Esta pesquisa surgiu do anseio de ampliar a presença da poesia de Umberto Saba no Brasil. Decidimos, por isso, selecionar e traduzir alguns de seus poemas, usando como critério de escolha o estudo da obra poética do triestino a partir da abordagem mais frequente: a relação entre o sujeito lírico e a cidade de Trieste. Escolhemos esse recorte porque acreditamos que ele possibilita fornecer uma visão abrangente da obra do autor, haja vista que, a partir dessa relação, muitas outras questões importantes para a compreensão de sua poesia podem ser estudadas, em especial aquelas questões engendradas no que denominamos de poética da vida. Com a expressão poética da vida, buscamos evidenciar uma tendência perceptível na poesia de Saba: a abertura para o que ele denomina de calda vita (vida quente), a vida percebida em toda a sua variedade, incluindo os momentos de dor e sofrimento. Nesse percurso, estudamos a relação sujeito/cidade tendo como norte a interpenetração entre a interioridade do sujeito e a matéria do mundo e, a partir daí, estabelecemos a comparação entre alguns traços da poética de Saba e de Baudelaire, mas também de Pascoli, Leopardi e dos Crepusculares. Tratamos também da temática do olhar, do desejo, das pulsões e da memória, as quais perpassam a relação sujeito/cidade. Abordamos ainda os principais aspectos formais que caracterizam a poesia do triestino, como, entre outros, a narratividade e o prosaísmo, os quais estão ligados ao que a crítica denomina realismo de Saba (a representação de cenas, fatos e personagens do cotidiano). / This research arose out of the will of spreading the presence of Umberto Sabas poetry in Brazil. We decided, thus, to select and translate some of his poems, using as a choice criterion the study of the poetical work of the italian poet out of the most frequent approach: the relation between his poetic persona and the city of Trieste. We have chosen this framing because we believe it enables a more embracing view of the work of the writer, since, from that relation, we can study many other important questions that may guide us to the comprehension of his poetry, specially those questions engendered in what we name here poetic of the life. With the expression poetic of the life, we seek to make a trend in Sabas poetry more evident: the openness to what he calls calda vita (warm life), the life realized in all its variety, including those moments of suffer and pain. In such path, we study the relation subject/city having as a north the interrelationship between the inner subject and the world matter, and from then, we establish a comparison among some features of Sabas and Baudelaires poetry, but also Pascolis, Leopardis and the Crepusculares. We also talk about the theme of the visual sense, of the desire, drives and memory, which are intertwined in the relation self/city. We talk, moreover, about the main formal aspects that characterize the poetry of the Italian, as, among others, the narrativity and the prosaicism, which are connected to what the critics call Sabas realism (the representation of scenes, facts and daily characters.)

À quelques exceptions près, dans le canon littéraire italien comme dans la réception que lui réserva la critique, la poésie de Volponi occupe une place secondaire par rapport à sa production narrative. Cela apparaît comme une contradiction, car l’auteur se considérait avant tout comme un poète. Une contradiction qui va de pair avec une biographie fort riche, qui fait de Volponi un homme et un écrivain à mi-chemin entre participation et dissidence, entre ordre et désordre. À la lumière de tout ceci, nous nous sommes interrogé sur la place que Volponi attribue à la poésie, à partir des notions mêmes d’ordre et de désordre : depuis les conquêtes scientifiques du début du XXe siècle ces derniers ne sont plus deux concepts en opposition entre eux, mais les deux faces nécessaires de toute organisation naturelle complexe, y compris humaine. Dès lors, nous avons adopté l’interaction complexe entre ordre et désordre comme clef de lecture de la poésie volponienne. Une complexité que nous avons observée au niveau tout d’abord biographique, d’où émergent les schèmes fondamentaux de la poésie de Volponi qu’on retrouve thématisés au fil de ses livres de poésie, à travers lesquels Volponi montre toujours une volonté claire de construction progressive d’un seul et unique Livre. À cette construction contribuent les outils poétiques empruntés par le poète, car ils varient en fonction de l’organisation qu’ils sont appelés à exprimer. Enfin, nous nous sommes penché sur la réflexion que mène Volponi au sujet de la poésie pour en conclure qu’à ses yeux elle n’est pas un genre littéraire, mais une force créatrice chargée de mettre en relation l’homme et la matière et les hommes entre eux. / Despite a few exceptions, Volponi’s poetry remains in the background as opposed to his narrative production, both in the Italian literary cannon and in the way it was received by critics. This seems to be a contradictory statement because the author considered himself as a poet primarily. This contradiction is inextricably linked to a very rich biography based on a plethora of life experiences and which makes Volponi a man and a writer at a crossroads between participation and dissidence, between order and disorder. I raise thus the question of the status assigned to poetry by Volponi. It was first necessary to redefine the notions of order and disorder to answer it: the scientific achievements of the beginning of the 20th century demonstrated that these two concepts are not antithetic anymore but that they are two necessary sides of any complex natural organization, including the human organization. I chose this complex interaction between order and disorder as a key to reading Volponi’s poetic work. First this complexity is to be found in Volponi’s biography, that shapes the fundamental frameworks of his poetry, frameworks which are then used as topics in each of his poetry books. In these works, the poet always clearly shows his will to elaborate progressively towards the one and only Book. Indeed, the poetic tools resorted to by the poet contribute to this elaboration because they vary according to the organization which they are meant to express. Finally, I tackled the problem of Volponi’s own reflection about poetry which leads him to conclude that poetry is not a literary genre, but a creative strength meant to connect man and matter but also man and man.

Abstract not available

The aim of the study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the migration experiences of the Italian community of Australia, with a case study of the regional Friulan community of Sydney. For the ways in which people identify themselves at different times and in different environments may not always be consistent. The purpose of the study was to add to the exploration of the diversity, cultural variety and richness cultural communities have brought to Australia. The study set out to fulfill an important function in adding to the accounts of the diversity of ethnic groups in Australia, their structure and cultural backgrounds and the values of family members. Since culture is concerned with meaning, there is of course a very close relationship between culture and language, through which kin relationships, obligations and duties are expressed and appropriate behaviour defined. It is that meaning and relationship that led me to investigate the Italian and Friulan communities. The study took on the form of an ethnography enabling me, the researcher, to participate in order to develop an in depth understanding of the experiences of the Italian migrants, in particular the Friulan community. The data was collected by using key informant interviewing. The participants were encouraged to freely reflect on their past and present experiences to enable them to make a comparative analysis of their experiences in Australia and in their country of origin. This enabled the migrants to take on the role of culturally knowledgeable informants supplying information which was significant to them and which reflected their perceptions of their life experiences. The data has been faithfully recorded to represent the immigrant's point of view. The study revealed that many of the first and second-generation are highly involved with their Italian heritage and operate comfortably with a bicultural ethnic identity. The second generation have reconstructed the Italian-Australian family, thus changing the Italian community and providing links between the Italian, the Anglo-Australian and the other ethnic communities. Ethnicity is continually negotiated and is a constant source of transformation for people of immigrant background. If Italian-Australians continue to associate, both through family and cultural practices then the Italian-Australian identity will continue. The big question is what will happen in the third and fourth Italian-Australian generation. It is here that the question of ethnic and national identity becomes highly relevant. Cultural diversity presents challenging issues for Australia: what it means to be an Australian; the relationship between national and personal identities; identifying and working in both the cohesive and divisive forces in a multicultural society; and the form and flavour of a future republic. None of these issues are new, yet all are of immediate concern, and the symbolic importance of the approach of the twenty-first century invests them with particular meaning.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the announcement by the leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), Achille Occhetto, that the time had come to shed its communist name and identity inaugurated a decade of uncertainty and change for the party. As the Party of the Democratic Left (PDS), it faced the challenge of developing its post-communist identity amid the upheaval in the Italian political system that followed the Tangentopoli (Bribesville) scandal. The transition to the 'Second Republic', spurred by widespread anti-party sentiment, brought new electoral systems and forms of coalition-making, a changed array of allies and opponents, a personalisation of certain political roles, and changed relationships between the national and local dimensions of politics. In 2000, now called the Left Democrats (DS), the party was the largest component in the nationally governing coalition and even provided the prime minister. Yet the rise to the pinnacle of power had been accompanied by decreasing electoral support. In over ten years of post-communist life, the party had failed to achieve the real breakthrough hoped for by Occhetto: to unite the Italian left in a single party that dominated government or opposition, as in other Western European countries. The primary aim of this thesis is to contribute to understanding the party's fortunes through a case study of the way the turbulent years from 1989 to 2000 were experienced in the Venetian provincial federation. This decade of change has so far not been examined from a local perspective, yet local studies were particularly fruitful in the analysis of the PCI, as they allowed exploration of the ways party debates were perceived, and decisions made at national level were implemented, 'on the ground' in specific contexts. I have not chosen the Venetian federation as a microcosm of the experience in the periphery as a whole but as an interesting and relevant component of the full picture. The Venetian party enjoyed greatly increased responsibilities in government at sub-national levels in the second half of the 1990s, due to successful alliance strategies, but decreasing electoral support. I seek to explain the local party's electoral and power outcomes in terms of a combination of external and internal factors: on one hand, the opportunities and constraints presented by the changing environment; and, on the other, internal dynamics that hampered the party in responding to those challenges. In particular I stress the significance of the crisis precipitated by Occhetto's proposal to transform the party in 1989 and the constraints on the local party's legitimacy and visibility in the competitive environment that developed in the Second Republic. I attribute these constraints to the mixed electoral systems operating at sub-national levels, intra-coalition rivalry, and a striking case of an individual enjoying personal power and influence in the local political system. As a secondary theme, I analyse change in the party type that accompanied these outcomes, in light of theories on general trends in party transformations in Western Europe. I identify rapid changes in the local party's aims, functions and organisational roles and relationships, and in its relationship with the national leadership. I argue that this process of change, consistent with the transformation of a mass party into an electorally focused party, was accelerated at local level by the changing competitive environment and the sudden increase in government responsibilities. The introduction in chapter 1 sets the party's story in context and outlines the aims and argument of the thesis. Chapter 2 introduces the local case study in light of existing analyses of the party's development, the tradition of local studies of the PCI, and theories on party types and transformations. The central chapters are dedicated to the case study, which is based largely on interviews with members of the federation's leadership groups in various periods. The organisation of the material reflects my division of the federation's story into distinct phases, each reflecting a stage in the development of both the party's alliance strategy and the local political system. In the concluding chapter, I discuss the implications of the case study findings for the party as a whole and make a claim for the continuing validity of local studies of Italian political parties.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the current linguistic situation of the Venetian language (a minority language spoken in the northeastern Italian region of Veneto) and its relationship with Italian, the official language of Italy. This is a study of Venetian people and how they are reacting to the changes occurring to their language. To research the situation, I traveled to Italy, to the region of Veneto. My objective was to investigate and determine whether or not Venetian is, in fact, a language. If it is, is it on the verge of disappearing, or is there a chance that it might be maintained? Will Venetians shift completely from speaking their vernaculars to using only Italian? To gather data, I used qualitative research including participant observation, open-ended unstructured interviews with consultants, as well as internet and archival research in order to be able to glimpse the situation as seen by those who live it. Because I speak Italian and have relatives in the region, I was allowed to take part in many situations where I was able to observe familial language use, as well as the public attitudes concerning Venetian. I analyzed the Venetian situation by examining the ways in which we look at the words "language" and "dialect" from the linguistic, political and sociolinguistic perspectives, I looked at the situation through anthropological and socio-psychological theories of language choice, and how we understand the indicators of language loss, ethnicity, ethnic group strategies, and changes in identity as they relate to language shift. Although Venetian is a dialect in the political sense, subordinate to the official language, Italian, I found that the Venetian language is not derived from Italian, and so does not fit the linguistic definition of a dialect. However, it has been labeled a dialect and is understood as such by most Italians, including Venetians. This labelization has encouraged negative stereotyping and a measure of disuse. However, the recent secessionist movement has highlighted some of the linguistic issues, and brought more attention to the possibility of preserving Venetian. I recommend changes that alter the negative attitudes towards Venetian and other vernaculars, changes that include focusing on encouraging new and innovative utilization of local languages (art, literature and plays, etc.) and establishing and implementing curricula in the educational system that emphasizes the regional history and its contribution to the present day Italy. Changes such as those mentioned should encourage more acceptance of others and encourage the usage of local languages as well as increase peoples' pride in their ethnic heritage. / Graduation date: 2003

An exploration of the similarities and differences between two major works of the writer Italo Calvino, this thesis delves into the use of historical background and fable as allegory for 1945-1956 Italy.

Originally presented as the author's thesis--Universität Osnabrück, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 240-248).

This study is a comparative analysis of the syntax of adverbials in Chinese and Italian in the context of an anti-symmetric view of clause structure. Through a detailed investigation of selected sentence adverbs, aspect adverbs and manner adverbs, various similarities and differences between Italian and Chinese are identified. Chinese adverbials are mostly pre-verbal (with a few exceptions) while in Italian they can also appear after the verb. Such differences are plausibly accounted for through the verb-movement analysis: the Italian verb raises, overtly, to the left of adverbs, probably as a consequence of the rich inflectional morphology, while in Chinese the verb cannot overtly raise out of VP, due to the scarce inflectional morphology of the language. The traditional analysis of adverbs as adjuncts, coupled with directionality parameters, is not needed in order to explain the facts. The study shows that when adverbs such as the Italian adverb presto and the corresponding Chinese adverb kuai (‘quickly’) appear in different syntactic positions, they may receive different interpretations. This fact cannot be properly captured by the adjunct analysis, but it is predicted by the F-Spec hypothesis, according to which each class of adverbs occupies a specific syntactic position within the functional projections above VP. The double analysis of Italian bene (‘well’), which can be an adverb but can also (in specific cases) be interpreted as a predicate, is a clear example in support of the functional vs. predicational nature of adverbs, a fact also noted in the predicational analysis of the Chinese post-verbal V-deconstructions. Finally, Italian adverbs like stranamente (‘oddly’) are ambiguous between a clausal and a manner reading when appearing in post-verbal / pre-object position, while in Chinese the corresponding adverb qiguai shows the same ambiguity in the pre-verbal position. This, again, is associated with the possibility in Italian, but not in Chinese, for the verb to raise to the left of adverbs. Overall, the study supports the view that several word order and interpretative properties which differ between languages can be reduced to a few abstract syntactic principles. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy