Upcoming volumes

Annali d’Italianistica welcomes your contributions to future volumes. For information on how to prepare your manuscripts and reviews, take a look at our publishing guidelines.

AdI 2027 (Vol. 45)

Rites/Rights of Passage: Liminality, Liminoid, and Limivoid in Italian Culture

Call For Papers, Annali d’italianistica 2027

Humans live in a constant flux, witnessing every day emotional, mental, and bodily transformations linked to social, political, and environmental changes. This process of continuous change implies a condition of liminality—an all-encompassing in-betweenness—that has been studied by anthropologists and has inspired seminal studies in various disciplines. The notion of liminality was introduced by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep (1873-1957) in his The Rites of Passage (Paris: Nourry, 1909; English translation Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1960; Italian translation Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1981). In Van Gennep’s theory, liminality constitutes the second phase of the rite of passage, following the previous phase of separation and before the final one of integration. Liminality is the threshold, the border, the limit, which individuals, a group, or a society must cross to enter a new or renewed condition through ritualistic ceremonies. The conceptual framework set by Van Gennep has been further developed by Victor Turner and Bjørn Thomassen with the concepts of the “liminoid” and “limivoid,” respectively.

The anthropologist Victor Turner, in his seminal essay “Liminal to liminoid, in play, flow, and ritual” (Rice Institute Pamphlet – Rice University Studies 60.3, 1974, 53-92), expands the concept emphasizing its power to transform and create new cultural meanings, social structures, individual and national identities. In the face of complex societies constantly involved in transformative processes, Turner proposes a more fluid view of liminality: “liminoid.” This concept relates to occasional and individualistic practices within the realm of leisure and entertainment, implying a simultaneous drifting between multiple conditions, without belonging to any individual one. Liminal and liminoid experiences are rapidly expanding with new devices introduced by technological developments, such as VR and AI.

Bjørn Thomassen, in his book Liminality and the Modern. Living Through the In-Between (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), shifts from the “liminoid” to the “limivoid” to analyse the sense of “ontological excess” contained in private and public near-death experiences. In his work, the concept of liminality is turned into a prism to interpret processes of historical, political and cultural transformation. He also applied the concept of liminality to the field of Italian Studies in the co-authored volume Italian Modernities. Competing Narratives of Nationhood (Cham: Palgrave MacMillan, 2016).

This issue of Annali, 70 years after Van Gennep’s death, will explore the afterlives of the concept of liminality within various fields of study, and its manifestations in different aspects of Italian culture. It does not aim to celebrate liminality, but to use the concept as a critical lens to question and redefine the rites in and outside the frames of its passages. The purpose is to investigate how these concepts travel in social and cultural fields where “rites” become “rights,” that are reinstated, declined and continuously negotiated within liminal spaces. Liminality is central to different kinds of transformative encounters, in real life or in virtual reality. It takes Italian culture as an observatory, based on recent studies that define transnational Italy as an “in-between” space and Italianness as a sign or lens moving between (inter)national and local spatialities (Emma Bond, “Towards a Trans-national Turn in Italian Studies?,” Italian studies 69.3, 2014, 415-24; Charles Burdett, and Loredana Polezzi, eds., Transnational Italian Studies, Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2020).

This notion can entail the diasporic experiences of migration and border-crossing. Migrant and diasporic authors are exposed to multiple rites of passage—the journey, the period of awaiting legal status or cultural integration, the acquisition of a new language, entailing the experience of a liminal space, a condition often marked by uncertainty and transformation. Similarly, in border studies the border area is itself a liminal zone, a dynamic and often contested threshold rather than a fixed space. Identities, languages and cultures intersect and blur in and around these spaces.

Rites are also performative and aesthetic processes. They are essential to different stories of transition that resist standardized, socially accepted frameworks for life changes and group norms (e.g., prisoners’ and other marginal subjects’ reentry into society, disability as a prolonged liminal phase, alternative rituals of aging, and self-established forms of initiation). Rites and rights are also reclaimed and put into action: in decolonial studies, highlighting the importance of indigenous knowledge; in ecocriticism, conceiving transition as a collective project; and in feminist and queer studies, contesting heteronormative interpretations of liminality.

Scholars interested in exploring rites/ rights of passage and liminality in Italian studies are invited to submit a proposal for a special issue of Annali d’italianistica to be published in the fall of 2027. A 300-500-word abstract and a short biographical note must be submitted by December 31, 2025. Proposals are invited to build on the theoretical concepts outlined above and their more recent developments. Essays are due in the early fall of 2026.

Areas and topics include, but are not limited to:

• Representations of liminality in Italian literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the present day.
• Rites as performative and aesthetic processes in literature, media, and performative arts.
• Transitions and border crossings in postcolonial, transnational, and migration studies.
• Approaches to rites of passage and liminality within posthuman / more than human studies.
• Processes of transformation in environmental studies and ecocriticism.
• Rites, rituals, and indigenous knowledge in decolonial studies.
• Transitions and intersectionality in gender, class and race studies.
• “Betwixt and between” states of liminality (disability, mental and physical illnesses).
• Markers of passage in stages of aging (including menopause, andropause, midlife, giving birth).
• Reintegration and transformation in life writing by marginalized subjects.
• Resistance against (hetero)normativity in works of liminality.
• The in-between of liminal spaces (borders, bridges, airports, hotels, theatres, performance spaces, etc.) and time zones (dawn, twilight, sunset, nocturnal settings).
• Liminal objects (sacred, magical, recycled, disposable, objet trouvé).
• Transgression as liminality (begging, robbing, killing, red districts, banlieue).
• Spiritual and religious thresholds (conversion, pilgrimages, mystical journeys, and the negotiation between faith and uncertainty in literary and artistic forms).
• Narratives of exile, return, and displacement (diaspora writing, political exile, and imagined homelands).
• Liminal affect and emotional states (melancholy, nostalgia, desire, anxiety, and the phenomenology of in-between emotions).

Authors should write in the language they are most familiar with, either Italian or English. Typically, articles range between 6,000 and 10,000 words. They should conform to the stylesheet of Annali d’italianistica for “Notes” and “Works Cited” (https://annali.org/publishing/). All articles will be refereed according to the peer-review policy of the journal (https://annali.org/peer-review-statement/).

For any questions and submissions, please contact one of the guest editors:

Sara Boezio, University of Notre Dame (sboezio@nd.edu)
Matteo Brera, Università degli Studi di Padova / Seton Hall University (matteo.brera@unipd.it; matteo.brera@shu.edu)
Monica Jansen, Utrecht University (m.m.jansen@uu.nl)
Michela Meschini, Università di Macerata (michela.meschini@unimc.it)
Pia Schwarz Lausten, University of Copenhagen (lausten@hum.ku.dk)

For information, please feel free to contact as well any of the following editors:

Dino S. Cervigni, cervigni@unc.edu
Olimpia Pelosi, opelosi@albany.edu
Stefania Porcelli, sp1122@hunter.cuny.edu

AdI 2026 (Vol. 44)

The World Upside Down: From Dante’s Hell to Present Times

Call For Papers, Annali d’italianistica 2026

The metaphor of the world upside down centers on the condition of a community, a society, and/or the world at large, including the habitat humans and non-humans inhabit, in which such fundamental concepts as goodness, beauty, truth, unity, order, as well as related notions, are upended, turned around, reversed. English culture has developed a plethora of similar expressions, such as topsy-turvy world, the reversible world, the inverted world, the bizarro world. In Italian, the same notion is rendered as il mondo a soqquadro or il mondo alla rovescia. Less common is the Latin phrase mundus inversus.

We invite interested scholars to submit an abstract as soon as possible and no later than December 31, 2024, in view of the annual monographic volume sponsored by Annali d’italianistica in 2026.

The notion of the world upside down has been used in literary studies, though not extensively. Ernst R. Curtius devotes a few dense pages to this topos, tracing its development from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and highlighting its transformation from adynata and impossibilia to the criticism of contemporary time, and from the change in the order of things to a topsy-turvy world (European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages 94-98). Anthropologists and folklorists have focused on this topic from the perspective of their disciplines (Giuseppe Cocchiara, 1904-65, Il mondo alla rovescia 1963; the 1981 edition contains a very important preface by Piero Camporesi; Barbara A. Bobcock, ed., The Reversible World 1978). The metaphor of the world upside down is at times based on rites of passage, and thus also on liminality (Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage 1909; 2019), on which Viktor Turner has written extensively, followed by his disciples (B. Thomassen, Liminality and the Modern 2014). These three concepts—liminality, rites of passage, the world upside down—are closely related and may be appositely adopted by scholars; the volume’s focus, nevertheless, resides on the world upside down in relation to Italy’s literary culture in its broadest sense and transnational context.

Expanding further the notion under scrutiny to include contemporary events and ongoing climatic catastrophes, the volume aims to examine not only past and present, real and metaphorical, falls into the abyss and order reversals, but it also seeks to ponder ways for us humans and our society to pull ourselves out of imminent catastrophes. Interested scholars are urged to contextualize their investigations within a well-defined theoretical framework to go beyond the confines of a specific literary work, historical event, man-made disaster as they describe the very harsh reality, past and ongoing, of the world gone awry, while also considering the possibilities of avoiding the ultimate catastrophe.

In narratives of primordia (e.g., the Bible), goodness, beauty, truth, unity, and order are created out of chaos. In Judeo-Christian tradition, the breaking of those positive concepts marks the reversal to a condition of badness. Thus, the concept of the world upside down finds its origin in the idea that a previously existing order has been disrupted. At the beginning of Italy’s literary history, for instance, Dante’s Hell develops the concept under scrutiny from a medieval and traditional Christian perspective. Falling from Heaven, Dante’s Satan turns the Earth upside down in his attempt to form within it a kingdom for himself and his followers, demons as well as humans. Satan’s fall, however, does not and cannot destroy completely the previous order; in fact, the Satanic upheaval of the Earth gives rise to Mount Purgatory, a sacred place where souls atone and purify to ascend to Heaven. As a privileged wayfarer, the Pilgrim leaves behind the dark forest and, through liminal experiences and multiple rites of passage, finally attains the beatific vision, after which he will return to earth to continue and complete his earthly pilgrimage. Thus, the metaphor of the world upside down, while focusing on the negative, points to the lost order without excluding the possibility of recovering it. Both concepts co-exist and need each other: no one can render the ugly without knowing the beautiful.

Throughout the centuries, the metaphor under scrutiny has taken on countless literary forms, from farce to parody and satire; from the realistic to the fictional; from the grotesque to the burlesque and the carnivalesque (Mikhail Bakhtin). Thus, the metaphor of the topsy-turvy world lends itself to serious works (Dante’s Inferno, Boccaccio’s Decameron, Machiavelli’s The Prince) and less serious, but equally important, works (Morgante, Orlando furioso), not just in medieval and Renaissance times, but in modern and postmodern times as well (Basile’s Cunto de li cunti; Goldoni’s theater; Leopardi’s existential drama; Collodi’s Pinocchio; Pasolini; Calvino; etc.). Scholars face multiple challenges, not only understanding the world gone awry, but also illustrating the causes of its reversal to uncover its original positivity. One may wonder what kind of message can be drawn from such works as, for example, Elsa Morante’s La Storia, which ends with a frightening scene: the police must kill the family dog, referred to as the “bestia,” to enter the apartment where they find a child struck down by a disease (referred to as il male) and a mother who has lost her mind because of a sad existence in a wicked world gone utterly awry. The quote from Antonio Gramsci that Morante employs at the end of the novel may offer an alternative perspective on La Storia’s final scene, if not the entire work, as it suggests that the “seed”—such is every human being’s suffering—might not have fallen in vain and may in fact be in the process of germinating, ultimately a Christian concept.

The same metaphor of the world upside down can also describe the condition of humans overwhelmed by the demons we allow to grow within ourselves while living in a society in turmoil. And yet, as Boccaccio reminds us after describing the plague, we can always admire the beauty of the universe above us, or we can enjoy peace and joy within ourselves, without falling into despair. Nowadays, despair haunts so many individuals, entire societies, or even the world at large, often bringing so many humans to the so-called death of despair or to stare at it in a frightened manner. The gradual devastation of the habitat we inhabit further augments the individual’s as well as society’s distress.

Shockingly, writers and artists in all arts and media, as well as consumers of any form of art, seem to be attracted by the ugly and the wicked rather than by their positive counterparts. Despite the doom and gloom surrounding us in contemporary times, we need and want to be focused on the positive and believe to be able to admire beauty as well as nurture hope and kindness. Italy’s foremost Romantic poet, Leopardi, becomes frightened in contemplating the infinite, while experiencing an inner shipwreck (“naufragio”), which his mind finds sweet. In the world upside down, such experiences as fright, shipwreck, and sweetness may be felt at the same time. While we may not be willing to accept unquestionably Manzoni’s belief that God allows his beloved ones to go through trials and tribulations to offer them greater joys afterwards, we may find Boccaccio’s view more acceptable. Rephrasing what Dioneo says on the causes of laughter in the preamble to his fifth tale, we too may wonder why the badness within human nature and human vices attract us more than virtue, while heeding Dioneo’s advice to pick the roses and avoid the thorns. Closer to our present time, Italo Calvino seems to echo Dante and Boccaccio. Concluding Le città invisibili, a description of non-existent, upended cities, he states that we have been sucked into Hell, which all of us inhabit with just one glimpse of hope: to look for the few among us who still cherish and pursue positive values, a few who have escaped the Hell we inhabit. Everybody’s aim should be to give those few good folks all the support we can to nurture the remaining little goodness and avoid catastrophe.

Please feel free to contact any of the following organizers and editors, copying all of them:

Valerio Cappozzo, vcappozz@olemiss.edu
Dino S. Cervigni, cervigni@unc.edu
Brandon Essary, bessary@elon,edu
Olimpia Pelosi, opelosi@albany.edu
Stefania Porcelli, sp1122@hunter.cuny.edu

AdI 2025 (Vol. 43)

Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence: From Theory to Practice

[Abstract deadline extended to Friday 2 February 2024]

Technology has advanced greatly and is shaping all branches of knowledge, including the Humanities. Within this rapidly evolving context, AdI intends to devote its 43^rd monographic volume to Digital Humanities (DH) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The volume will be edited by prominent scholars, and each has formulated a specific section, whose description follows. We are interested in contributions that address a specific theoretical or practical dimension of the DH and AI debate, such as, for example: how has DH enhanced Italian Studies in scholarship and teaching; how is Italian Studies responding, reacting, and contributing to the challenges brought about by these technological advancements? Are there concrete examples of generative AI applications adopted in the classroom or in research that can provide models or guidance at this stage? Which specific aspects of Italian Studies are or will be affected the most, such as language/culture instruction, theoretical or technological approaches to traditional issues, career paths, etc.? Are there Italian writers, artists, or scholars who have tackled the challenges posed by emerging technologies and who can help us face the present challenges?

The Editors of the volume welcome approaches focusing on both theory and practice according to the following five thematic sections.

I
Artistic Practices and AI in Italian Studies.
To be edited by Adele Bardazzi (a.bardazzi@uu.nl)

This thematic section delves into the intersection of contemporary Italian literary works, including intermedial works, and recent advancements in AI with the aim to investigate to what extent, if at all, it can be helpful to approach these works from an Italian Studies perspective. The inquiry thus intends to investigate how to situate AI-generated works within Italian Studies as well as World Literature. We welcome contributions focusing on questions of authorship, originality, and creativity.

II
Digital Game-Based Scholarship, Teaching, and Learning.
To be edited by Brandon Essary (bessary@elon.edu)

Video games are ubiquitous. According to a substantial body of research in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), they are powerful teaching and learning tools. Many games have complex narratives imbued with literary elements that treat serious topics. These games offer the chance to engage students and scholars with the study of Italian literature, culture, history, and the humanities more broadly, in an engaging, digital way.

III
Author and Authorship Between DH e AI.
To be edited by Paola Italia (paola.italia@unibo.it)

Through DH and AI, the authorial function can be investigated in all types of manuscripts: from autograph to apograph, and from apocrypha to fake. The application of automated methods to famous literary cases have shown the usefulness of an integrated approach not only in the resolution of philological cases, but also in investigating more analytically the mechanisms of literary creation and the multiple forms in which authorship expresses itself at the moment of fragmentation and sharing in the digital ecosystem of textual responsibility.

IV
The AI Emergenc/e/y.
To be edited by Massimo Riva (massimo_riva@brown.edu)

As generative AI applications, Chatbots and similar technological advancements become more accessible and pervasive, at a societal level, scholars and teachers of Italian Studies face both theoretical and practical dilemmas. Combined with other pre-existing pressures targeting in particularly the humanities, these new difficulties may perhaps amount to an existential challenge to our profession, in addition to many others. This section intends to look at concrete applications of generative AI in the classroom or in research that can provide models or guidance at this stage of technology.

V
Born-Digital Literature and Hybrid Archives.
To be edited by Michelangelo Zaccarello (michelangelo.zaccarello@unipi.it)

In the last decades, hybrid archives, which combine paper materials with digital (usually magnetic) resources, have flourished. This section seeks to investigate the first authors to adopt a personal computer for their literary creations, and to assess the difficult task of securing their documents, conceived and written in digital form, as well as to evaluate the normative practices for their acquisition and preservation, integrating them into a methodologically sound editing protocol.

***

This volume will be published in the fall of 2025. Interested scholars are invited to contact the appropriate guest editor of the theme related to their topic, submit a 300-word abstract, and provide a short biographical note. The abstract and biographical note will be due by 31 December 2023. Guest editors will provide to each contributor guidelines to follow and deadlines to respect. Articles will be due by September 2024. Early submissions are encouraged.

Authors should write in the language they are most familiar with, either Italian or English. Typically, articles range between 6,000 and 10,000 words. They should conform to the style-sheet of Annali d’italianistica for “Notes” and “Works Cited” (https://annali.org/publishing/). All articles will be refereed according to the peer-review policy of the journal (https://annali.org/peer-review-statement/).

For any questions, please contact one of the guest editors:

Adele Bardazzi, Utrecht University (a.bardazzi@uu.nl)
Brandon Essary, Elon University (bessary@elon.edu)
Paola Italia, Università di Bologna (paola.italia@unibo.it)
Massimo Riva, Brown University (massimo_riva@brown.edu)
Michelangelo Zaccarello, Università di Pisa (michelangelo.zaccarello@unipi.it)

AdI 2024 (Vol. 42)

Fifty Years of La Storia: Elsa Morante Beyond History

La Storia (1974) is arguably Elsa Morante’s most influential novel. In Italy, it became an instant bestseller spurring a highly controversial debate at the time of its publication. The complex ethical and aesthetic questions that are at the center of the novel, however, are all too relevant for today’s divided world, torn by inequality, war, and dissymetries of power. The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of its publication, and prompts renewed reflection on Morante’s work in an Italian and transnational contexts. To celebrate this event, Annali d’italianistica solicits articles that propose new interpretations of Elsa Morante’s multifaceted ouvre and its afterlife. We invite contributions that engage with contemporary critical debates in Morante Studies and put her works in dialogue with approaches including Gender, Cultural Memory, and Cognitive Literary Studies; Trauma, Feminist, Translation, Adaptation, Affect, and Emotional Theory; Environmental Humanities, Ecocriticism, Posthumanism, New Materialism, and Animal Studies. Comparative essays focusing on Morante’s presence in the works of contemporary authors, thinkers, and visual artists are most welcome.  

Interested contributors are invited to contact the guest editors to discuss the content of their articles. A 300-word abstract and a short biographical note should be submitted by January 31, 2023. Articles will be due between September 1 and December 31, 2023. Early submissions are encouraged. The volume will be published in the fall of 2024.  

Articles can be written in Italian or English and, typically, are between 6,000 and 10,000 words. They should conform to the style-sheet criteria set forth by Annali d’italianistica for “Notes” and “Works Cited” (https://annali.org/publishing/). All articles will be refereed and authors should expect to revise their submissions following the guest editors’ comments and suggestions. 

Franco Baldasso, Bard College (baldasso@bard.edu) 
Ursula Fanning, University College Dublin (ursula.fanning@ucd.ie) 
Mara Josi, Ghent University (mara.josi@ugent.be) 
Stefania Porcelli, Hunter College (sp1122@hunter.cuny.edu) 
Katrin Wehling-Giorgi, Durham University (katrin.wehling-giorgi@durham.ac.uk) 

AdI 2023 (Vol. 41)

Il fascismo nella cultura italiana: 1945-2022

Il centenario dell’ascesa al potere del fascismo (1922-2022) offre l’occasione ideale per ripensare alle molteplici maniere in cui la cultura italiana ha meditato sulla memoria storica del totalitarismo. Annali d’italianistica sollecita contributi specialistici per un numero monografico (volume 41 del 2023) incentrato sulla rappresentazione del fascismo nella produzione culturale italiana dal dopoguerra ai nostri giorni. Il volume ha l’obbiettivo di analizzare criticamente in qual modo la letteratura, il cinema e le arti visive abbiano rappresentato e continuino a rappresentare il passato fascista e come queste manifestazioni multiculturali abbiano contribuito alla valutazione della memoria storica della dittatura.

Si sollecitano contributi che esaminino la rappresentazione del fascismo in specifici prodotti culturali: letteratura, cinema, arti visive e altre forme di espressione e valutazione artistica. Un approccio intermediale è particolarmente ben accetto.

Gli studiosi interessati a contribuire sono invitati a contattare i curatori del volume il prima possibile per discutere il contenuto del proprio intervento e inviare poi una sinossi di circa 300 parole assieme ad una breve nota biografica possibilmente entro il 31 gennaio 2022.

I contributi che verranno selezionati dovranno essere inviati possibilmente entro il 1 settembre 2022. Qualora possibile, si invitano gli autori a mandare il proprio contributo prima della scadenza.

Il volume verrà pubblicato nell’autunno 2023.

I saggi possono essere scritti in italiano o in inglese, devono avere una lunghezza compresa tra le 6.000 e le 10.000 parole e devono attenersi alle norme editoriali indicate sul sito degli Annali d’italianistica per l’organizzazione interna del saggio, le note e la bibliografia (https://annali.org/publishing/). Tutti i saggi saranno sottoposti ad un procedimento di peer-review e i contributori devono essere disposti a rivedere il saggio attraverso diverse fasi editoriali.

Per ulteriori informazioni si prega di contattare Guido Bartolini (gbartolini@ucc.ie) ed un altro curatore affine alla propria area di specializzazione, secondo le indicazioni elencate qui sotto.

AdI 2022 (Vol. 40)

1922-2022: Pasolini e la libertà espressiva. Lingua, stile, potere

In occasione del centenario della nascita di Pier Paolo Pasolini, Annali d’Italianistica propone di dedicare il 40esimo volume (2022) alla sua opera e in particolare al legame tra sistemi espressivi, forme stilistiche e dispositivi di potere presente nei suoi scritti letterari, nei suoi film, così come nei suoi testi giornalisti e nelle sue riflessioni sulla letteratura e sul cinema. L’obiettivo è quello di comporre un volume di saggi capaci di porre al centro la questione della libertà espressiva, che Pasolini ha approfondito attraverso lo studio delle condizioni di possibilità politiche e sociali che un determinato contesto linguistico e culturale oppone al fare artistico. Si tratterà in questo senso di analizzare i modi e le forme che l’autore ha studiato e impiegato nella sua lotta per difendere il gesto artistico dai processi di alienazione e omologazione promossi dalla cultura egemone. In questa prospettiva verrà dato particolare spazio 1) allo studio del complesso, e talvolta contraddittorio, rapporto tra i saggi teorici, come ad esempio quelli raccolti in Passione e ideologia ed Empirismo eretico, e l’opera letteraria e cinematografica di Pasolini; 2) all’analisi delle opere-laboratorio, ovvero quei testi letterari e quei film in cui l’autore riflette sulla forma espressiva o in cui l’autore problematizza esplicitamente questioni di ordine semiotico, linguistico o teorico-letterario (ad esempio Romans, L’Italiano è ladro, La Ricotta, Alì dagli occhi azzurri, Teorema, Appunti per un’Orestiade africana, La Divina mimesis, Petrolio); e infine 3) agli articoli capaci di individuare i nessi tra le questioni poetiche inerenti al tema della libertà espressiva e le fonti, sia teoriche che critiche (ad esempio Ascoli, Auerbach, Contini, Gramsci, Goldmann, Jakobson, Šklovskij, Spitzer), che Pasolini in modo originale ha riletto in un senso politico con l’obiettivo di ricondurre la questione della lingua e dello stile all’indagine sui dispositivi di potere affermatisi in un dato momento storico.

The volume will appear in the fall of 2022. Interested scholars may contact any one of the volume’s guest editors:

Paolo Desogus (paolo.desogus@sorbonne-universite.fr)
Davide Luglio (davide.luglio@sorbonne-universite.fr)
Enrico Minardi (eminardi@asu.edu)
Colleen M. Ryan (ryancm@indiana.edu)

The deadline for final submissions is the fall of 2021.

Previous Calls

Annali d’italianistica – 2021 – Volume 39
Dante 2021: Unholy and Holy Violence, Silence, Names, Words
To celebrate the seventh centenary of Dante’s death in 2021, AdI plans to devote its 39th monographic volume to the connections between Christ’s violent sacrifice — the sine qua non for Everyman’s salvation — and the poetic rendering of the Pilgrim’s journey from Hell to Purgatory and Paradise. To this purpose, the editors of the volume plan to organize several sessions at national and international conventions on the volume’s topic and welcome paper proposals on the following issues: the torments of the damned in Inferno as a parody of Christ’s salvific sacrifice; the sufferings of the purgatorial souls, who, contrary to those in Hell, shed no blood, as the manifestation of their full acceptance of Christ’s Redemption; and the singing, dancing, and splendor of the blessed in Heaven as the glorification of Christ’s redemptive death. Although not sharing in the torments
of the souls in Hell, the Pilgrim actively participates in the purifications
of Purgatory and in the joy of the blessed. Dante the Poet plies his poetic craft to describe appropriately the spiritual condition of the souls and the Pilgrim’s journey in the afterlife. Dante the Poet does not eschew — in fact, he embraces it realistically and/or metaphorically — the language of violence needed to narrate the experience of the souls and of the Pilgrim in his threefold journey. Thus, for instance, the two terms which Capaneus employs to describe realistically his own defeat by Jove, folgore and percuotere, are the same that Dante the Poet uses to describe metaphorically the Pilgrim’s vision of the Triune God in Paradise. Also, word(s) and silence(s) characterize the souls’ experiences and the Pilgrim’s voyage. Thus, Dante’s name — which, like Christ’s, is never written or uttered in Inferno — is pronounced once only, by Beatrice, in an accusatory
manner in Purgatorio, and never in Paradiso, where his name is known to all the blessed and loved by them, thus becoming synonymous with the Augustinian definition of verbum: “cum amore notitia” (“knowledge with love,” De Trinitate 9: 10.15).
The volume will appear in the Fall of 2021. Interested scholars may contact
any one of the volume’s guest editors:
Dino S. Cervigni (cervigni@unc.edu);
Christopher Kleinhenz (ckleinhe@wisc.edu);
Giuseppe Ledda (giuseppe.ledda@UNIBO.IT);
Heather Webb (hmw53@cam.ac.uk).
The deadline for final submissions was the fall of 2020.