https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22555 2026-07-19T03:51:59Z 2026-07-19T03:51:59Z Lauri Lucente, Gloria https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148106 2026-07-16T10:21:55Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Between archive and screen. Languages of the unsayable in the case of Sabina Spielrein Authors: Lauri Lucente, Gloria Abstract: In 1977, a remarkable archival discovery revealed a haunting tale of sexual repression and transgression, of rivalry and deceit, of Eros and Thanatos, a story so richly layered in ambiguity that even fiction would struggle to conjure a more compelling narrative. A carton in the basement of the Former Institute of Psychology in Geneva containing Sabina Spielrein’s diaries and her extensive correspondence with Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud ignited what Derrida would term “archive fever”, or “le mal d’archive”, and the quest for lost or concealed documents feverishly began. [extract]

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Bonnici, Glen https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/146776 2026-05-25T12:15:41Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Metareferenzialità cinematografica e ritualità sacra in Habemus Papam (Nanni Moretti,2011) e A classic horror story (Roberto De Feo e Paolo Strippoli, 2021) Authors: Bonnici, Glen Abstract: L’articolo analizza il rapporto tra metareferenzialità cinematografica e ritualità sacra nel cinema italiano contemporaneo attraverso Habemus Papam (Nanni Moretti, 2011) e A Classic Horror Story (Roberto De Feo, Paolo Strippoli, 2021). Muovendo dai concetti di sacro, rito e ierofania elaborati da Mircea Eliade e dalla teoria della metareferenzialità di Werner Wolf, lo studio adotta un approccio qualitativo e comparativo che integra osservazione audiovisiva e analisi testuale. I due film – metareferenziali in varia misura – vengono letti come esempi di due modelli diversi di ritualità: uno istituzionale e religioso, l’altro costruito come performance spettacolare attraverso i codici del folk horror e del metacinema. In entrambi i casi, il rito non produce una reale manifestazione del sacro, ma si rivela simulacro, segno della crisi contemporanea delle forme rituali e della perdita del mysterium sacro. Il cinema, riflettendo su se stesso, emerge così come spazio di indagine sul rapporto tra rappresentazione, sacralità e spettacolo, mostrando al contempo l’erosione del proprio potere simbolico e della propria capacità di generare ierofania.; The article examines the relationship between cinematic metareference and sacred rituality in contemporary Italian cinema through Habemus Papam (Nanni Moretti, 2011) and A Classic Horror Story (Roberto De Feo, Paolo Strippoli, 2021). Drawing on Mircea Eliade’s concepts of the sacred, ritual and hierophany, together with Werner Wolf’s theory of metareference, the study adopts a qualitative and comparative approach combining audiovisual observation and textual analysis. The two films – metareferential to varying degrees – are interpreted as representing different models of rituality: one institutional and religious, the other constructed as a performative spectacle through the codes of folk horror and metacinema. In both cases, the ritual fails to produce an authentic manifestation of the sacred and instead appears as simulacrum, embodying the contemporary crisis of ritual forms and the loss of the sacred mysterium. By reflecting on itself, cinema becomes a site of inquiry into representation, sacredness and spectacle, while simultaneously revealing the erosion of its symbolic power and its ability to generate hierophany

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Bonnici, Glen https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/142951 2026-01-21T14:59:53Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Introducing adaptation studies at postgraduate level through American Psycho Authors: Bonnici, Glen Abstract: This article outlines a pedagogical model for introducing adaptation studies at postgraduate level through a case study of Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000). It argues for beginning the unit with a complex example that resists the conventional question of fidelity, encouraging students to approach adaptation as transformation rather than imitation. The lecture sequence moves from the linguistic and structural features of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel (1991) to the film’s cinematic translation of irony, ambiguity and detachment. This progression allows students to grasp how shifts in medium reshape meaning and form. The case demonstrates that Harron’s adaptation exposes the assumptions of fidelity discourse by reinterpreting, rather than reproducing, the novel’s critique of surface culture. The lecture uses this contrast to develop the theoretical vocabulary of adaptation, drawing mostly on Genette’s transtextuality, but also on Hutcheon’s notion of adaptation as process and Stam’s attention to medium specificity. It further examines the film’s horizontal influences, including its dialogue with other genres, visual media and contemporary reception, to show how adaptations participate in wider cultural networks rather than isolated text–source relations. Through this approach, students learn to analyse adaptations as products of cultural negotiation, shaped by historical distance, culture and form. The American Psycho case study thus serves as a methodological framework for postgraduate teaching that combines close reading, theoretical reflection and historical awareness to frame adaptation as an ongoing transformation rather than a single exercise.

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Bonnici, Glen https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/142948 2026-01-21T14:41:34Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Re-examining the past and envisioning the future of Italian cinema and media : Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies – fourth international conference, the American University of Rome, 13–15 June 2024 Authors: Bonnici, Glen Abstract: The fourth international conference of the Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies (JICMS) was held at The American University of Rome on 13–15 June 2024. The co-organizers were Flavia Laviosa (Wellesley College) and Catherine Ramsey-Portolano (The American University of Rome) and this year’s title was Re-examining the Past and Envisioning the Future of Italian Cinema and Media. Participants from five continents and various countries, with diverse academic backgrounds, including film studies, Italian studies, media studies, social sciences and industry practice, came together for three days of stimulating discussions and productive exchanges of ideas and perspectives. The keynote address ‘Non-fiction filmmaking in contemporary Italy’ was delivered by Áine O’Healy from Loyola Marymount University. The conference was further enriched by the presence of directors Paolo Benvenuti, Monica Guerritore and Liliana Cavani. This report provides an overview of the conference. [excerpt]

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z