Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EcoSF (The Ecology of Italian Science Fiction)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2023-09-30
EcoSF investigates the prominence and distinctive representation of ecological issues in Italian science fiction (1952-2019). Through an extended comparative analysis, the research shows how science fiction is able to imagine and conceptualise the impact of human activities on the health of planetary ecosystems. By adopting an ecocritical perspective interrogating the relationship between literary imagination and the environment, this project highlights the extent to which the employment of these literary techniques is important to generate awareness of ecological issues and explore literary responses to the current ecological crisis. The estrangement techniques typical of science fiction contribute to contesting the axioms of our relationship with the environment, marked by anthropocentrism and a nature-culture dichotomy, and the conceptual categories that regulate it. Given its scope and purpose, EcoSF is a timely contribution to current ecological debates, and can offer significant insights on present environmental problems (including pollution, climate change and the over-intensive exploitation of land and resources). In coherence with EU’s recent proposals for climate action, the project provides a strategic rethinking of the cultural paradigms that generated these problems and outlines the possibility of forging a new, more sustainable relationship with the environment.
EcoSF has three main scientific objectives:
1) Highlight the continued presence of ecological issues in Italian science fiction and trace their evolution in relation to Italian history and culture;
2) Analyse the different forms of speculative and science fictional poetics in twentieth century and contemporary Italian literature;
3) Re-examine the debate surrounding the cultural status of science fiction through the innovative lens of ecocriticism, developing an interpretation of science fiction as a genre with stylistic and conceptual traits that are essential for understanding the present environmental crisis.
The history of Italian science fiction parallels the development of significant environmental problems in Italian history, connected to the modernization and industrialization of the country. Although sometimes derivative and, in its early phases, heavily influenced by Anglo-American authors, Italian science fiction testifies to precise national and historical anxieties during decades marked by increasing urban development, transformation of urban and natural landscapes, technological development, increasing presence of digital technologies in everyday life, migrations, and climate change.
The objectives have been fully achieved, and the results of the research have been disseminated in a variety of research papers, scientific events, and dissemination activities. EcoSF has proved the importance of Italian science fiction in the cultural context of twentieth- and twenty-first century Italy, especially in relation to the country’s environmental history. It has taken into account a wide, transmedial corpus that has proved the malleability and the ubiquity of science fiction in Italian contemporary imagery. Finally, it has complicated traditional divisions between high- and lowbrow fiction, affirming the importance of genre fiction in addressing the current challenges of the Anthropocene.
EcoSF has three main scientific objectives:
1) Highlight the continued presence of ecological issues in Italian science fiction and trace their evolution in relation to Italian history and culture;
2) Analyse the different forms of speculative and science fictional poetics in twentieth century and contemporary Italian literature;
3) Re-examine the debate surrounding the cultural status of science fiction through the innovative lens of ecocriticism, developing an interpretation of science fiction as a genre with stylistic and conceptual traits that are essential for understanding the present environmental crisis.
The history of Italian science fiction parallels the development of significant environmental problems in Italian history, connected to the modernization and industrialization of the country. Although sometimes derivative and, in its early phases, heavily influenced by Anglo-American authors, Italian science fiction testifies to precise national and historical anxieties during decades marked by increasing urban development, transformation of urban and natural landscapes, technological development, increasing presence of digital technologies in everyday life, migrations, and climate change.
The objectives have been fully achieved, and the results of the research have been disseminated in a variety of research papers, scientific events, and dissemination activities. EcoSF has proved the importance of Italian science fiction in the cultural context of twentieth- and twenty-first century Italy, especially in relation to the country’s environmental history. It has taken into account a wide, transmedial corpus that has proved the malleability and the ubiquity of science fiction in Italian contemporary imagery. Finally, it has complicated traditional divisions between high- and lowbrow fiction, affirming the importance of genre fiction in addressing the current challenges of the Anthropocene.
During the first 24 months of the action, the researcher has developed his knowledge of the environmental humanities under the supervision of Serenella Iovino (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and of Federico Luisetti (University of St. Gallen). During the final 12 months of the action, the researcher (under the supervision of Alessandro Metlica) has disseminated this knowledge with a series of activities at the University of Padua, and applied the methodological framework of the environmental humanities to a carefully selected corpus of Italian science fiction texts. Specifically, attention was paid to the relationship between the development of a national market for science fiction, and the environmental changes occurring during the “miracolo economico” and the Great Acceleration of the Anthropocene.
This research resulted in: 1) the mapping of the genre of Italian science fiction and of its position in Italian culture in the second half of the twentieth century; 2) the exploration of the ways in which an imaginative genre such as science fiction addresses the environmental changes occurring in the country with the modernization of the economy; 3) the exploration of the ways in which Italian science fiction represents and dramatizes non-human agencies and subjectivities; 4) the connections between Italian science fiction and international examples of the genre.
In accordance with the deliverables envisioned in the DoA, 1) a career development plan has been prepared; 2) a website hosting information about the project and related activities has been created, together with an Instagram page promoting project-related activities and disseminating information about the research topic; 3) details about the research aimed at a broader audience have been published online; 4) five academic papers have been published on international peer reviewed journals; 5) an edited volume has been accepted for publication by an academic publisher; 6) the manuscript of an academic monograph has been submitted to an academic publisher; 7) conferences, panels at larger conferences, seminars, and lectures have been organised to disseminate the results; 8) several activities for a general audience (an exhibition; a movie screening; a lecture series) have been organized at the University of Padua; 9) a Data Management Plan has been created.
This research resulted in: 1) the mapping of the genre of Italian science fiction and of its position in Italian culture in the second half of the twentieth century; 2) the exploration of the ways in which an imaginative genre such as science fiction addresses the environmental changes occurring in the country with the modernization of the economy; 3) the exploration of the ways in which Italian science fiction represents and dramatizes non-human agencies and subjectivities; 4) the connections between Italian science fiction and international examples of the genre.
In accordance with the deliverables envisioned in the DoA, 1) a career development plan has been prepared; 2) a website hosting information about the project and related activities has been created, together with an Instagram page promoting project-related activities and disseminating information about the research topic; 3) details about the research aimed at a broader audience have been published online; 4) five academic papers have been published on international peer reviewed journals; 5) an edited volume has been accepted for publication by an academic publisher; 6) the manuscript of an academic monograph has been submitted to an academic publisher; 7) conferences, panels at larger conferences, seminars, and lectures have been organised to disseminate the results; 8) several activities for a general audience (an exhibition; a movie screening; a lecture series) have been organized at the University of Padua; 9) a Data Management Plan has been created.
This study has widened the parameters of current Italian studies research, which has been historically slow to fully engage with the genre of science fiction. Italian science fiction is a genre which has been neglected and overlooked by scholars for a long time, and, although this tendency seems to have changed in the last few years, only a small number of studies have appeared which try to map the complex and articulated field of Italian science fiction since its early stages. This negligence is particularly significant when Italian science fiction is approached from an ecocritical perspective. Although Italian ecocriticism is a field of research which has been consistently developed in the last few years, producing important contributions, and although science fiction is occasionally discussed in them, this significant literary genre is yet to be thoroughly analysed in ecocritical terms. EcoSF has filled this gap in contemporary Italian studies, providing a complete and accurate survey of Italian science fictional production and its developments, and contributing to the growing field of Italian ecocriticism by studying a genre of timely interest and potential.