Books by Marzia Beltrami
Legenda, 2021
In discussions about plot, causality and chronology are sometimes held out as the only possible o... more In discussions about plot, causality and chronology are sometimes held out as the only possible organising principles. And yet readers often transmute fragmented writings, parallel storylines, or tales within tales into a meaningful whole. Other patterns play a role in guiding our attention and, as Beltrami suggests, they invite us to make sense of narratives as spaces to be explored.
The critical analysis of selected works by Alessandro Baricco (b. 1958), Andrea Camilleri (1925-2019) and Italo Calvino (1923-1985) dovetails broader theoretical reflection about the ways in which narrative comprehension, far from being 'extraordinary', is a practice embedded in our everyday life and deeply rooted in the sense-making strategies we use to negotiate the world around us. Drawing on recent studies in cognitive literary criticism and cognitive narratology, this book investigates the techniques that elicit such 'spatial' understanding and illustrates how a cognitive-oriented approach may help illuminate the internal workings of certain narrative texts and open up novel readings. The images of map, trajectory and fractal are offered to represent three types of spatial plots, three ways in which stories may be understood and navigated as spaces.
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Articles by Marzia Beltrami
Marvels & Tales, 2023
Through the analysis of "Cold" (1998), "A Stone Woman" (2003), and "The People in the House in th... more Through the analysis of "Cold" (1998), "A Stone Woman" (2003), and "The People in the House in the House" (2009), the article explores how A. S. Byatt uses the fairy-tale genre's familiarity with the marvelous to make the interdependence of body and mind more visible, by featuring impossible creatures, fantastic metamorphoses, and clashes between scales. In her fairy tales, Byatt's reflection on the embodied mind intersects with her interest in materiality with quite unique results compared to her realist fiction. Using the idea of "feeling thought" as fil rouge, the article traces a connection between the materiality of represented bodies and minds and the metafictional awareness of the materiality of stories themselves as composed of reused motifs and strategies.
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Marvels & Tales, 2023
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Enthymema, 2023
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Italian Studies, 2023
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Journal of the Short Story in English, 2021
Open access online from June 2023
https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/3488#article-3488
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Futures , 2022
This paper explores how humans’ future engagements with their environments have been imagined in ... more This paper explores how humans’ future engagements with their environments have been imagined in our present time of crisis and how these imaginings serve as evidence of current concerns and possible alternatives to existing practices. The paper is based on the data collected in the international study “Will the World Never Be the Same? Letters from a Post-Corona Future” coordinated by the University of Twente. We discuss how everyday practices and experiences are influenced by the pandemic crisis and demonstrate that a re-elaboration of the Bakhtinian concept of “chronotope” can be used to describe the basic spatiotemporal configurations of human experience constituting the narrative dynamics of the representations of the future.
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(2020) Style 54.3: 313-33.
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(2020) Enthymema 25: 250-63 [open access]
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Natura Società Letteratura. Atti Congresso dell'ADI - Associazione degli Italianisti (Bologna, 13... more Natura Società Letteratura. Atti Congresso dell'ADI - Associazione degli Italianisti (Bologna, 13-15 settembre 2018), 2020. Sezione: 'Il lettore di carta. Luoghi e corpi dei lettori nelle rappresentazioni della lettura', a cura di Giovanna Rizzarelli e Cristina Savettieri.
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Forum Italicum, 2017
Forum Italicum 51 (1): 148-69.
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il verri, 2014
Excerpt from the introduction to the chapter from Zunshine's 2006 book "Why We Read Fiction", tra... more Excerpt from the introduction to the chapter from Zunshine's 2006 book "Why We Read Fiction", translated on il verri.
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Conference papers by Marzia Beltrami
Vingt ans après le congrès parisien qui a été à l’origine d’un véritable changement de paradigme ... more Vingt ans après le congrès parisien qui a été à l’origine d’un véritable changement de paradigme dans les études narratologiques consacrées à la métalepse, le Seminario permanente di Narratologia, qui en est désormais à sa cinquième édition, souhaite prolonger davantage les réflexions en la matière, en accordant une importance particulière au rapport que la métalepse peut entretenir avec la fictionnalité, ainsi qu’aux enjeux de ce procédé en termes de « poétique historique » et d’interaction avec les lecteurs. Certains des plus grands spécialistes européens de la métalepse échangeront à cette occasion au sujet des approches théoriques les plus récentes, afin de tester la pertinence des catégories esthétiques et interprétatives actuellement employées, mais aussi pour développer de nouvelles pistes, notamment à partir d’un éventail d’études de cas. Encore plus que dans les précédentes éditions du Séminaire, il s’agira de franchir le périmètre des études littéraires à proprement parler, dans le but de privilégier la perspective intermédiale, et d’inclure dans le champ d’analyse des objets aussi variés que la BD et les jeux-vidéos.
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Poster presentation, co-authored with Filippo Cervelli (SOAS) and Guido Furci (Université Paris 3... more Poster presentation, co-authored with Filippo Cervelli (SOAS) and Guido Furci (Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle). RaAM 2020Virtual conference (Association for Researching and Applying Metaphor), Inland Norway University, Hamar (Norway), 18-21 June 2020.
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International Society for the Study of Narrative (ISSN) Conference, 5-7 March 2020, New Orleans. ... more International Society for the Study of Narrative (ISSN) Conference, 5-7 March 2020, New Orleans. Included in the panel "Complex Plots: Complexity in Narrative", co-organised by Toon Staes, Yonina Hoffman, and Marzia Beltrami.
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Two-session panel description, Society for Italian Studies, 26-28 June 2019, Edinburgh. Panelists... more Two-session panel description, Society for Italian Studies, 26-28 June 2019, Edinburgh. Panelists: Dr Guido Furci (Durham University), Dr Cecilia Piantanida (Durham University), Dr Marzia Beltrami (Durham University); Marco Paoli (University of Liverpool), Giovanni Miglianti (Yale University), Emiliano Zappalà (University of Warwick).
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International Society for the Study of Narrative (ISSN), 30 May - 1 June 2019, Pamplona.
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"Personification Across Disciplines" (PAD) conference, 17-19 September 2018, Durham University.
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Cognitive Futures in the Arts and Humanities Conference, 1-4 July 2018, University of Kent.
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Paper presented in a two-session panel on "Space and Crime Fiction", co-organised by Marzia Beltr... more Paper presented in a two-session panel on "Space and Crime Fiction", co-organised by Marzia Beltrami (Durham University) and Giulia Brecciaroli (University of Warwick).
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Books by Marzia Beltrami
The critical analysis of selected works by Alessandro Baricco (b. 1958), Andrea Camilleri (1925-2019) and Italo Calvino (1923-1985) dovetails broader theoretical reflection about the ways in which narrative comprehension, far from being 'extraordinary', is a practice embedded in our everyday life and deeply rooted in the sense-making strategies we use to negotiate the world around us. Drawing on recent studies in cognitive literary criticism and cognitive narratology, this book investigates the techniques that elicit such 'spatial' understanding and illustrates how a cognitive-oriented approach may help illuminate the internal workings of certain narrative texts and open up novel readings. The images of map, trajectory and fractal are offered to represent three types of spatial plots, three ways in which stories may be understood and navigated as spaces.
Articles by Marzia Beltrami
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/enthymema/article/view/19983 [open access]
Conference papers by Marzia Beltrami
The critical analysis of selected works by Alessandro Baricco (b. 1958), Andrea Camilleri (1925-2019) and Italo Calvino (1923-1985) dovetails broader theoretical reflection about the ways in which narrative comprehension, far from being 'extraordinary', is a practice embedded in our everyday life and deeply rooted in the sense-making strategies we use to negotiate the world around us. Drawing on recent studies in cognitive literary criticism and cognitive narratology, this book investigates the techniques that elicit such 'spatial' understanding and illustrates how a cognitive-oriented approach may help illuminate the internal workings of certain narrative texts and open up novel readings. The images of map, trajectory and fractal are offered to represent three types of spatial plots, three ways in which stories may be understood and navigated as spaces.
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/enthymema/article/view/19983 [open access]
https://www.labalenabianca.com/2021/10/04/dune-di-villeneuve-un-insperato-equilibrio-marzia-beltrami/
https://www.labalenabianca.com/2020/12/11/le-guerriere-intersezionali-di-bernardine-evaristo-marzia-beltrami/
https://www.labalenabianca.com/2020/10/12/dare-forma-all-esperienza-sulla-trilogia-di-rachel-cusk-marzia-beltrami/
www.labalenabianca.com/2020/04/08/la-piccola-farmacia-letteraria-elena-molini-marzia-beltrami/
Rispondono redattrici, redattori, collaboratrici e collaboratori della Balena Bianca.
The book will be presented by the author Marzia Beltrami, in dialogue with Marco Caracciolo (Gent University) and Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo), followed by a Q&A session.
All welcome, no booking needed. Just follow the Zoom link on the poster!
EVENT OVERVIEW
While Primo Levi is mainly known for his painstaking and harsh books about his imprisonment in Auschwitz, he also wrote two collections of short stories that can be labelled as science fiction: 'Storie naturali' (1966) and 'Vizio di forma' (1971). A chemist by training, Levi wrote these stories at a time when science fiction was still perceived as unworthy of attention by Italian intellectuals—to the extent that 'Storie naturali' was initially published under a pseudonym. In both books, Levi uses science fiction to investigate the ethical implications of technological progress and probe its hidden and inherent flaws while adopting a tone that was only apparently light. The eerie effect reached by many of these short stories is due to a strong clash: the literary genre was considered superficial and disengaged by the vast majority of Levi’s contemporaries, and yet the writer addresses crucial existential questions in his narrations of clones, intelligent technologies, mutant animals.
By drawing attention to Levi’s contributions in science fiction, this one-day conference aims to contribute to reshaping the scholarly reputation of this genre within Italian Studies and to question Levi’s perception vis-à-vis his position within the hierarchy of genres. This event brings together some of the most renowned scholars who have explored the intersections between his work and science fiction. The speakers will dialogue with early-career researchers and established Levi scholars to foster the debate on this new area of research and explore it from an interdisciplinary perspective.