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Kafka. Un’introduzione alle politiche del tradurre

Isabella Pezzini — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Kafka reverso: distorting the naturalized

Riccardo Finocchi — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Kafka has the great ability to turn the world upside down, one could say. His most famous story, The Metamorphosis, proposes a reversal of the bodily and psychological vision between the human and the animal, Gregor Samsa lives and sees the world from an animal perspective. Kafka translates the human into the animal, assumes the animal point of view, perhaps in a bizarre way of translating, he seeks in the animal not only the other from himself but also the other in the self. But Kafka's sense of the reverse takes on its most lucid definition in the story The Silence of the Sirens: here there is a game of reversals aimed no longer at ontological/bodily proprioception but at the possibilities of hearing, at the primordial form of sense conveyed by the sounds emitted by the phonatory apparatus. In this story Kafka finds a way to show us, through a reversal between sound (in the sublime form of song) and silence (deafening because misunderstood), the rustle of language (Barthes). Silence, phonetic emptiness, as a reverse of the fullest of articulatory sounds (singing) reverse natural speech.

Intrusion. A look at Franz Kafka’s literary workshop

Francesco Galofaro — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The present paper will show how semiotics can discuss the condition of possibility of philology and genetic critics. The case study consists of some literary exercises by Franz Kafka. A recurring exercise in Kafka’s Diaries consists of rewriting a passage, often extending it with respect to its original version. Greimas’ generative trajectory allows to describe a constant narrative structure, that of intrusion, linking the different fragments. Kafka uses it several times by varying the elements of the semio-discursive level. Starting from this description, it is possible to distinguish different types of semiotic work performed by the enunciator to articulate and coordinate the planes of expression and content. Finally, these rewritings presuppose a dividual model of enunciation, whose subject is split into a pragmatic instance that selects and projects the elements on the level of the phrase and a second judgmental, cognitive instance that criticizes and amends the work of the previous one.

Franz Kafka, or on writing after Terpsichore

Francesco Garbelli — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper, I will contend that Franz Kafka’s use of language primarily follows a choral model. This stylistic choice matters in the context of Kafkian struggle to accomplish the purest expression of being in written form: since Kafka believes that language is bound to produce a false and unsuccessful representation of reality if it rests on defined grammatical uses, he borrows from choral dance a compositional model in order to implement an anti-grammatical fashion to write in, as the only option to make language enact truth. I will claim that a theoretical reconstruction of this model, and a discussion of the semiotic counterparts of its elements, also matters in the context of translation of Kafka’s work. Translating Kafka properly would thus mean to convey the salient traits of his use of German to cope with the choral model, i.e. prosody, figural clusters, and harmony, and the overall tone of sublimity and comedy. Then, it would result in a prudent exercise of the target language, with special attention to its intersemiotic trasmutative relationship to choral gestures.

Evolution or representation? The strange case of an academic report

Gianfranco Marrone — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This essay explores the theoretical propositions regarding the ontological divide between nature and culture as proposed by Philippe Descola, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Bruno Latour and Vinciane Despret’s ethological studies within the framework of semiotics. In particular, it discusses the second generation of zoosemiotics, which challenges previous naturalistic paradigms by adopting an inter-natural approach, through the analysis of Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy”. In Kafka’s text, the transformation of an ape into a human becomes a complex narrative that challenges Darwinian evolution through parody. It is an opportunity to navigate the blurred boundaries between the animal and the human: unlike Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”, where the transition from human to animal is seen, this story is the opposite, with an ape taking on human characteristics while retaining animal instincts. Kafka skilfully creates a regime of belief, challenging perception through an academic yet theatrical lens of an ape’s journey to humanisation and the inherent satire within.

Kafka’s drawings. Somatisations and judgemental caricatures

Tiziana Migliore — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Kafka’s drawings, published in a catalogue raisonné only in 2021, show a recurring element, that is the representation of human silhouettes in motion. This article explores the theme of the relationship between writing and picturing in Kafka and investigates these figures, as they appear in his universe of discourse and for the force of generalisation they have. Kafka’s silhouettes, subjected to gravity, to the others’ judgement, to selfesteem, to the conflicts between duty and will, provides, through a semiotic analysis, a better understanding of the individual and social problem of posture.

Translating the silence: Ulysses by Franz Kafka

Francesca Padovano — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The present study’s aim is to investigate how myth is translated within contemporary literature, particularly within the work of Franz Kafka and his short story entitled The silence of the sirens. Kafka give us two possible interpretations of the character of Ulysses. On the one hand we find a new Ulysses, far from the hero of the Homeric poems. On the other we see a Ulysses who sins of hybris and manage to escape the silence of sirens.
The sirens pretend to sing but make no sound; Ulysses pretends to listen but is actually aware of the sirens' ruse. This fiction within fiction represents a stratagem to get through the Sirens' silence unscathed and raises, at the same time, questions about the nature of truth and fiction of myths and their interpretation in moderncontemporary debate.

The letter is a rope. On translation of life into writing in Franz Kafka’s epistolary

Enrico Palma — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The essay attempts to discuss the concept of existential translation through Kafka’s epistolary writing. In this sense, writing represents the possibility of translating the self into words, which in the letter can be addressed to others, a dynamics that constitutes a solid foothold on which to stand in life. Some of the points of the correspondence that converge with this theme are retraced, with particular reference to the letters to friends and to Milena Jesenská. The basic idea is that Kafka suggested an important aspect of human existence: being connected, protected, supported by the figures of otherness through writing, which at the same time becomes a instrument of self-translation to each other and the possibility of communication and sharing. This is an aspect that is very evident in consideration of the fact that, for Kafka, relationships acquire their authenticity in writing,
so that letter properly becomes the essence of the self transfigured in words.

From a cockroach’s point of view. The metamorphosis of perception in Kafka

Isabella Pezzini — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article offers a reading of the famous tale by Kafka focused on the consequences triggered by the sudden transformation of Gregor Samsa into an insect. This event constitutes the starting point of a shift that involves phases and components of perception both of the self and the world as well as the relations between the inner and the external world, the most elementary awareness and feelings and the most complex ones, which are affective, cognitive and related to interactions, expressed with particular emphasis by the dynamics of the spatial dimension of the story. Two discursive paths intersect above all: on one side, the traveling salesman wakes up with the in the body of a cockroach while his soul is the same as always. He will have to try to become cockroach, that is to assume its perceptions and then, slowly, its tastes, its impressions and any other animal sentiment. At the same time, the becoming of Gregor’s family will be antiphrastic to the one experienced by him: from inept, passive parasites of
their akin, as they are depicted at the beginning of the story, his family members will gradually turn into active bourgeoisies full of projects, rejecting Gregor up to eliminate him: they are the ones dehumanizing themselves, while Gregor refines his sensitivity in suffering, even to the sacrifice.

Returns, metamorphoses and otherness: from Kafka to Murakami, between text and discourse

Bianca Terracciano — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Haruki Murakami, one of the most influential contemporary Japanese writers, weaves numerous intertextual references to Franz Kafka into his works, crafting narratives that explore the tension between the individual and the system, the search for meaning, and the absurd. Winner of the sixth annual Franz Kafka Society Prize in 2006, Murakami shares with the Bohemian author a rhizomatic narrative approach, delving into
becoming and existence. Through a semiotic perspective, deep similarities between the two authors emerge: Murakami resemanticizes Kafka’s style, adapting narrative frameworks he considers effective. This analysis examines the relationship between text and discourse through implicit and explicit references to Kafka in Murakami’s works, seen as the result of cultural translation, reassembling possible worlds. This intricate network goes beyond homage, exploring shared narrative invariants such as actantial roles, thematic figures, and frames that shape their respective universes of meaning.

Kafka in comics. Turbulence as the politics of translation

Paolo Sorrentino — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article explores the semiotic concept of turbulence as a critical tool for analysing both Franz Kafka’s writing and the dynamics of translation. In particular, turbulence is proposed not only as an interpretative key, but also as a possible poetic and political strategy of translation. In support of this hypothesis, the analysis focuses on Kafkesque, the comic strip adaptation of a selection of Kafka's short stories by Eisner Prize-winning author Peter Kuper. The work, which has received numerous awards, was described by the Wall Street Journal as “brilliant” for its ability to preserve and even enhance the Kafkaesque atmosphere. Through the study of the translation of two short stories, the article investigates the significance of this ‘heightened atmosphere’ and its relationship to the translation strategies adopted.

Brands, Museums, Cities. The Case of Fondazione Prada

Alice Giannitrapani — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper explores the relationship between museums, exhibition spaces and urban environment, focusing on the case of the Fondazione Prada exhibition venue in Largo Isarco in Milan. This site, aligning with contemporary consumption trends, presents contemporary artworks within a former distillery repurposed as an exhibition space. The combination of avant-garde architecture, high-profile permanent and temporary
exhibitions, a bar and restaurant designed as standalone destinations, and a carefully orchestrated system of openings and closures in relation to its surroundings has transformed Fondazione Prada into a dynamic space frequented by both locals and tourists. Beyond its cultural appeal, the venue has played a pioneering role in redefining the identity of its neighborhood, catalyzing ongoing urban transformations.

Semiotics and reading

Denis Bertrand — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Maria Amalia Barchiesi, Marcello La Matina, Antonella Nardi, a cura, Arti in traduzione, Milano, Meltemi, 2023 (pp. 292)

Francesca Padovano — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Juan Alonso Aldama, Denis Bertrand e Michel Costantini, a cura, Viande(s). Stéréotypies sémiotiques et inquiétude culturelle, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2024 (pp. 272)

Gianfranco Marrone — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

J. Chapoutot, Le grand récit. Introduction à l’histoire des notre temps, Paris, PUF (pp. 364)

Carlo Campailla — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Antoine Hennion, Passioni: vino e musica, a cura di Emiliano Battistini, Roma, Luca Sossella Editore, 2024 (pp. 256)

Davide Puca — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bruno Latour, I Microbi. Trattato scientifico-politico, ed. rivista a cura di Ilaria Ventura Bordenca, Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2024, (pp. 393)

Paolo Peverini — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Gianfranco Marrone, Della significazione. Testualità, traduzione, culture, Milano, Mimesis, 2024 (pp. 514)

Giorgia Costanzo — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Gianfranco Marrone, Francesco Mangiapane, a cura di, Semiotica del folklore, Palermo, Edizioni Museo Pasqualino, 2023 (pp. 265)

Maurilio Ginex — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sebastian Moreno Barreneche, The Semiotic of the Covid-19 Pandemic, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2024 (pp. 234)

Maria Giulia Franco — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Isabella Pezzini, a cura, Suscettibilità. Retoriche e passioni, Annali del CiSS, n. 4, Milano, Meltemi, 2024 (pp. 185)

Stefano Traini — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000