social injustice taking place on both a localised and a planetary scale, we might be prone to think that we have reached a capacity of response that is beyond shock, that we have become numb to events that affect us both directly and indirectly. Can literature continue to make felt and bring home the intolerability of everyday events that may otherwise pass without remark? Does our ‘response-ability’ depend on our being shocked, and how is such a response figured in language? Email: aftershock2024@us.edu.pl.

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Special Issue of Languages: “Current Trends in Ecolinguistics” (2024)

Special Issue of Languages: “Current Trends in Ecolinguistics” (2024) Guest Editors: Douglas Mark Ponton, Lucia Abbamonte. Please check: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/special_issues/0BBBUSA8TN, for full call for papers and deadlines Ecolinguistic research provides the scientific foundation for understanding the complex web of interactions among language, the non-human world, and the environment. As human activities continue to shape the world, ecolinguistics remains a cornerstone for the promotion of sustainability (Stibbe 2019), conservation of habitats (Blackmore and Holmes 2013), and the well-being of ecosystems and human societies. Ecolinguistics sheds light on how language can facilitate or hinder sustainable environmental practices and broaden our understanding of the ecological interconnectedness of our world (Goatly 2001; Stibbe 2015). A strong understanding of these issues has never been more necessary, and it is our hope that ecolinguistics will continue to evolve and increase its influence on current and future generations’ attitudes towards nature and the non-human world (Zhou 2022). This Special Issue will focus on research that highlights current trends in ecolinguistics (Finke 2018; Lechevrel 2009; Huang 2016)

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Call for proposals Textus issues 2025

Call for proposals – Textus issues 2025 Call for proposals Textus issues 2025 All Textus calls for papers are open only to AIA members The editorial board of Textus invites proposals for the three issues of the journal to be published in 2025. Textus has traditionally approached topical areas of research separately in its three yearly issues. In the first two issues to be published in 2025, the focus will remain on language (issue 1/2025) and literature (issue 2/2025). The third issue (3/2025) will respond to the pressing need, expressed by an increasing number of scholars, to engage with inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches; it will therefore present a common theme embracing two or more research areas within the field of English studies. Proposals (500 words including references) will need to indicate: Two co-editors working at different Italian universities (for issue 3/2025, the two co-editors must belong to different research areas); A non-Italian guest editor from a foreign university; A native speaker copyeditor. Proposals for all three issues should be sent by 30 January 2024 to: aiasegreteria@unito.it  

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Call for papers Textus issue 3/2024

Call for papers Textus issue 3/2024 Spreading Interdisciplinary Contaminations:New Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Disease Co-editors:Girolamo Tessuto (University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli)Clark Lawlor (Northumbria University)Ilaria Natali (University of Florence)Annalisa Federici (Roma Tre University) Copy editors:Maria Micaela Coppola (University of Trento)John Gilbert (University of Florence) The intersections between medicine and communication, both oral and written, have been recognised and discussed at least since the time of Hippocrates, who is often credited with having conceptualised the practice of healing as a semiotic craft (Baer 1988: 37; Danesi and Zukowski 2019: 5). Nonetheless, in the academic field, exchanges among literature, linguistics, and medical sciences intensified only during the 1940s and 1950s, with a progressive shift of focus away from the physician’s skills in deciphering signs and symptoms to the semiotic acts of communication to represent, perform, explain, and make sense of health and disease – and the subject’s experience of them – in real and fictional contexts. Even more recent are interdisciplinary critical orientations developing in the areas of linguistics and literary inquiries, with seminal studies by Felman (1985), Kleinman (1988), Ingram (1991), Roberts and Porter (1993), and Frank (1995). Together with perspectives such as feminism, queer theory, and disability studies, these orientations have paved the way for wellness and illness narratives to come to the forefront and disentangle themselves from the disciplinary “colonialism” of scientific discourse (Charon 2006; Jurecic 2012).Far from being mere interpretations of bodily symptoms, the ideas of disease, illness, and pathology are often symbolically or metaphorically constructed (Sontag 1978; Graham and Sewell 1990; Semino et al. 2020; Garzone 2023) and always rooted in specific contexts and times. Hence, investigating their representations necessarily entails moving beyond physician-patient dynamics to cope with broader cultural and social concerns. Linguistic, literary, and cultural studies themselves can engage with medical representations to “reveal their function in their historical context” (Gilman 2011: 73; Gilman 1988), to emphasise their constitutive relation to identity and language, and to unveil their inherent connection with conceptualisations of a “healthy” body and mind (Ferrara 1994), thus challenging stigmas associated with various forms of disease, illness, disability, and trauma.The intricacies of the mutual effects between language and human health have inspired scholars from different theoretical backgrounds to consider the public and private dimensions of discourse about health and healthcare across a wide and diverse range of contexts, genres, and media (Gwyn 2002; Furst 2003; Heritage and Maynard 2006; Harvey and Koteyko 2012; Skelton 2013; Canziani et al. 2014; Hamilton and Chou 2014; Mullini 2015; Hilger 2017; Garzone et al. 2019; Brookes and Hunt 2021; Lawlor and Mangham 2021; Tweedie and Johnson 2022), giving floor to “different types of discourses that go side by side with the linguistic practices of participants involved in the textual universe of medicine and healthcare” (Tessuto 2023: xvii). Accordingly, to explore the multiple and complex ways in which the complementary perspectives of linguistic, literary and cultural studies can interact critically with medical discourses, this issue of Textus encourages scholars to investigate a broad spectrum of “literariness” and health-related narratives, including letters, memoirs, (auto)pathographies, marginalia, mixed-media narratives, patientprovider interactions, case histories, medical blogs, as well as other liminal and interstitial forms of expression, textualcontaminations, and anomalies.Suggested topics for this issue include, but are not limited to:● past and present representational practices concerning health and the body;● literature, medicine, and their reciprocal influences;● the role of literature in creating/representing/challenging cultural discourses of physical and/or mental health, wellbeing, disease, and trauma;● medical practitioners and/or patients as writers, narrators, and fictional characters;● representations or narratives of disease, illness, health, disability, trauma, etc.;● narratives of social injustice in medical practices and experiences;● gender identity and medical discourse;● dynamics of communication between doctors and patients across different genres, medias, and contexts;● relationships between language, style, forms, and methods of literary research and medical discourse;● impacts and implications of changes in technology-mediated healthcare communication;● medical and therapeutic narratives and their relationship with healing;● counter-narratives of mainstream conceptualisations of health and wellbeing. Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2023 Please submit your abstract of around 500 words to: Textus3.24@gmail.com Acceptance of abstracts to be notified by 20 January 2024 Deadline for articles: 31 March 2024 ReferencesBaer, Eugen, 1988, Medical Semiotics, University Press of America, Lantham.Brookes, Gavin and Hunt, Daniel, 2021, Analysing Health Communication: Discourse Approaches, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.Byrne, Patrick S. and Long, Barrie E.L., 1976, Doctors Talking to Patients: A Study of the Verbal Behaviours of Doctors in the Consultation, HMSO, London.Canziani, Tatiana, Grego, Kim, Iamartino, Giovanni (eds), 2014, Perspectives in Medical English, Polimetrica, Monza.Charon, Rita, 2006, Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness, O.U.P., Oxford.Danesi, Marcel and Zukowski, Nicolette, 2019, Medical Semiotics: Medicine and Cultural Meaning, Lincom, Munich.Felman, Shoshana, 1985, Writing and Madness (Literature/Philosophy/Psychoanalysis), Cornell University Press, New York.Ferrara, Kathleen W., 1994, Therapeutic Ways with Words, O.U.P., Oxford.Frank, Arthur, 1995, The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, Ethics, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Furst, Lilian R., 2003, Idioms of Distress: Psychosomatic Disorders in Medical and Imaginative Literature, State University of New York Press, Albany.Garzone, Giuliana E., 2023, “Metaphor and Disease in the Media: Focus on COVID Communication”, in G. Tessuto, R. Ashcroft, V.K. Bhatia (eds), Professional Discourse across Medicine, Law, and Other Disciplines: Issues and Perspectives, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp. 1-33.Garzone, Giuliana E., Paganoni, Maria Cristina, Reisigl, Martin (eds), 2019, Discursive Representations of Controversial Issues in Medicine and Health. Lingue, Culture, Mediazioni 6 (1).Gilman, Sander L., 1988, Disease and Representation: Images of Illness from Madness to AIDS, Cornell University Press, New York.Gilman, Sander L., 2011, “Representing Health and Illness: Thoughts for the 21st Century”, Journal of Medical Humanities 32, pp. 69-75.Graham, Peter W. and Sewell, Elizabeth (eds), 1990, Fictive Ills: Literary Perspectives on Wounds and Diseases. Literature and Medicine 9.Gwyn, Richard, 2002, Communicating Health and Illness, Sage, London.Hamilton, Heidi and Chou, Wen-ying Sylvia (eds), 2014, The Routledge Handbook of Language and Health Communication, Routledge, London-New York.Harvey, Kevin and Koteyko, Nelya, 2012, Exploring Health Communication: Language in Action, Routledge, London.Heritage, John and Maynard, Douglas W. (eds), 2006, Communication in Medical Care: Interaction between Primary Care

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XXXI AIA Conference – 13-16 September 2023 – Università della Calabria

XXXI AIA Conference Rende, Cosenza, 13 -16 September 2023 CALL FOR PANELS – Deadline extension  Future Horizons:New Beginnings in English Studies The horizon leans forwardOffering you space to place new steps of change‘On the Pulse of Morning’, Maya Angelou When the Covid-19 pandemic rapidly and unexpectedly spread across the globe in February 2020 and the world we used to know suddenly came to a halt, many of us felt suspended in time and confined in space, the only glimpse of the horizon being the view from our windows. We turned into Proserpina-like creatures waiting for the long winter to come to an end and restrictions to be lifted. The cycles of lockdowns projected us backwards – our previous lives becoming a bittersweet memory for many – and forwards – the anticipations of the future to come, new beginnings that for some equalled the so-called new normal (an issue of Textus was significantly devoted to this topic in 2021) and for others was an act of intellectual creativity and imagination. Indeed, our present was – and still is – a time of change, conflict, resistance, resilience, vulnerability, survival, and hope. As scholars and academics, our way of teaching, doing research, studying and ultimately working was directly and deeply affected by the pandemic. This resulted in an impelling need for a critical re-thinking of our privileged lives, our disciplines and the whole university system. Today, more than two years after that watershed moment, we are still staring at the horizon, which – in Maya Angelou’s words – “leans forward [and offers] new steps of change”. Such transformations reverberate and bring new awareness into the way we critically look at the linguistic and literary phenomena not only of our present but also our distant and/or recent past, both in terms of the cultural production of writers and artists, performers and storytellers, and the language used to communicate, translate and discursively construe the world around us. This is even more so in the English-speaking world and especially in English Studies, as testified to by the adoption of new theoretical paradigms and the introduction of methodological innovations which has gone hand in hand with a redefinition of academia that promotes inclusivity and interdisciplinarity in order to decolonise Eurocentric epistemological models and offer cutting-edge educational programmes.  As an association, AIA has fostered the dissemination of interdisciplinary knowledge and competences since its very foundation. Over the years, its conferences have been a space where Italian angliste and anglisti could experiment and innovate (Catania 2022), think out of the box (Padua 2019), and explore the notions of complexity, creativity and conventionality (Pisa 2017), just to mention some recent meetings. For its 31st edition, which will be held at the University of Calabria on September 13-16, 2023, the AIA Conference welcomes panel proposals that examine and navigate the complexities of our past, present and future times, aiming to becomean arena where steps of change can be taken in English Studies, both from a theoretical, methodological and thematic perspective. Through Seminars and Poster presentations, the different souls of the Association –Language and Linguistics, Literary, Cultural and Translation Studies – will be staring at the horizon again, leaning forward and being willing to take English Studies in Italy to new beginnings.  The local organising committee looks forward to welcoming you to the 31st Conference that will focus on “Future Horizons: New Beginnings in English Studies”. Call for Panels AIA members are invited to submit proposals for panels on any subject within the major fields of research (language and linguistics, literature, culture, translation). Proposals with a 200/250-word description should be submitted jointly by two Convenors from different Universities to the Academic Programme Committee (AIA2023@unical.it) by 30 march 2023. Notification of acceptance will be given by 10 April 2023. Call for Papers The full list of Panels with outlines and contact addresses of Convenors will be published in March 2023. Abstracts of 200/250 words should be submitted directly to the Convenors of the targeted Panels by 15 June 2023. Deadline for Panels proposals by Convenors: 30 march 2023 Notification of acceptance to Convenors by Academic Committee: 10 April 2023 Publication of list of Panels and Convenors’ contact addresses: 15 April 2023 Deadline for submission of abstracts for individual papers: 15 June 2023 Notification of acceptance by Convenors: 30 June 2023 Please note that: – Panels will include from a minimum of three to a maximum of five speakers (presentations of max 20 minutes); – AIA members may give only one presentation at the conference (this applies both to single-author and co-authored presentations). Posters Posters are to be devoted to research-in-progress and project presentations. Abstracts of 200/250 words should be sent to the Academic Programme Committee (AIA2023@unical.it) by 15 June 2023. Notification of acceptance will be given by 30 June 2023. Link: https://www.anglisti.it/event/call-for-panels-xxxi-aia-conference-rende-cosenza-13-16-september-2023/?fbclid=IwAR0O2ck8zDGCOQsLJKPtoxvIlWOC6xTdjdXC1YK7GpHYScl4WufZgrKsofE Sito AIA XXXI: https://disu.unical.it/aia/ Gruppo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/665866661932697

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AIA30 Conference – 15/17 September 2022

AIA30 ConferenceExperiment and innovation: branching forwards and backwardsUniversity of Catania, Department of Human Sciences15-17 September 2022 I read some history: it is suddenly all alive, branching forwards and backwardsVirginia Stephen, 1903 Over forty years have passed since the first AIA national Conference was held in Rome, on 27th-29th April 1978. On that occasion Giorgio Melchiori presented the Association’s objective: “saggiare il livello scientifico raggiunto dalla ricerca nel campo dell’anglistica in Italia” [“to test the academic level achieved by research in the field of English Studies in Italy”]. In a radically changed University – “l’Università di massa” of the 1970s – the newly born Associazione Italiana di Anglistica set out to study the relationship between research and teaching, and to discuss, in Melchiori’s words, “il ruolo dell’anglista in una nuova Università, ossia la metodologia e la politica della ricerca” [“the role of the English Studies scholar in a new University, namely the methodology and the politics of research”].These words still resonate today. In 2001 the University of Catania hosted the twentieth AIA Conference – poignantly titled Rites of Passage – and now we have a further opportunity to look back to our past, reflect on the state of the art, and look forward to the future of English studies in Italy.On the exciting occasion of the AIA30 Conference, it seems particularly relevant to bring today’s sharpened awareness of the methodology and politics of research to the contexts of a profoundly changed academia and a radically altered post-Brexit geopolitical situation.The theme of that first AIA Conference in 1978 was “experiment and innovation”: in 2022 we would like to invite AIA members to pick up on that same challenge by contributing to the scholarly conversation in all broad areas of research – literature, culture and language – through Seminars and Poster presentations.The local organising committee looks forward to welcoming you to the AIA30 Conference in Catania, from 15th to 17th September 2022.

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ANNALI SEZIONE GERMANICA, ANGLISTICA XXI, 1-2 ATTI DEL I CONGRESSO NAZIONALE DELL’ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA DI ANGLISTICA RELAZIONE DEL PRESIDENTE AL I CONGRESSO NAZIONALE DELL’ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA DI ANGLISTICA Roma, 27 – 29 aprile 1978

II primo Congresso nazionale dell’Associazione Italiana di Anglistica si propone di dimostrare concretamente – o forse, più cautamente, si potrebbe dire di saggiare – i1 livello scientifico raggiunto dalla ricerca nel campo del­l’anglistica in Italia; un livello che – se mi è consentito di esprimere un’opinione personale ma che credo ampia­mente condivisa – ha ben poco da invidiare, per impegno, per ricchezza di contributi, per risultati, a quello raggiunto nel medesimo campo negli altri paesi non anglofoni, ed anche in quelli di cultura inglese. L’unico settore in cui siamo restati indietro rispetto agli altri paesi è stato nella capacità di far conoscere il nostro lavoro al di là dei con­fini dell’Italia – ed è uno dei compiti primari della nostra Associazione l’ovviare a questa deficienza. Il Consiglio Direttivo dell’Associazione, riconoscendo la dignità e originalità scientifica raggiunta dalla ricerca non soltanto nel campo letterario ma anche in quello più specificamente linguistico, ha ritenuto di articolare gli in­terventi a1 Congresso in due sezioni distinte e parallele – letteraria e linguistica –, scegliendo tematiche circo­scritte sul piano diacronico. Va detto subito che la ristret­tezza del tempo ha costretto il Direttivo ad una imposta­zione poco elastica: il quadro di cui disponeva al momento ultimo per prendere decisioni in merito alla strutturazione del Congresso era ancora molto incompleto e frammen­tario. Spetterà alle consultazioni con tutti i soci, che avremo nei prossimi due giorni, fare proposte sia sui conte­nuti che sulle forme che dovranno assumere i congressi futuri – forme e contenuti – che potranno essere molto diversi da quelli di oggi (si potrà pensare, per esempio, a congressi con poche relazioni, tenute per invito anche da studiosi stranieri, con ampio spazio per il dibattito). In questo primo Congresso, tenendo conto degli inte­ressi dichiaratisi nella produzione scientifica di molti mem­bri dell’Associazione, si sono voluti privilegiare i temi dello sperimentalismo caratteristici del Novecento, sia nella pra­tica letteraria che nella riflessione linguistica. Di qui la scelta: «Sperimentalismo e innovazione nella letteratura inglese contemporanea» per la prima sezione; «Aspetti teorici e sperimentali della ricerca sulla lingua inglese» per la seconda. E’ un modo di fare il punto sullo svolgi­mento della ricerca in due campi, sia pur limitati, che rientrano in modo preminente negli interessi dei membri dell’Associazione. Ho parlato finora soprattutto della ricerca; ma questo non è l’unico obiettivo di un’Associazione come l’AIA. Mi sia consentito di approfittare di questa occasione per trac­ciare sinteticamente la storia della nascita dell’AIA e per fare un bilancio sommario dell’attività svolta nel suo primo anno di vita, indicando così le linee d’azione lungo le quali l’AIA si muove e almeno alcuni degli obiettivi vicini e lon­tani che intende perseguire. Proprio per il coordinamento della ricerca si costituì negli anni sessanta, sotto gli auspici del Consiglio Nazio­nale delle Ricerche, una prima Associazione Italiana di An­glistica. Si trattava di un gruppo ristretto di cattedratici, e occorre dire che furono allora impostate, con la collabo­razione di varie sedi universitarie, ricerche assai fruttuose, come quelle sui fondi di anglistica nelle biblioteche e negli archivi italiani, o sulla fortuna di Shakespeare in Italia, i cui risultati seguitano tuttora ad apparire. Tuttavia, so­prattutto dopo il 1968, i vari progetti di ricerca prosegui­rono indipendentemente l’uno dall’altro, grazie all’iniziativa, certamente encomiabile, di singoli docenti e ricercatori; contemporaneamente, a seguito della liberalizzazione degli accessi all’Università, gli Istituti e i docenti di anglistica erano assoggettati a formidabili pressioni per la moltipli­cazione del numero degli studenti, con esigenze che a prima vista sembravano interferire e addirittura opporsi all’im­pegno della ricerca – esigenze che le già fatiscenti strut­ture universitarie esistenti non erano assolutamente in gra­do di affrontare. I provvedimenti urgenti del ’73, mai in­tegralmente attuati, se da una parte diedero l’illusoria im­pressione di incrementare i ranghi di docenti e ricercatori (e in effetti permisero l’acquisizione di nuove leve di stu­diosi di merito), dall’altra accentuarono e quasi istituzio­nalizzarono la condizione di precarietà in cui l’Università versa ormai da tanti anni. Tale condizione fu sentita e si sente in maniera particolarmente grave nell’ambito della lingua e letteratura inglese per la ragione già indicata, ossia per l’enorme afflusso di studenti che vedono nell’inglese uno strumento indispensabile per accedere ad un qualsiasi sbocco professionale. Nell’ottobre del 1975, in una riunione promossa ancora una volta dal C.N.R., i docenti universitari d’inglese, fra i quali molti della nuova generazione, il cui genuino entu­siasmo era perennemente frustrato da una stagnazione am­ministrativa e organizzativa che dura tuttora, cercarono di riannodare le fila del discorso sulla ricerca e sul suo coor­dinamento. Ci si rese subito conto in quella sede che, se da una parte esistevano in abbondanza le forze per dare nuovo impulso alla ricerca, dall’altra il limitarsi ad una funzione di coordinamento sul piano nazionale sarebbe sta­to un chiudere gli occhi al compito primario del docente di anglistica in quella che ormai – bene o male – era di­venuta un’Università di massa, e dunque un’Università di­versa – un’Università che aveva bisogno di un radicale rinnovamento se voleva tentare di rispondere ad esigenze che si erano già dichiarate in maniera drammatica, e non in Italia soltanto, alla fine degli anni Sessanta, e alle quali le forze politiche e amministrative, con tutta la buona vo­lontà, non avevano fornito neppure l’ombra di una risposta. La domanda che gli anglisti dovevano porsi non era quale ricerca o ricerche perseguire, ma perché perseguirla – e in quale contesto. Insomma, riconoscendo la funzione di­dattica dell’Università (e particolarmente nel nostro campo, delle lingue e letterature straniere) – funzione innegabile, ma condotta in condizioni di estremo disagio per le gra­vissime carenze istituzionali –, l’unica via aperta apparve quella di approfondire lo studio del rapporto fra didattica e ricerca, di accertare lo spazio della ricerca nell’insegna­mento, soprattutto in vista di nuove strutture universitarie: in primo luogo il Dipartimento, una struttura all’interno della quale non può esistere didattica senza ricerca o vice­versa. Una commissione ristretta fu incaricata di preparare un convegno nazionale degli anglisti con un duplice fine: dibattere innanzitutto questa tematica, cercando di arrivare a proposte concrete e comunque a evidenziare l’estensione del problema e a puntualizzarne i momenti essenziali; in

ANNALI SEZIONE GERMANICA, ANGLISTICA XXI, 1-2 ATTI DEL I CONGRESSO NAZIONALE DELL’ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA DI ANGLISTICA RELAZIONE DEL PRESIDENTE AL I CONGRESSO NAZIONALE DELL’ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA DI ANGLISTICA Roma, 27 – 29 aprile 1978 Read More »

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