Luncheon and Seminar for graduate students and faculty
Thursday, October 8. Folwell Hall 113, 11:00 A.M.-1 P.M.
Free Use/Monasticism/Digital Media
In The Highest Poverty (2013), the philosopher Giorgio Agamben sheds light on a surprising and perplexing affinity between contemporary digital culture and the Franciscan school of monasticism by revisiting the medieval theological controversy Alessia Ricciardi surrounding the notion of free use. In our discussion, we will consider the implications of Agamben’s thinking for the present-day problem of freely shared digital media and intellectual property. For this event only, please RSVP to hanza016@umn.edu regarding your participation in the luncheon and seminar on October 8 no later than 12 P.M. on Monday, October 5.
Public Lecture
Friday, October 9. Nicholson 135, 2:30 P.M.-5:00 P.M.
Red Desert: Woman as a Form of Life
This lecture focuses on the strategic role assigned to the character of Giuliana, who is played by Monica Vitti, in Michelangelo Antonioni’s landmark film, Red Desert (1964). Confronted by the signs of ecological crisis and unsettling technological change in the film’s setting of Ravenna, Giuliana undertakes a search for new ethical alternatives to the prevailing ways of thinking and being. We will assess her responses to her predicament with the help of the poet Anne Carson’s brilliant lyrical engagements with Antonioni’s masterpiece.
Both events are sponsored with the support of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, MIMS Graduate Group, and the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Italian Cultural Center.
Alessia Ricciardi is a Professor in the French and Italian Department and the Comparative Literary Studies Program at Northwestern Universitiy. Her first book, The Ends of Mourning, was published by Stanford University Press in 2003 and won the MLA's 2004 Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literature. Her Alessia Ricciardi second book, After La Dolce Vita: A Cultural Prehistory of Berlusconi's Italy, was published by Stanford in 2012 and won the MLA’s 2013 Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies. Currently, Professor Ricciardi is writing her third book, which is titled Woman as a Form of Life: Gender Politics in Antonioni's Films. Her essays have appeared in PMLA, Modernism/Modernity, Modern Language Notes, diacritics, and The Romanic Review, among other publications. Her most recent articles are about works by Pasolini, Antonioni, Foucault, Deleuze, and Agamben.
