Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EarthSea (Ecocritical Approach to Land Subsidence in Italy's Po Delta region)
Reporting period: 2023-09-25 to 2025-09-24
EarthSea investigates the ways in which literature and visual media addressed forms of water-soil relationships– with a particular focus on land subsidence – in the context of the Po Delta in Italy. The Po Delta, a significant anthropogenic river delta in Europe, endured a long history of disruptive soil transformations (rising sea levels, land erosion, and subsidence), primarily due to human activities such as natural gas extraction from the 1940s to the early 1960s. From the 1960s to the 1980s, due to previous gas extraction in the Po Delta, the area experienced one of the worst examples of land subsidence in Europe’s history. The project’s overarching aim is to provide a transdisciplinary approach to land subsidence and soil transformations by connecting scientific, cultural, and community-based accounts. In this way, the project examines both the process by which land subsidence and other forms of soil-based disruptions entered public opinion, or conversely, disappeared from the debate. In order to achieve this transdisciplinary representation of land subsidence in the Po Delta, EarthSea followed the following objectives:
1. To collect and analyze literary and visual materials that contributed to shaping the representation of land subsidence and soil transformations in the deltaic area over time;
2. To trace the history of land subsidence through archival work;
3. To investigate the impact of land subsidence on local communities by conducting ethnographic fieldwork in selected areas of the Po Delta;
4. To introduce new concepts that facilitate studying forms of environmental disruption in the Po Delta by integrating scientific research with cultural and ethnographic perspectives.
The project centered on the necessity of approaching the deltaic soil not in isolation, as often pursued by quantitative hydrogeological and geomorphological studies, but as the result of individual and collective stories, where cultural productions, oral histories, and scientific studies intersect or enter into friction.
1. To collect and analyze literary and visual materials that contributed to shaping the representation of land subsidence and soil transformations in the deltaic area over time;
2. To trace the history of land subsidence through archival work;
3. To investigate the impact of land subsidence on local communities by conducting ethnographic fieldwork in selected areas of the Po Delta;
4. To introduce new concepts that facilitate studying forms of environmental disruption in the Po Delta by integrating scientific research with cultural and ethnographic perspectives.
The project centered on the necessity of approaching the deltaic soil not in isolation, as often pursued by quantitative hydrogeological and geomorphological studies, but as the result of individual and collective stories, where cultural productions, oral histories, and scientific studies intersect or enter into friction.
The project's initial phase was held at the University of Oslo, where the researcher collected all available material, including secondary literature and available primary sources (films and TV shows, novels and short stories, and articles). The material was analyzed for direct or indirect references to topics related to land subsidence, land disruption, and water–land dynamics in the Po Delta. A second phase took place in the Po Delta and included archival research and fieldwork. Fieldwork combined qualitative and quantitative methods and engaged the community in Comacchio as well as selected groups from Lagosanto and Porto Viro. The research examined cultural representations set in the area and compared these representations with the perceptions of present-day communities. Archival research at the Po Delta Cinematographic Archive collected new materials related to land management in the Po Delta.
This research resulted in: (1) a mapping of the Po Delta’s history with a focus on forms of soil disruption from 1950 to the present; (2) a comparison among scientific sources, cultural representations of the area, and the histories of local communities; and (3) an in-depth analysis of the points of friction between the historical experience of land subsidence and current perceptions and cultural discourses.
By combining these results, the project’s deliverables and dissemination developed new approaches to understand the disconnect between the delta’s land history and the present community. The scientific publications included two articles, one book chapter and an edited volume, propose new theoretical and methodological concepts that trace how competing narratives of land subsidence developed over time and emphasize the importance of re-historicizing the delta’s past. The dissemination activities—national and international scientific conferences, local events, and film festivals held in the Po Delta—served as a springboard for sharing new findings and discussing the importance of integrating historical knowledge, conveyed through both scientific and cultural discourses, into current and future policies for the Po Delta.
This research resulted in: (1) a mapping of the Po Delta’s history with a focus on forms of soil disruption from 1950 to the present; (2) a comparison among scientific sources, cultural representations of the area, and the histories of local communities; and (3) an in-depth analysis of the points of friction between the historical experience of land subsidence and current perceptions and cultural discourses.
By combining these results, the project’s deliverables and dissemination developed new approaches to understand the disconnect between the delta’s land history and the present community. The scientific publications included two articles, one book chapter and an edited volume, propose new theoretical and methodological concepts that trace how competing narratives of land subsidence developed over time and emphasize the importance of re-historicizing the delta’s past. The dissemination activities—national and international scientific conferences, local events, and film festivals held in the Po Delta—served as a springboard for sharing new findings and discussing the importance of integrating historical knowledge, conveyed through both scientific and cultural discourses, into current and future policies for the Po Delta.
The project advances the state of the art through methodological and research innovations. I developed a transdisciplinary approach to soil management in the Po Delta that integrates historical study, geological methods, ecocriticism, and ethnography. My scientific publications propose ways to combine these methods and introduce the concepts of “frontier,” “stagnation,” and “eco-depression” to address forms of environmental slow violence in the Po Delta in innovative ways. The concept of “frontier” examines how the Po Delta’s amphibious nature was domesticated through agrarian reforms and cultural imaginaries that insisted on separating land from water. The concept of “stagnation” explores how associations between stagnant water and economic stagnation in public debates of the 1950s–60s helped justify reforms that promoted land reclamation. Last, the concept of “eco depression” links economic, emotional, and geological forms of depression to show how recent environmental disruptions have been detached from their historical causes and experienced locally as unresolved grief.
These concepts offer a methodological framework that can be expanded in environmental humanities. The publications also provide the first cultural history of land subsidence in the Po Delta, advancing scholarship in environmental humanities and Italian studies.
These concepts offer a methodological framework that can be expanded in environmental humanities. The publications also provide the first cultural history of land subsidence in the Po Delta, advancing scholarship in environmental humanities and Italian studies.