Erminia Passannanti

Senior Seminar – Paper: Erminia Passannanti The Academy, St Clare’s (13/11/2000) Passion, Sin, and the Dissolution of the Flesh The title of my paper is “Passion, sin and the dissolution of the flesh.” By “dissolution of the flesh,” I intend the physical decay following either an illness or a state of moral atrophy. An equally apt title would have been The Pleasures and Terrors of Imagination. I discuss these themes based on a critical appreciation of the Gothic story The Monk by Lewis and the modernist novel The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce. I am not, of course, attempting to lecture on “the pleasures and tortures of imagination,” as I am sure you all have your own expertise in this field. I would merely like to offer some reflections on the theme of love and death central to these Senior Seminars. Before approaching the plot of The Monk , it is necessary to consider the etymology of the word “passion,” which originates from the agony of Christ on the cross, refe...

"Seated at my desk" Seated at my desk, facing a vast northern sky, occasionally crowded with air balloons shaped like a pineapple, a strawberry, a carrot, a roll of film—but more often stripped of all that—relishing the sporadic presence of a few clouds, timid birds, and fresh breezes. Emptiness, its daily reassuring feature. Across my garden, half-hidden behind a row of young, shady pines, lies a bowling club. On summer Saturdays, old men and women, dressed in immaculate white uniforms, gather there like laughing angels; some of their postures remain bold and straight. I feel content for them but take no interest in their games. Not so for Pico, my Tommy cat: cats have far more sophisticated psychologies. There he sits, all white, in his spotless fur, at the edge of the bowling ground, watching the matches and feeling part of that candidness. Further down, a soothing landscape of bare hills stretches seemingly without end. Here, all responsibilities have been suspended. It h...

   Poesia perla Pace (2003) [A poem for peace] "Shifting front" Fresh from beating his challenger, I see a young man blessed with ash. Displaced labourers are sweating through double shifts, holding the red and black flag of resistance. In line for food, unrobbed of their spirit, they speak words that I discern. All languages know that the place of poetry is where men gather. I sit here and wait for meaning to be poured into my bowl. Other hands will stretch. The blue sky will not endure. I must walk past a rebel bullet hole in my trailer wall every day to go back home and not notice it. The pipeline disappears beyond the slum.. A cratered road shows me the way into the swamp, silently. Erminia Passannanti 27 February 2003 --------------------------------- Traduzione in Italiano Una poesia per la pace "Frontiera mobile" Fresco dall’avere sconfitto il suo rivale, vedo un giovane benedetto di cenere. Operai sfollati sud...

Due identità a confronto:  il dilemma della compatibilità autoriale tra “Shakspere” (nome anagrafico) e “Shake-Speare” (pseudonimo “Scuoti-Lancia”)  Erminia Passannanti  1.  2. Figura 1. Presunto ritratto di William Shakspere Figura 2. Vero Ritratto del 17simo Conte di Oxford, Edward De Vere (1550-1604) (15) Due identità a confronto: il dilemma della compatibilità autoriale tra "Shakspere" (nome anagrafico) e "Shake-Speare" (pseudonimo "Scuoti-Lancia"

  Edward de Vere e la questione dell’autorialità di Shakespeare: una rilettura oxfordiana Edward De vere in un ritratto dal vivo dell-epoca elisabetti ana  e in una riproduzione scultorea contemporanea  Sinossi Questo saggio esamina la possibilità che Edward de Vere, XVII conte di Oxford, possa essere stato l’autore delle opere tradizionalmente attribuite a William Shakespeare. Viene analizzata la formazione umanistica di Oxford e la sua padronanza di più lingue, compatibili con la sofisticazione linguistica e classica del canone. Nelle liriche dei Sonnets , il poeta, pur affrontando soggetti ritenuti scabrosi e licenziosi, lascia comunque trasparire la propria vera identità. Questa si manifesta non soltanto attraverso i riflessi autobiografici delle esperienze evocate nei testi, ma soprattutto mediante la singolarità del linguaggio poetico, che diviene il segno più autentico e inconfondibile del suo io creativo. La presente analisi, pur nella sua brevità, riflette inoltr...