The project, which secured a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF ), aims to study the personal archives of the three authors, as well as to investigate the iconotextual dimension of their works and their cultural impact. The goal is to understand how Italian studies contribute to inter-artistic comparisons in the 20th century. The research, conducted in collaboration with prestigious institutions such as the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence and Cambridge Digital Humanities, integrates methods from Digital Humanities and Visual Culture Studies.
Professor Maggi, is it correct to say that Visual Culture Studies has recently been experiencing great success? In your opinion, is there a paradigm shift that is taking away the prestige of text over images?
"Visual Culture Studies is undoubtedly one of the most lively and fruitful research fields within the current humanities. The study of ’scopic regimes’, understood as the interweaving of images (also and above all’in their material dimension), devices and gazes, allows us to understand and interpret the presence of the visual in its complexity. From this point of view, Visual Culture Studies provide privileged access to the study of contemporary ’civilisation of images’. In this respect, however, some myths need to be debunked. As early as 1961, Roland Barthes warned that the so-called ’civilisation of images’ is actually a civilisation of what we now call ’icontexts’, meaning images that always circulate alongside, so to speak, verbal elements. This diagnosis is supported by the hybrid nature of modern web communication, especially through the reliance on images created by artificial intelligence that depend on linguistic prompts. The main contribution of Visual Culture Studies consists precisely in this: not in the affirmation of a generic dominance of images over words, but in the realisation that the two dimensions are always and on various levels intertwined. As W.J.T. Mitchell wrote, ’all media are mixed media’; this is particularly true for the literary medium, which relies on writing and thus on a technology that involves both the phonic aspect of words and the visual one".
In your opinion, what are the main contributions that Italian literary criticism has made to the context of inter-artistic comparison? How does it differ from similar movements developed in other countries?
"First of all, it should be pointed out that inter-artistic comparative studies in the strict sense were established after the First World War, with a legacy that includes the ancient tradition of ut pictura poësis, the Renaissance tradition of comparison, and works such as Lessing’s Laocoon. The new era first emerged with the desire to use art history methods in literary studies. This later developed into the goal of understanding the characteristics of a cultural era through the comparison of the various arts that define it. In this diverse landscape of studies, Italian research, particularly studies conducted since World War II, is characterised first and foremost by its focus on the medial dimension of interactions between the arts, i.e. on their material, ideological and institutional conditioning; and also by its recognition of the original intermedial nature of every cultural expression. From this point of view, Italian comparative literature studies (which include significant contributions by Swiss Italian-speaking scholars, first and foremost Giovanni Pozzi) constitute a branch of particular relevance in the history of contemporary studies of visual culture and intermediality, which deserves to be studied both to understand current directions and to point out research questions and solutions that may have remained in the shadows in the current landscape."
What are the reasons that led you to focus your research on the three figures, Mario Praz, Giovanni Pozzi and Lea Ritter Santini?
"The case studies selected for the project were chosen for their comprehensive examination in inter-artistic comparison and their significant impact within it. To these two reasons, two additional ones should be added. Firstly, the recent accessibility of these scholars’ archives, held respectively at the Primoli Foundation in Rome, the Salita dei Frati Library in Lugano and the Sapegno Foundation in Morgex (Italy). Secondly, the international roots and popularity of their works, which particularly concerns the Anglo-Saxon world for Praz, the multilingual Swiss world for Pozzi and the Germanic world for Ritter Santini. The history of inter-artistic comparative studies in Italian serves as a ’pilot project’ for the international scope of this type of research, which is more relevant today than ever."
Professor Cirnigliaro, in what way can the digital humanities contribute to writing the history of Italian inter-artistic comparison?
"Studies on the history of Italian inter-artistic comparison offer a privileged vantage point for investigating the emergence of ’iconotexts’ in different research fields by applying digital and intermedial methods. The integration of words and images in these studies aims to engage and transform traditional research methodologies, fostering collaboration between experts, departments, and institutions, and creating innovative systems for analysis and communication. Using network analysis methodologies, we can leverage correspondences and archival bibliographic references to map the relationships between authors within their theoretical contexts and critical frameworks. Additionally, this approach allows us to explore the visual culture of these authors and assess the global and interdisciplinary impact of their works. In addition, recognising recurring patterns through Computer Vision allows for the exploration of the iconotextual dimension of critical texts. This includes examining repeated configurations in the mise en page as well as the interplay between images and words in photo-texts. Finally, digital diagrammatic annotation technologies provide new insights into the iconotextual aspect of complex critical texts that incorporate sketches and annotations."
