*CFP* “’TI HO SENTITO GRIDARE FRANCESCO…' ANNA MAGNANI. ATTRICE, DIVA, ICONA", UNIVERSITÀ DI TORINO

“Ti ho sentito gridare Francesco…”Anna Magnani. Attrice, diva, icona

June 5-6-7 2019

Università di Torino

This conference aims at tackling through a variety of perspective the study of an Italian actress and star, whose iconic work has had a peculiar influence on the history of Italian and international cinema, and on the historical and social imaginary in general.

Her career in areas such as theater, music, and film, has spanned several crucial decades of the XX Century, from the 1930s to the early 1970s, molding the persona of an actress and star whose presencewas instrumental in shaping any context she inhabited, not only through the exceptional quality of her performances, but also through her ability to embody historically and socially situated subjectivities, as in the case of Italian neorealism, of which Anna Magnani is the most recognizable icon.

Through its various sessions and its general design, the conference aims at examining the different issues concerning both the technique and expressiveness of Magnani as an actress, analyzing her performance style and interpretation, and the reception of Magnani's iconic persona within the history of cinema and, more generally, in the context of social and cultural history, with a specific interest in her role in shaping gender dynamics and embodying specific modes of femininity. 

The various perspectives represented in the conference will widen the field of research on Magnani's theater, music, and film performances through the adoption of an intermedial and genetic framework, encompassing her actress, star, and icon personas, and tackling production and fruition processes, and focusing on Magnani's long-lasting influence also beyond the arts.

The three days of the conference will offer an articulation of this framework, but other methods and topics are welcome:

June 5, 2019

• The actress, the performance (body, voice, mimicry, gesture, technique, style, contexts)
• Magnani and theater (training, avanspettacoolo, rivista, varietà, companies, directorship, roles, script, partners, acting, dance)
• Magnani and popular music (interpretations, popular songs, influences on contemporary popular music)
• Magnani and Italian cinema (genres, directors, neorealism, screenplays, partners, production)
• Magnani and international cinema (directors, screenplays, stardom)
• Magnani and television (presence of the diva and actress, format and languages)

June 6, 2019

• Star, character, woman, history, icon (the image, the narrative, the reception in Italy and abroad)
• Magnani's image, her portraits and representations (texts, paratexts, magazines, specialized press, interviews, documentaries in Italy and abroad, photography, painting, popular culture)
• Magnani's narrative (correspondence, letters, fiction and auto-fiction, photo-strips, comics, literature, Magnani and the writers)
• Magnani's body in history and society (the melodramatic and heroic trademarks, public/private, the Roman character and the working class, Italianness and exoticism, reception and circulation in Italy and abroad)
• Magnani's female body, Magnani as a woman's body (roles, stereotypes and counter-stereotypes, hairstyle, outfits, unconventional beauty, sexuality, love stories, maternity, aging, gender effects)

June 7, 2019

• Special session: Studying Anna Magnani: the archives, the sources, the documents, the research networks (in collaboration with AIRSC)
• Magnani in the archive: a tentative map
• Research and projects: takeaways and perspectives
• Towards the foundation of a Magnani permanent research group
• Magnani in an educational perspective: Studying the years of World War II and beyond through the work of the actress (production of a multimedia object by a group of students of the Education and Humanities departments, under the supervision of the conference's organizers).

Organized by Giulia Carluccio, Federica Mazzocchi, Mariapaola Pierini


Organizing committee:

The conference is organized by the Humanities Department (Media, Music, Performance section, and Actor and Star Studies Center) and the Philosophy and Education Department of the University of Torino, in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, AIRSC (Associazione Italianaper le Ricerche di Storia del Cinema), RAI-Teche, Teatro Stabile di Torino, Museo dell’Attore di Genova.


Scientific committee:

Anna Barsotti (Università di Pisa), Louis Bayman (University of Southampton), Lucia Cardone (Università di Sassari), Alessia Cervini (Università di Palermo), Elena Dagrada (Università di Milano), Caterina D’Amico, Silvia D’Amico Bendicò, Stephen Gundle (University of Warwick), Cristina Jandelli (Università di Firenze), Laura Mariani (Università di Bologna), Giovanna Grignaffini (Università di Bologna), Anna Masecchia (Università di Napoli Federico II), Andrea Minuz (Università di Roma La Sapienza), Emiliano Morreale (Università di Roma La Sapienza)/, /Donatella Orecchia (Università di Roma Tor-Vergata), Francesco Pitassio (Università di Udine), Paolo Noto (Università di Bologna), Stefania Parigi (Università di Roma Tre), Catherine O’Rawe (University of Bristol), Veronica Pravadelli (Università di Roma Tre), Jacqueline Reich (Fordham University New York), Sergio Rigoletto (University of Oregon), Stefania Rimini (Università di Catania), Maria Rizzarelli (Università di Catania), Karl Schoonover (University of Warwick), Pierre Sorlin (Université Paris III), Sergio Toffetti (Museo Nazionale del Cinema).

Fee: € 100 (waived for students and doctoral students)

Deadline for proposals: april 10, 2019

Notification of acceptance: april 17, 2019

Authors should send their proposals (max 2.000 characters, in Italian or English), along with a short bio and five key words to: centroricerche.crad@unito.it