THE DRSS SERIES

The DRSS (DELC Research Seminar Series) encourages collaboration and coproduction between staff and students across the Department of European Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh. Each series is designed on a transversal exploration of a common theme bringing together participants as teamed guest speakers, respondents, workshop and roundtable leaders, Q&A moderators and event organisers. 

THIS YEAR’S THEME

The theme we have chosen for the DRSS 2021-2022 is Decolonising Minds and Methods. To celebrate the colleagues who have recently joined us, we are inviting them to be our series leaders and help us shape the reflection on the challenges and opportunities that come with a radical rethinking of the ways we operate as educators and learners.

Intermediality | Thursday 10 February, 5:30-6:45pm (Teams)

How can intermediality help us reconsider the borders of specific media forms such as film and literature? How can intermedia processes, such as fusion and expansion of media, become ideological tools and enact discourses of decolonisation? While traditional methods and approaches have focused on the ‘purity’ of form, intermediality foregrounds questions of hybridity by facilitating cross-media and cross-disciplinary exchanges. In this double talk, we will address these questions examining how two Shakespearean tragedies – Othello and Romeo and Juliet – have been appropriated and transposed across media, languages, and cultures by two modern film directors: Pier Paolo Pasolini and Jiří Weiss.

Emanuela Patti will look at Che cosa sono le nuvole? (1968), a short film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello to discuss Pasolini’s use of intermediality as a decolonisation strategy; in turn, Inma Sánchez-García will explore Jiří Weiss’ Romeo, Juliet, and Darkness (1960), a Czechoslovakian adaptation of Romeo and Juliet that was internationally acclaimed upon its release but is now largely forgotten, arguing that the international dimension of Shakespeare on screen still needs sustained attention. By focusing on two non-Anglophone film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, this talk will address not only the vitality of intermediality as a method of research, but also how intermedia strategies can be employed as deconstructing tools for political and ideological purposes.

speakers: Emanuela Patti (DELC-Italian) and Inma Sánchez-García (Intermediality Studies, DELC).
respondents: Gian Maria Annovi (USC) and Julie Sanders (Newcastle University)
round table: Kristen Barrett, Surina Bao, Yamini Char, Rome Godwin, Sirui Xu, Yue Zheng – Graduate Students, Intermediality MSc (DELC)

welcome and moderator: Federica G. Pedriali (DELC-Italian)