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In questo articolo cerco di mostrare le qualità iconotestuali dell’Alfabeto apocalittico di Edoardo Sanguineti e Enrico Baj, collocandolo all’interno di una operazione multimediale, che fuoriesce dai confini dell’oggetto-libro, e ragionando sul dialogo intertestuale con la tradizione iconica dell’alfabeto figurato, sulla funzione della performance come caratteristica enunciativa e teatrale dell’iconotesto, sul ruolo della mnemotecnica nella poetica del libro.

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The contribution suggests a lecture of Nicola Pugliese’s novel Malacqua. Quattro giorni di pioggia nella città di Napoli in attesa che si verifichi un accadimento straordinario, in which we find a catastrophic natural event that puts a strain on the city from both the material and the cultural- psychological points of view. It tries, at least, to deal with the text from three points of view: the frirst one is the theory of the fantastic, because of the supernatural atmosphere that surrounds the catastrophe; the second one is that of the literary-anthropological studies about the representation of the apocalypse; the last one is the thougt of the waiting/expectation as a typical narrative theme of contemporary writing. Pugliese’s novel didn’t turn out to be a speech aimed to the representation of the apocalyptic instant, that is to say ‘detector of the disaster’. On the contrary it has proven to be a speech designed to the expectation of this ‘extraordinary event’ that can shake from the foundations each perceptive-cognitive category.

Dennis Perry defines the apocalypse as the breaking up of the predictable universe: the world as we know it starts collapsing, and so does the scale of values everyone relies on. Apocalypse is therefore a massive change of customs, of parameters, of language. These are the very same changes Boccaccio depicted in his collection of novellas: those of a world that was dealing with a plague pandemic during a crucial moment of transition. By using textual evidence, with a particular focus on The Walking Dead – both Robert Kirkman's comic book (2003–present) and Frank Darabont's TV series (2010–present) – I show that defining the Decameron as the secular archetype of post-apocalyptic fiction is not a stretch, and that the theme of social reconstruction is of primary importance in Boccaccio's book, as much as it is crucial in modern apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic literature and cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What we are witnessing in the present time in human history, in the 2020's, is a vortex of intersecting pandemics - jolting revelations that are unfolding with a terrific energy and force - so much so that we cannot ignore them or escape them. These include the world-wide pandemics of racism, COVID-19 and climate change. This paper argues that all of these swirling pandemics are manifestations of the archetype of the apocalypse, which is constellating now in a very powerful way. Any one of these phenomena could swallow humanity whole as a species. Together they represent a seemingly overwhelming challenge for us to meet over the next century of life on earth. If humanity cannot meet the challenge of these combined negative forces, it could simply perish. A multi-layered intersecting set of challenges such as this has never yet occurred in human history. We must therefore be very alert to what is going on, and as to how we can consciously mediate these threats, both individually and collectively. It also presents an unprecedented opportunity for humanity to evolve and grow psychologically both individually and collectively, nationally and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerning the Portail Royal of Chartres: Historiography and Iconography This article aims to survey the historiography on the three sculpted tympanums of the Portail Royal of Chartres Cathedral, which represents an essential context of the early Gothic. From the contribution of Hénault (1876) to the fine-tuning of Christe (2013), Angheben (2017) and Berné (2018), the studies have encountered many difficulties, especially concerning the central and left tympanums. Scholars faced a debate full of articulations and clarifications, from Emile Mâle (1948) to Adolf Katzenellenbogen (1959), from Willibald Sauerländer (1972 and 1984) to Margot Fassler (1993 and 2010), from Anne Prache (1993 and 2000) to Eliane Vergnolle (2008), from Roland Halfen (2001) to Till Evers (2011 and 2012), from Yves Christe (2013) to Marcello Angheben (2017). The attempts to recognise in the left tympanum a subject other than the Ascension (Van der Meule 1981, Fassler 1993) were unsuccessful, and Fassler herself then changed her position. More singular, until recently, is the substantial misunderstanding of the iconography of the central tympanum, which in no way can assume eschatological connotations. It is instead a present vision of Christ's majesty, and the Apostles with books and rotuli do not appear as assessors of the Last Judgement, but rather as entrusted with the mission of evangelisation: they represent the earthly Church that must complete the mission in this world (Mk 16, Mt 24). An Author's contribution on this tympanum is being published.

Il saggio si propone di considerare la ricorrenza del tema apocalittico nell'opera di Nanni Balestrini, in relazione alla poliedrica e inarrestabile natura "movimentista" della sua azione (testuale, critica, e nell'ambito dell'organizzazione culturale). Da un punto di vista "antagonista", il saggio si riferisce, tra le altre cose, alla stagione de L’orda d’oro, e allo stesso progetto editoriale del libro (pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1988); nonché alla controversa esperienza della rivista Quindici (1967-1969).

Recensione di Scaffai, Niccolò. Letteratura e ecologia. Forme e temi di una relazione narrativa. Carocci, 2017. Review of Scaffai, Niccolò. Letteratura e ecologia. Forme e temi di una relazione narrativa. Carocci, 2017.

Boys and young men more frequently live out aspects of their psychic and social alienation online. This paper explores some of the risks and dangers that can arise from retreats into the two-dimensional world of cyberspace. It focuses more specifically on videogaming called MOBA, multi-player online battle arena games, in which players point and shoot at others. A case example emphasizes the clinical problems emerging from violent fantasies that seek a false form of containment in cyberspace. Themes of destructive fantasizing are further amplified through images of apocalypse, which are often prevalent in combat arena videogames. Textual sources from the Book of Revelation offer possible understanding for various elements of destructiveness as it appears in vulnerable male psyches. Therapeutic contact that combines a relational, containing approach and a broadly spiritual and soulful perspective can provide a path to healing such violent splits within the psyches of boys and young men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of late antique art commonly and uncritically accept that the Revelation provided the source for late antique church decoration. They rarely discuss the extent to which this text served as a basis for the vivid iconographies typical of late antique ecclesiastical décor. This paper explores how the imagery of Revelation impacted on late antique mosaic programs, considering as a crucial case study the triumphal arch of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome and, particularly, the motif of precious stones and jewels so frequent on several elements of the decoration. The latter also appears on a cornice, a jeweled band which later spread in the art of the whole empire, both in church and -- what is less known -- secular contexts. This motif will be explored first in a visual perspective and then defining its value in the culture of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the Apocalypse of Saint John the Theologian, a Byzantine apocalypse that can be dated in the early 8th century. Its narrative structure, due to the presence of formal elements and contents belonging to different literary genres, witnesses to the transformation processes of the literary genre of the apocalypses. The present contribution is therefore proposed as a "case study" for a better understanding of such processes. This work was certainly conceived by its author as a hypertext of the canonical Apocalypse of John. It describes the events of the end of the world, using both narrative elements typical of the literary tradition of Jewish and Christian apocalypses and eschatological topics distinctive of Byzantine apocalypses. The revelation is here framed into a pattern of questions asked by the apostle John and answers given by Christ's heavenly voice: this fits the literary genre erotapokriseis then used in several fields of knowledge. The author of this apocalypse clearly knows some Byzantine collections of erotapokriseis and draws on them for material concerning mainly the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional approaches to apocalyptic literature, which developed out of the study of Second-Temple apocalypses, do not translate well to the investigation of apocalyptic writings in later periods. The generic approach of John J. Collins is contraindicated in eras and cultures where formal apocalypses are less common, while Christopher Rowland's definition of "apocalyptic" as the revelation of heavenly mysteries is too imprecise. Other such approaches prove similarly unsuitable or inappropriate. The apocalyptic worldview, however, offers a powerful diagnostic tool that is also sensitive to the evidence at the local and global levels. A case in point is late-antique apocalyptic speculation. Examining the evidence through the lens of the worldview expands the concept of "apocalyptic" in late antiquity, identifies its chronological boundaries, and, most importantly, reveals its highly distinctive character. The evidence demonstrates that late-antique apocalypticism spans the period from the second half of the second century to the fifth century ce. It is characterised by two features that distinguish it from the apocalyptic speculation of the Second-Temple period which preceded it and the "common mediaeval apocalyptic tradition" which followed. These features are inter-related, since they are organic products of a common social terrain. (1) The composition of "historical" type apocalyptic texts almost entirely ceased in both Judaism and Christianity after the first century ce. In Judaism, the catastrophic failure of three revolts against Rome, culminating in the Bar Kokhba rebellion of 132-136, quenched overt apocalyptic speculation of all types for the next 500 years. (2) In late-antique Christianity, the focus of apocalyptic literature shifted from the "historical" to the "otherworldly" type, with a corresponding emphasis on personal eschatology. The shift is witnessed in both the patristic authors and in stand-alone texts such as the Apocalypse of Paul. The expectation for the singular and universal end of time did not disappear, since it is fundamental to the apocalyptic worldview. But it was largely sublimated to other concerns, including speculation on the heavenly and infernal realms, the fate of the soul after death, the means to eschatological salvation, and the nature of evil and its influence on humanity. Some writers, such as Tertullian and Augustine, even attempted to spiritualize or denature literalist speculation about the end. The emphasis on otherworldly concerns and personal transformation during this period is witnessed also in the Manichean literature, which is apocalyptic, and in the gnostic worldview, which is not. The character of late-antique apocalypticism might be a reflection of the general tenor of late Imperial Roman society as a whole, which might also explain the popularity of gnostic, Manichean, and neo-Platonic ideas during the same centuries. The series of crises in the fourth and early fifth centuries that culminated in the sacks of Rome and the withdrawal of Imperial authority in the West also marked the twilight of late-antique apocalypticism and the dawn of the common mediaeval tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genre of 4 Ezra is complicated by the formal diversity between the dialogues and the visions, but the different literary forms are not merely juxtaposed. They are arranged to reflect the visionary's progress from agonized skeptic to mediator of revelation. The features that give the book its inner coherence are precisely the features that align it with the apocalyptic genre. The dialogues are subordinated to the revelation, first in the angelic discourses and then more effectively in the visions. The apocalypse views the problems of the present sub specie aeternitatis, not by means of philosophical reasoning but by imaginative vision. It is this transcendent vision of human destiny that is constitutive of the genre apocalypse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feminine imagery of the Book of Revelation has been the object of numerous studies. However, the connection between the Woman of Rv 12 and the City-Bride that closes the book is rarely highlighted. Through the plot of the story, the semantic and the intertextuality aspects show that it is a symbolic image (in two parts) that reveals the identity of the Church during the transition from the present situation of tribulation to salvific fulfillment, where the meaning of the divine project of history dwells. The text's interpretation made by the ecclesial subject consists of a process of identification through which the community is attracted towards what has been revealed through its own performative power. In this perspective it can be said that in the final liturgical dialogue through the Spouse there is actually an invocation of the parusia of the Lord. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lo studio verifica la presenza di un ipotesto antropologico nel romanzo di Morante, a partire da un nucleo analitico di impostazione metodologica attorno a una casistica di diagnosi psicopatologica, a sua volta sorgiva delle teorie demartiniane sulla crisi della cultura e sul suo conseguente riassorbimento mediante operazioni rituali, quali la letteratura mostra di essere nella fattispecie del racconto e della simbologia mitologica.

Nel Seicento barocco di area cattolica, le restrizioni dell'Indice alla diffusione di testi biblici in volgare spinsero i predicatori a ricercare nuove forme di oratoria sacra. In ambito domenicano, la retorica del pulpito restò statica e ancorata alla ricca tradizione dell'Ordine. Fa eccezione fr. Maurizio De Gregorio da Cammarata, Sacrae Theologiae magister, letterato e noto collezionista, organizzatore a Napoli di una delle prime Wunderkammer d'Italia. Nel 1615, Fr. Maurizio diede alle stampe un trattato di retorica sacra: Il Condottiero dei Predicatori (1615), ripubblicato da un suo confratello nel 1627 e suddiviso in otto trattati. Il ritrovamento di un volume del Seicento, intitolato Trattato 9 de Condottiere dei Predicatori, fornisce l'opportunità di accostare ancora meglio il metodo formativo per predicatori di De Gregorio, fondato sulla divulgazione della Sacra Scrittura e su una tecnica retorica, che consiglia di comporre discorsi che si avvalgono del segno iconico e della parola, combinati insieme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis to be verified in this work is that José Donoso proposes and constructs in El obsceno pájaro de la noche, by means of an accurate use of narrative strategies, an apocalyptic vision of the individual world, as represented by the narrator Mudito, as well as of the social and political context of Chile in the 60s, represented by the more general conflict between power and marginalization. This vision takes its proper center in the spatial dimensions of the characters, by means of two topoi: the house and the body. The progressive disintegration of bodies and places takes control of the narrative and weakens it to the point of excluding any trace of persistence. In the continuous movement between antithesis and connection to the Revelation of St. John the Divine, a poetics of the residual is developed that puts into crisis the power of the word and the power of narration.

The recent history of Argentina seems to be pitted with sudden and premature deaths, projecting into myth that 'special' life in which mystery – the nebulous nature of origins and / or death, the tormented odyssey of the corpse – often accompanies the personage, enabling the process of mystifying: the funeral becomes a crucial point in the 'unveiling' of a destiny - «muor giovane colui ch’al cielo è caro» - but also a tragic event in itself, the end of an era and a dream ,if not of the world. Carlos Gardel and Eva Duarte are such archetypes. Focusing in particular on Evita, the literature has emphasized the post-mortem as a place of confrontation between Good and Evil, but also between History and Myth: the funeral that provokes apocalyptic scenes, the embalming of a body as a model of nationhood, the theft of the corpse as erasure of history. Several Argentine writers - Tizziani, Posse, Dujovne Ortiz, Walsh, Martínez, Borges, Bellone, Viñas, Perlongher, Szichman, Copi - are confronted with the apocalyptic dimension of death and the post-mortem of Evita.

This essay analyses Demônios, a short story by the Brazilian writer Aluísio Azevedo published in 1893 in a collection bearing the same title. The text – unrelated to the naturalistic production of the author – describes a catastrophic nightmare, a carioca apocalypse reverting the evolutionary process and affecting the only two survivors, whose lives revert until they dissolve themselves in an aerial entity floating in the space. While trying to fit such an extravagant work within the production of its author, I will also explore the connection between the end of the world narrated by Azevedo as a positivist and a republican and the events involving the Brazilian republic in the early 1890s.

This paper focuses on the different representations of the Apocalypse in one of the literary genre which has greatly increased in Latin America during the last decades: the “microficción” or flash fiction. In this very short texts the Apocalypse is taken as a central theme in its various meanings: in the greek one, as “revelation of the truth”, in the biblical eschatological one, concerning the ultimate destiny of mankind, or in the sense that it has acquired in modern times, as “narrative of the end”, generally related to a catastrophic or dystopic imagery. Through the close reading of a wide number of texts written by Latin American contemporary authors such as Raúl Brasca, Rosalba Campra, Rogelio Guedea, Ana María Shua and others, we intend to point out in which way the apocalyptic inspiration, due to the peculiar construction of the flash fiction -that requires a special connection between the incipit and the ending, because of its reduced dimensions- works at the same time on two levels: the semantic one and the formal one. In particular, we'll dwell upon that special effect of revelation of a hidden truth caused by the surprise ending so distinctive of this genre.

The collapse of social and political order provoked by the 1910 Mexican Revolution and the Cristero war (1926-1934) are two historical moments that saw the breakdown of the religious world’s certainty. Apart from the institutional conflict between Catholic church and Mexican State, the people experienced the threat of a hecatomb, the deprivation of religious protection, known and alive since the period of the Spanish conquest and colonization. This lack of a space for the community and the impossibility of expressing religious rites fed an apocalyptic vision of the world. Not being allowed to access places of worship under the government of Plutarco Elías Calles unleashed the violent reaction of a profoundly religious people, which took arms to defend what it considered fundamental: its own ancestral tradition and a sacred space which it had been denied. In the midst of the silences which official historiography maintained during the years following this unpleasant chapter of Mexican history, Cristero literature has constructed its own vision, an apocalyptic vision which breaks down the temporal and social boundaries within which it has been studied. The present work concentrates on the analysis of the Cristero novel which represents the Cristiada from different perspectives, one of which underlines the redeeming nature of the battle favoring the use of the apocalyptic metaphor of martyrdom.

In 1906 the Argentinian author Leopoldo Lugones published Las fuerzas extranas. In this collection of short stories Lugones places his interests in spiritism and science at the service of fiction and modernist prose. Lugones furthermore embraces aesthetically the theosophic doctrine envisaging a quest for absolute perfection through a process of renewal and reincarnation of the individual; it is within this framework that a number of apocalyptic episodes found in Las fuerzas extrañas are to be interpreted, pointing as they do in an intertextual game to specific Biblical passages which illustrate the theosophic stand of the author.

I romanzi Dissipatio H. G. e The Purple Cloud, entrambi tra le prime testimonianze del tema dell’ “ultimo uomo sulla Terra” nelle rispettive letterature, mostrano un ampio uso dell’ironia, contrariamente a quanto diverrà canonico nel genere apocalittico-distopico. Attraverso un confronto tra elementi dei due romanzi che non trovano riscontro in altre opere del genere, il presente contributo intende analizzare la dinamica tra la rappresentazione ironica della contemporaneità come distopia, l’evento catastrofico e la successiva rifondazione della civiltà su basi utopiche. Tra le tematiche comuni alle due opere fondamentale è il rapporto di conservazione e monumentizzazione dei resti del passato che si rovescia parodicamente in un’ansia di distruzione che i protagonisti mostrano verso ogni testimonianza della storia umana e in particolar modo verso gli oggetti della civiltà moderna. La critica ironica verso la contemporaneità si converte quindi nei due autori nella volontà psicologica di riepilogare e poi «parentesizzare», attraverso una narrazione apocalittica, ogni aspetto della cultura contemporanea, per poter in seguito riattivare una progettualità utopica.

Il volume curato da Gino Frezza, frutto del lavoro condotto dal Laboratorio di Analisi degli Audiovisivi dell’Università di Salerno, raccoglie i contributi di diversi studiosi nazionali e internazionali con l’obiettivo di analizzare la poliedricità dell’immaginario contemporaneo sullo zombie, e per farlo mette al centro il fenomeno seriale di The Walking Dead (TWD) creato da Robert Kirkman, ponendo in una prospettiva transdisciplinare le relazioni tra l’intensa metaforologia postumana e apocalittica incarnata dallo zombie e le nuove morfologie del racconto seriale transmediale.

Review of L’Apocalisse postmoderna tra letteratura e cinema. Catastrofi, oggetti, metropoli, corpi by Mirko Lino

This article is a preview of the unabridged publication of the Author's doctoral dissertation entitled, The Drama of Liberty. The Theological Reception of F. M. Dostoevskij S 'The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor '. After an explication of the basis of the rapport between theology and literature, the Author illustrates, through recourse to a vast panorama of bibliographical material, the interdisciplinary and theological-ecumenical reception of this poem found in The Brothers Karamazov. He then analyzes the principal theological commentaries of the Legend, and this yields an initial grouping of elements that point to the richness and depth of the story. On the basis of the biblical citations and allusions contained in the Legend, and in consideration of its various rewrites as well as interpretations of it found in notes introducing the novel and in Dostoevskij's letters, the Author proposes an eschatological-apocalyptic interpretation of the poem so as to draw out its deepest meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze Cormac McCarthy's novel, The Road, and Wong Kar-wai's film, In the Mood for Love, in an attempt to compare Eastern and Western societies. The comparison between the novel and the film – each a product (and a reflection) of Western and Eastern cultures, respectively – should also be traced to the dystopian element of the narrations, conceived as a study of the concept of "otherness": namely, the hypothetical transcendence of one's own cultural limits. This comparative approach aims to connect two seemingly different plots: the novel is apocalyptic science fiction, the film a love story. The common ground between the two pieces and the connection point to dwell upon, however, is the contemplation of ruin: lingering on the contemplation of the downfall, in both works diverts from the core of their narrative. With the space-time continuum thus blocked, a parallel and split reality forms.