The possessive and the adverbs of place in the Italian comic book: from the research project to the pedagogical use

Since 2013, within the CAER Research Unit, we have been producing corpus of Disney comics (Topolino) and Italian Graphic Novels. A longitudinal study (30s, 90s, 21st Century) allows us to compare the Italian standard and the various regional achievements. The comic introduces a new class of written language that reproduces the speech and alters the classic dichotomy written vs. spoken. Dialogue in comics is enriched with oral representations rarely present in literary or print texts. We suggest the results of a diachronic, synchronous and contrastive study of the use of possessive and place adverbs related to demonstrative in the standard systems of Italian and French, validating the hypotheses considered in previous studies. The aim is to propose the physiognomy of the Italian in relation to the explicit and implicit brand of ownership and the most recurring substitution strategies, including the reflexive solution. In fact, what is distinguished is the part of activity that is opposite to passivity: the power of animation will then be at the center of our interest. We also look at the results of the use of place adverbs for demonstrative and propose the hypothesis of an evolutionary movement of the conception of person and space in contemporary Italian. Finally, we present the use of comic book as an inverse pedagogy tool in our Italian language instruction addressed to three-year graduate.

The aim of this paper is to present Japanese comics (manga) and cartoons (anime) with sexual content called hentai. I briefly review some history of Japanese art and culture, in which sexuality has always been a legitimate subject for art and which forms the cultural underpinnings of manga. I summarize the erotic themes and visions of manga with sexual content, including female and male homosexuality (yuri, yaoi), heterosexuality (ecchi, bakunyū/kyonyuu), BDSM (kinbari), transvestitism (futanari), children (lolicon, shotakon). In conclusion, I pose the question of the need to adopt the right perspective to understand the often surprising manifestations of Japanese sexuality.

Lumberjanes and Hilda: Comic Series on Scouts between Ecocriticism and Ecofeminism

Among the forms of children’s literature that deal with the complex relationship between humanity and nature, comics can offer various insights on the topic for boys and girls. In particular, children’s stories have recently revitalized the scout movement, interpreting it through new values related to identity, gender and ecology. This paper will consider two comic book series on scouting, Hilda (Luke Pearson, 2011–2019) and Lumberjanes (Noelle Stevenson, 2014–2020). Both works tell the story of a diverse group of characters involved in scouting activities: the stories, developed in natural settings, portray the growth of young and peculiar characters who, through constant contact with the environment, show a strong respect for both nature and the peer group, in a peaceful and adventurous coexistence with the environment and the different forms of life that inhabit it. The essay aims to develop a first state of the art that highlights new interpretative strands in this literary genre through an ecocritical and ecofeminist lens. The study explores the two works in a comparative perspective, so as to show how comic book narratives can present interesting ecological and egalitarian dynamics, in this case through the experience of scouting.

Daily Life and Some Meanings of the Internet. Visual and Conversational Analysis of a Comic Book Fragment Sent to the All-Polish Sociological Competition “Life in the Internet”

In order to answer the research questions, the visual and conversation analyzes of a part of the selected work of art (a cartoon) were carried out and presented. The work was submitted by a student of an upper-secondary school to the Polish Nationwide Sociological Competition „Life on the Internet” organized by the Institute of Sociology of the University of Economy in Bydgoszcz. The competition had been inspired by the similar undertakings carried out in Poznań by Florian Znaniecki in the beginnings of the 20th century. The project bases on the assumption that the social reality is a creation of constant, everyday interactions taking place between its members and the objects to which social meanings were given. The Internet, still remaining in the phase of social construction, is such an object, too, and the source of meanings for it are the complex interactions between the Internet-users. Therefore, it has been assumed that the users direct their actions towards the object basing on the meaning they have for it. The aim of the paper is to reply to the question of what meanings are socially given to the Internet within the everyday (habitual) social interactions via the text (language), the social actions and the images.