Sumários

Last session

29 Maio 2025, 14:00 • Chiara Nifosi

Correction of final exam and final remarks.

Final exam

27 Maio 2025, 14:00 • Chiara Nifosi

Final exam.

Continuation of "La Captive". Anne Carson's book The Albertine Workout: Albertine / Ariane resisting complete possession by avoiding the control of Marcel / Simon. Ariane's sleep and physical possession. Ariane as Aphrodite: her relationship to water and the sea (cf. Proust's depiction of Albertine). The balcony scene as a moment of exclusion for Simon, who assists without being able to intervene in the sung dialogue between the two women. Ariane and Simon: two different musical themes. The final scene and Ariane's death by water: a final act of resistance?

Illustration of the rubric for the exam.

Chantal Akerman, "La Captive"

20 Maio 2025, 14:00 • Chiara Nifosi

Chantal Akerman's adaptation of Proust. Introduction of the general plot in which La Prisonnière is embedded: the structure of the novel, the main events of the "roman d'Albertine". Remarks on Proust's subjectivism and his theory of love as inseparable from jealousy. Introduction to Akerman's experimental cinema ("Jeanne Dielman" and the representation of women's domestic labor). A feminist perspective in "La Captive"?

The structure of the movie and the obsessive nature of Simon's feeling for Ariane. Ariane as mere surface: her inaccessibility and Simon's inability to penetrate her image. An impossible dream of fusion with her and the subsequent need to know where she is at any moment. Lesbianism as an inaccessible form of otherness.

Marguerite Duras, "L'amant"

15 Maio 2025, 14:00 • Chiara Nifosi

Continuation of "L'amant": the impossibility to write your own life story. Colonization and Duras' family history / status: imbalances and structure of the relationship between the two lovers. Gender and sexuality: the voicing of female sexuality, pleasure, and desire, both in relation to the lover and the character of Hélène. Summary on the second part of the course so far: renewal of traditional forms of narrative both in cinema and literature; questioning of the most basic principles of plot composition; the reliability of the narrator in question as well; the relationship between collective and personal storytelling; the agency of women in embodying collective perspectives.