Linde Luijnenburg
University of Amsterdam, European Studies Department, Faculty Member
- University of Warwick, Italian, Graduate Studentadd
- Nationalism, Comparative Literature, Cinema, Race and Ethnicity, Critical Race Theory, Race and Racism, and 44 moreItalian Studies, Italian Literature, Stereotypes and Prejudice, Italian Cinema, Modern Italian History, Italian, Migrant Literature, Migrant and Diasporic Literature, Post-Colonialism, National Identity, Popular Italian Cinema, Italy (History), Italian Cultural Studies, Literature and cinema, Film Theory, Migration Studies, Transnational Cinema, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Postcolonial Studies, (Italian) Colonialism and Postcolonialism, African Diaspora Studies, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness theory, Psychoanalytic Theory, Colonialism, Imperialism, Empire, Cultural Memory, Bakhtin carnival and the grotesque body, Philosophy of Literature, Virginia Woolf, Italian Southern Question, Transmedia, Transmedial Narratology, Cult Movies, History of Film Theory and Criticism, Film Style, Film Genre, Popular Culture, Dutch History, European History, Film History, Film and History, and Humour Studiesedit
- Assistant Professor in European Culture at the University of Amsterdam. I received a Ph.D. in Italian Studies at the ... moreAssistant Professor in European Culture at the University of Amsterdam.
I received a Ph.D. in Italian Studies at the University of Warwick, where I conducted research on the figure I coined 'the Black Other' in commedie all'italiana between 1950-1970.
I received a fellowship at the Institute of Modern Languages Research (University of London) for which I will conduct research on what I coined 'somalo-italianità' in Somali-English communities.
I am also a filmmaker of, among other projects, Africa is You: https://africaisyou.com/.edit
In questo articolo, l'autrice descrive la ricezione olandese del cinema di Ettore Scola.
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In this article, the author proposes three layers of film analysis and spectatorship in order to discuss film director Elia Moutamid's oeuvre. The first layer refers to the filmic texts (plots and aesthetics), the second situates the... more
In this article, the author proposes three layers of film analysis and spectatorship in order to discuss film director Elia Moutamid's oeuvre. The first layer refers to the filmic texts (plots and aesthetics), the second situates the films in their socio-historical and cinematographic contexts, and the third layer relates the films to Plato's simile of the cave, establishing their philosophical quality. The author argues that the interrelation between these various layers attests to the refinement of Moutamid's cinematic production.
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This Roundtable on Visuality, Race and Nationhood in Italy brings together scholars from the arts, humanities and social sciences to discuss historical constructions of Italian whiteness and national identity in relation to the current... more
This Roundtable on Visuality, Race and Nationhood in Italy brings together scholars from the arts, humanities and social sciences to discuss historical constructions of Italian whiteness and national identity in relation to the current xenophobic discourse on race and migration, stressing their rootedness in as yet unchallenged modern notions of scientific racism.
Building on postcolonial historian and anthropologist Ann Laura Stoler’s definition of the colonial archive as a ‘site of knowledge production’ and a ‘repository of codified beliefs’ in Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense (2009: 97), the discussants conceive the archive as a multi-layered, collective repository of aspiration, dominance, desire, self-aggrandizement and fear through which the development of society’s self-image can be revealed but also – through a systematic and critical approach to the (visual) archive of coloniality – contested.
Based on the analysis of visual cultures (photographs, news footage, advertisements, propaganda, fiction film, etc.) the Roundtable addresses and connects wide-ranging issues such as: the gaze from above and below in colonial-era ethnographic film; the depiction of migration in the Far Right’s rhetoric; representations of fears and fetishisms towards Others in Federico Fellini’s work; and the exploitation of the colonial past in the Italy–Libya Bilateral Agreements on migration.
Building on postcolonial historian and anthropologist Ann Laura Stoler’s definition of the colonial archive as a ‘site of knowledge production’ and a ‘repository of codified beliefs’ in Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense (2009: 97), the discussants conceive the archive as a multi-layered, collective repository of aspiration, dominance, desire, self-aggrandizement and fear through which the development of society’s self-image can be revealed but also – through a systematic and critical approach to the (visual) archive of coloniality – contested.
Based on the analysis of visual cultures (photographs, news footage, advertisements, propaganda, fiction film, etc.) the Roundtable addresses and connects wide-ranging issues such as: the gaze from above and below in colonial-era ethnographic film; the depiction of migration in the Far Right’s rhetoric; representations of fears and fetishisms towards Others in Federico Fellini’s work; and the exploitation of the colonial past in the Italy–Libya Bilateral Agreements on migration.
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This article focuses on the discourse of 'italianità' as a 'cultural text' in particular Somali diasporic communities in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands.
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Through a case study of literature written in Dutch by authors who were born (and raised) in the Horn of Africa, this article offers an analysis of the academic and critical context surrounding the problematic notion of 'migrant... more
Through a case study of literature written in Dutch by authors who were born (and raised) in the Horn of Africa, this article offers an analysis of the academic and critical context surrounding the problematic notion of 'migrant literature' (migrantenliteratuur) used by Dutch publicists and critics to describe writers in the Dutch language with a cultural background from outside of the borders of the 'Werstern World'.
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Appeared in "Architecture in Asmara. Colonial Origin and Postcolonial Experiences", ed. Peter Volgger and Stefan Graf. Insbruck: DOM Publishers, 2017, pp. 316-325.
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The writers of the Horn of Africa have developed in the last decades an important literature, which is characterized by a series of features, like the variety of the languages and the important participation of the diaspora. The main... more
The writers of the Horn of Africa have developed in the last decades an important literature, which is characterized by a series of features, like the variety of the languages and the important participation of the diaspora. The main concern of the book analyses the situation of this literature today, to highlight its main tendencies concerning the choice of the language and its consequences on writing, as well as the interaction between this literature and contemporary History as well as the personal life of the authors. The book is a comprehensive analysis of the literatures of the Horn of Africa, including colonialism, migration, multilingualism and multiculturalism.
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Bookchapter in: Emma Bond, Guido Bonsaver and Federico Faloppa (ed.), 'Destination Italy. Representing Migration in Contemporary Media and Narrative', Oxford, Peter Lang (series Italian Modernity), 2015, pp. 271-286
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The poetry of Somali-Dutch artist Ahmed Magare brings us to the Somali-Dutch community in Birmingham, UK. In the shape of a short story cycle, we hear various voices sharing their stories of migrating in and through Somalia, the... more
The poetry of Somali-Dutch artist Ahmed Magare brings us to the Somali-Dutch community in Birmingham, UK. In the shape of a short story cycle, we hear various voices sharing their stories of migrating in and through Somalia, the Netherlands, England, and possibly back to Somalia.
The specific Dutch-Somali-English identity of Ayaan, Abdinasir, Abdi-Dani, and many others, tells us about transnational experiences of war, lost family members, asylum, issues of racial profiling, and trauma, as well as the binding elements of Islam, Somali food, business, and sharing the same citizenship and languages. It also shows us the vibrant community of Small Heath, Birmingham, a place and narration that connects these people of various backgrounds, genders, and ages.
We have created an online platform on https://africaisyou.com/, and the documentary can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGclY45vEqw&app=desktop.
Copyrights B-roll B Productions,
Linde Luijnenburg, Ahmed Magare, Dennis Mulder, Anna van Winden
The specific Dutch-Somali-English identity of Ayaan, Abdinasir, Abdi-Dani, and many others, tells us about transnational experiences of war, lost family members, asylum, issues of racial profiling, and trauma, as well as the binding elements of Islam, Somali food, business, and sharing the same citizenship and languages. It also shows us the vibrant community of Small Heath, Birmingham, a place and narration that connects these people of various backgrounds, genders, and ages.
We have created an online platform on https://africaisyou.com/, and the documentary can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGclY45vEqw&app=desktop.
Copyrights B-roll B Productions,
Linde Luijnenburg, Ahmed Magare, Dennis Mulder, Anna van Winden
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Review of: Clocking Out: The Machinery of Life in 1960s Italian Cinema, Karen Pinkus (2020)Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 157 pp.,ISBN 978-1-51790-854-6, p/bk, £18.99
Research Interests: Cognitive Science, German Literature, Film Studies, Italian Studies, Film Genre, and 17 moreNarrative theory (Languages And Linguistics), Italian Literature, Julio Cortázar, Genre Theory, Narrative Theory, 20th Century Italian Literature, Short story (Literature), Migrant and Diasporic Literature, Emotion in literature, Argentine Literature, Literature and cognition, Fiction Novels And Short Stories, Argentinean Literature, Literary Genres, Short story cycles and sequences, Episode Film, and Emotions In Literature
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CALL FOR PAPERS The Short Story Cycle: Circling Around a Genre? University of Warwick, 6 February 2016 Deadline for submission: 15 September, 2015 Confirmed Key-note speakers: Professor Bill Gray (University of Chichester),... more
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Short Story Cycle: Circling Around a Genre?
University of Warwick, 6 February 2016
Deadline for submission: 15 September, 2015
Confirmed Key-note speakers: Professor Bill Gray (University of Chichester), Professor Arthur Graesser (Memphis, Oxford)
Conference website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/ssc/
The success of recent Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro, the movie Wild Tales, the podcast This American Life and the event the Moth shows the wide-ranging popularity of the short story cycle in modern media.
To reflect the ‘open’ nature of the form, our conference will start from a working hypothesis (rather than a strict definition): a short story cycle in whatever form or medium, seems to be constru(ct)ed as a collection of stories, presented as a whole but without an explicit narrative frame.
Traditionally, the short story cycle finds its raison d’être in oral culture. Undoubtedly, the legacy of oral culture proved to be a foundation for other areas of cultural expression, such as cinema, performance art, and modern media.
Since the eighteenth century, the novel has occupied the role of dominant genre in western literary culture. The short story cycle seems to find itself in a grey area, less well defined, but at the same time possibly less constrained. The anthology film is an example of how the same mechanism that is at the basis of the short story cycle can be productive in other media as well. This is also true in the case of radio programs or podcasts. Due to modern technology, new forms of media have made new forms of cultural expression possible, such as Twitter, Facebook, Internet forums and YouTube, all of which can be said to have brought to the surface shorter, more dialogical, more ‘spoken’ forms of (written as well as visual) communication. This begs the question whether the short story cycle, which seems to have gained in popularity in recent years, thrives in a specific social or historical context.
The structural issues inherent in short story cycles also raise questions of a mathematical, hermeneutical and neurological nature. Could we, for instance, come up with mathematical patterns that can help us gain insight into narratological structures and social functions of the genre? Can we find neurological explanations for its appeal to both readers and writers? The short story cycle seems to productively use the tensions between continuity and discontinuity, the structuring impulse and inevitable digression.
We envisage the conference itself as a short story cycle with the open ended circularity of hermeneutics: different disciplines, backgrounds and approaches revolve around one theme, providing a meaningful yet not rigid, premeditated structure.
Please submit by 15 September a paper title, 300-word abstract and a 300-word curriculum vitae to Elio Baldi (e.a.baldi@warwick.ac.uk) and Linde Luijnenburg (l.m.e.luijnenburg@warwick.ac.uk)
The Short Story Cycle: Circling Around a Genre?
University of Warwick, 6 February 2016
Deadline for submission: 15 September, 2015
Confirmed Key-note speakers: Professor Bill Gray (University of Chichester), Professor Arthur Graesser (Memphis, Oxford)
Conference website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/ssc/
The success of recent Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro, the movie Wild Tales, the podcast This American Life and the event the Moth shows the wide-ranging popularity of the short story cycle in modern media.
To reflect the ‘open’ nature of the form, our conference will start from a working hypothesis (rather than a strict definition): a short story cycle in whatever form or medium, seems to be constru(ct)ed as a collection of stories, presented as a whole but without an explicit narrative frame.
Traditionally, the short story cycle finds its raison d’être in oral culture. Undoubtedly, the legacy of oral culture proved to be a foundation for other areas of cultural expression, such as cinema, performance art, and modern media.
Since the eighteenth century, the novel has occupied the role of dominant genre in western literary culture. The short story cycle seems to find itself in a grey area, less well defined, but at the same time possibly less constrained. The anthology film is an example of how the same mechanism that is at the basis of the short story cycle can be productive in other media as well. This is also true in the case of radio programs or podcasts. Due to modern technology, new forms of media have made new forms of cultural expression possible, such as Twitter, Facebook, Internet forums and YouTube, all of which can be said to have brought to the surface shorter, more dialogical, more ‘spoken’ forms of (written as well as visual) communication. This begs the question whether the short story cycle, which seems to have gained in popularity in recent years, thrives in a specific social or historical context.
The structural issues inherent in short story cycles also raise questions of a mathematical, hermeneutical and neurological nature. Could we, for instance, come up with mathematical patterns that can help us gain insight into narratological structures and social functions of the genre? Can we find neurological explanations for its appeal to both readers and writers? The short story cycle seems to productively use the tensions between continuity and discontinuity, the structuring impulse and inevitable digression.
We envisage the conference itself as a short story cycle with the open ended circularity of hermeneutics: different disciplines, backgrounds and approaches revolve around one theme, providing a meaningful yet not rigid, premeditated structure.
Please submit by 15 September a paper title, 300-word abstract and a 300-word curriculum vitae to Elio Baldi (e.a.baldi@warwick.ac.uk) and Linde Luijnenburg (l.m.e.luijnenburg@warwick.ac.uk)
Research Interests:
In the debate surrounding the possible displacement of Italian Fascism and an accompanying denial of memories of colonisation, some scholars assume that Italian filmmakers concentrated with few (predominantly auterurist) exceptions on the... more
In the debate surrounding the possible displacement of Italian Fascism and an accompanying denial of memories of colonisation, some scholars assume that Italian filmmakers concentrated with few (predominantly auterurist) exceptions on the former colonised (countries) only after ca. 1980, a narrative which keeps alive two myths: that of a ‘backwards Italy’, and that of the italiani brava gente.
Analyses of four commedie all’italiana suggest otherwise: In this study, I centralise several portrayals of characters that I identify as Black Others, in which we could recognise an embodiment of the former colonised. Physically and/or behaviourally contrasted to characters that are presented as italiani medi, these characters are marked as different from ‘Italians’ – illustrating italiani medi’s attempt to present themselves as white. I use this binary as a heuristic tool in order to unravel underlying patterns of binary oppositions that reconfirm prejudices and stereotypes stemming from the colonial period and its accompanying narratives, present in the Italian society at the time of the making of the films, many of which echoing in our current society.
The connection between the four films (1952-1968/73) makes way for a continuous dialogue surrounding constructions of italianità and several forms of o/Otherness, as portrayed through the comedic approach of the grotesque. The object of our ridicule turns out to be not a presumed Black Other in the minstrel tradition, but the character of the italiano medio, who continuously demonstrates a desperate need to construct out a physical Other from the imagined community of Italy; through the latter’s eyes, italiani medi can exist. As such, they are denaturalised as the norm. In every next film, the character identifiable as the Black Other gains in agency, in the end, framing, and dominating, the narrative of the italiano medio.
Analyses of four commedie all’italiana suggest otherwise: In this study, I centralise several portrayals of characters that I identify as Black Others, in which we could recognise an embodiment of the former colonised. Physically and/or behaviourally contrasted to characters that are presented as italiani medi, these characters are marked as different from ‘Italians’ – illustrating italiani medi’s attempt to present themselves as white. I use this binary as a heuristic tool in order to unravel underlying patterns of binary oppositions that reconfirm prejudices and stereotypes stemming from the colonial period and its accompanying narratives, present in the Italian society at the time of the making of the films, many of which echoing in our current society.
The connection between the four films (1952-1968/73) makes way for a continuous dialogue surrounding constructions of italianità and several forms of o/Otherness, as portrayed through the comedic approach of the grotesque. The object of our ridicule turns out to be not a presumed Black Other in the minstrel tradition, but the character of the italiano medio, who continuously demonstrates a desperate need to construct out a physical Other from the imagined community of Italy; through the latter’s eyes, italiani medi can exist. As such, they are denaturalised as the norm. In every next film, the character identifiable as the Black Other gains in agency, in the end, framing, and dominating, the narrative of the italiano medio.