A Milano ce sta a nebbia. The construction of the North-South divide in contemporary Italian cinema

School of Arts, Culture and Languages Research Seminar Series

Guest Speaker: Dr Myriam Mereu - University of Cagliari

Abstract

What are the discursive practices and the stereotypes mostly applied and conveyed by Italian cinema in the narration of the North-South dualism? And which are the genres that better portray this cultural and social divide? 21st century Italian cinema has produced several emblematic films that show the architecture of such a complex contrast between the two geographical poles, playing with the traditionally most established clichés – economically developed North vs. underdeveloped South; global North vs. local South – and amplifying the discrepancies even further. The representation of places (northern cities and industrial areas vs. southern villages, countryside and seascapes), the use of dialects and regional varieties of Italian that clearly define the origins of actors/characters and the characterization of the individuals by means of cultural and behavioural stereotypes are some of the most prominent elements that allow us to analyse the North-South relation portrayed in the films produced over the last fifteen years (since 2006). As I am particularly interested in observing how the linguistic choices – reflected on titles, anthroponyms, toponyms, languages spoken – and other identity-related topics shape the construction of the North-South divide, I will adopt a “lexical” methodology (based on De Gaetano 2014-15) which will highlight the most remarkable features exhibited by nearly all the titles of the corpus: displacement, evaporation, food, genre/gender, landscape, language, love, religion.

Biography

Myriam Mereu holds a doctoral degree in Philology and Literary Studies from the University of Cagliari. She is Adjunct Professor of Television and Digital Media in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cagliari. Among her main research interests are the study of languages and dialects spoken in Italian films and tv series; the role assigned to landscape and spaces in feature films and documentaries; Italian “cinema of the real”; the relationship between cinema and literature; the introduction of cinema as an academic discipline in Italian universities. She has published numerous essays and articles in academic journals