The project
From the origins of cinema to the present day, screen stars have engaged—at times boldly—with self-narration, publishing autobiographies or public diaries in print or online; with journalistic practice, curating columns in illustrated magazines and newspapers; and with more overtly literary pursuits, releasing novels, poetry, memoirs, and so forth. What they have produced is a vast archipelago of writings almost entirely ignored or overlooked by both Film Studies and literary studies. DaMA therefore proposes the first analysis and mapping of the varied forms of writing practiced by actresses that make up the corpus of divagrafie (Rizzarelli 2017).
From a methodological perspective, building on well-established studies of the multiple articulations of stardom, the project aims to carry out an interdisciplinary investigation, one able to grapple with non-canonical textual objects that bring into relation literary language, performative dimensions, film imagery, and collective imagination.
In terms of broader social impact, DaMA seeks to highlight the presence and role of actress-writers within publishing practices, contributing to the advancement of Women’s Studies and to the promotion of a culture of difference—something which, today more than ever, appears essential in order to overcome the gender gap and the broader inequalities that afflict the country.
The project unfolds in three phases: surveying and collecting texts produced by Italian actresses; analyzing these materials through interdisciplinary approaches; and presenting them through digital mapping (the DIVAGRAFIE web platform).
- Acting performance and stardom in relation to the intellectual dimension of the star persona;
- fictional writings;
- Self writings;
- writings of various kinds published in periodicals, from illustrated magazines to the web.”
Starting from the perspective of the various branches of film studies, DaMA also aims to unsettle disciplinary boundaries by adopting methodologies drawn in particular from literary criticism and theory, performance studies, and cultural studies. The divagrafie further allow new insights into the study of Italian cinema and film consumption, as they are texts that move across film, literary forms, popular publishing, and new media.
From a historical point of view, the forms and genres identified by Maria Rizzarelli have re-emerged over time with significant variations, especially in relation to the social transformations following the movements of 1968 and the 1970s. From the 1980s onwards—between the so-called ‘riflusso’ era and the subsequent rise of Berlusconism, between generalist television first and, later, the advent of digital media—Italian film actresses have engaged with new ways of constructing their star image. To book publications and appearances in magazines and illustrated periodicals have been added new forms of textuality, still largely unexplored, which call for attention to the diverse writing horizons opened up by the web and by various 2.0 platforms.
The words of the actresses—their different and often overlooked presence within public discourse, whether through literary forms, publishing, or new media—offer an unexpected and fertile vantage point on film production and consumption, on the terrain of journalism and literature, and more broadly on the cultural and social history of the country.
L’Unità di ricerca dell’Università di Sassari si occupa delle DIVAGRAFIE in relazione agli studi sul divismo (Stardom e Performance Studies) e sulle autobiografie femminili. Concreti oggetti di studio sono le autobiografie delle attrici, vale a dire quella tipologia di pubblicazioni edite in volume che mescolano storie di vita e di cinema declinate in prima persona. Indagate anche in una prospettiva storica, le autobiografie delle attrici ci consegnano racconti del cinema (e della storia del Paese) da punti di vista desueti e non banali, attraverso i quali è possibile immaginare un altro genere di storia rispetto alle narrazioni canoniche.
L’Unità di ricerca dell’Università Catania si dedica in maniera specifica della dimensione letteraria delle DIVAGRAFIE, tentando un affondo teorico sulle tipologie testuali e sulle categorie critiche sul versante delle scritture finzionali. Da un lato, dunque, si punta a costruire una riflessione teorica sul “doppio talento” delle attrici che scrivono, provando ad estendere tale categoria, formulata nel campo degli studi di cultura visuale, alla relazione fra letteratura e performance per verificarne la fecondità ermeneutica. In particolare l’Unità di ricerca focalizza l’attività di studio sulle attrici-romanziere, ossia su quelle che hanno sperimentato modelli finzionali, invadendo a tutti gli effetti i confini del campo letterario.
L’Unità di ricerca della Università di Napoli Federico II ha il compito di indagare lo scenario più contemporaneo delle DIVAGRAFIE, con particolare attenzione agli ultimi decenni, analizzando le diverse tipologie dei contributi delle attrici, dalle pubblicazioni in volume a quelle periodiche, dalla carta stampata al Web. Le oscillazioni editoriali sono da considerarsi come spie di più ampi fenomeni legati all’industria e all’immaginario cinematografico, ma anche alla storia sociale del Paese. Lo scenario contemporaneo presenta, infine, un avvicendarsi di celebrities che richiede l’elaborazione di modalità di analisi e metodologie specifiche, anche per affrontare il modo in cui la star persona può costruirsi e raccontarsi attraverso il Web.
