The Mediterranean in Italian fiction and film

Looking back on a millennia-long history, the Mediterranean has always been fluid in its formation, a transit zone and a cultural crossroads. This complex situation is particularly explored in the literature and films of the various Mediterranean countries. The aim of the research project proposed is to examine representations of the Mediterranean in Italian literature and cinema from the late 19th century to the present. The research is interested in questions of narrative strategies used by the authors and filmmakers in their representations to depict, conceptualize, reflect on and configure the Mediterranean (Sea). In addition, potentials of theoretical text and film analysis can be used to describe the contribution of fiction to Mediterranean discourse formation and its critical reflection. The research body of the project comprises five chapters and will begin with a review of Italian Verismo in the late 19th century: Giovanni Vergas narratives and selected texts by the writer and successful journalist Matilde Serao will be examined from a Mediterranean research perspective. While Verga describes the mythical-archaic world of Sicily, Serao primarily addresses urban space, especially the social problems of the Mediterranean city of Naples. The second main part is interested in critically tracing the construction of a southern Mediterranean identity in Italian discourse across media towards the end of the 19th century; insofar as opera was the most important popular genre in Italy in the 19th century, it will be investigated, on the basis of Italian opera reviews and in particular on Aida, how imaginations of the Mediterranean were constructed in media discourses of the time. Another focus of the research project is dedicated to Italian Mediterranean poetry in the first half of the 20th century and deals with questions of Mediterranean discourse formation and its forms of staging in the lyric poetry by Carducci and D`Annunzio on the one hand and by Saba, Montale and Ungaretti on the other. Finally, further considerations focus on more contemporary narrative texts, especially the Mediterranean novels by Fausta Cialente and Fabrizia Ramondino, as well as films staging Mediterranean port cities and passages between the mainland and the waters or urban and maritime spaces. One of the most innovative aspects of the project is the interweaving of fiction and Mediterranean theory. In addition to the general question of what literature and cinema can contribute to theoretical thinking conceptualizing the Mediterranean, it is about to examine literary and filmic stagings of various discourses on the Mediterranean with regard to constants and changes. The combination of literary texts and films as well as the diachronic perspective make it possible to open up new areas in research, as no similarly wide-ranging study on literary and cinematic representations of the Mediterranean has been published in the Italian context so far.

The main point of my project is an investigation of representations of the Mediterranean (Sea) in Italian literature and cinema from the late 19th century to the present. The focus is on the question of how the Mediterranean (Sea) is fictionally staged as a motif and/or metaphor; this includes topics such as travel, imagination, perception of space and migration. In addition, the different political charges of Mediterranean discourses in literature and film are explored regarding constants and changes. My research also extends to questions about the narrative strategies used by writers and filmmakers to stage their stories set in the Mediterranean. Finally, it is about to show how some of the fiction conveys more complex answers in the sense of a "counternarrative" of Italian modernity from a Mediterranean perspective. The project's five main areas have achieved the following results, among others: first, Verga's narratives about the mythical-archaic world of Sicily, part of Italian Verismo, were studied. In his novel "I Malavoglia" (1881), Verga seemed to have anticipated one of the great themes of modernity - the question of life as exile or rather as a longing for lost values and securities; and it is the Mediterranean Sea that is staged as a metaphor for modernity. The second chapter focused on Verdi's opera "Aida", whose political and cultural context included not only Italy, but also imperialist Europe and Egypt, which is why the history of the opera's creation was initially examined in the context of transmediterranean relations. Moreover, I try to show that the voices, melodies and stories almost unheard or silenced in dominant discourses can possibly find expression in music. Another project focus was dedicated to Mediterranean poetry and critically explored forms of staging of the Mediterranean (Sea) by authors as different as Pascoli and D'Annunzio on the one hand, and Saba, Montale and Ungaretti on the other. The project's results confirm the problematic role of poets like Pascoli and D'Annunzio, who contributed significantly to the formation of a national consensus in Italy regarding colonial ambitions in the southern Mediterranean. The general discourse on the Mediterranean seems to result largely from poetry, which is often permeated by the Mediterranean topography and points to similarities across the Mediterranean. Finally, the focus was on research into the Mediterranean novels by Fausta Cialente as well as films representing port cities and Mediterranean passages. Hardly noticed by the literary public, Cialente lived in Alexandria from 1921 to 1947 and highlighted the contradictions of this Mediterranean city in her novels, which mostly unfold family stories spanning several generations. The long period of investigation as well as the combination of literary texts and films and their interweaving with Mediterranean theory contribute to advancing the research field.