Cinema and Language Loss provides the first sustained exploration of the relationship between linguistic displacement and visuality in the filmic realm, examining in depth both its formal expressions and theoretical implications.

Combining insights from psychoanalysis, philosophy and film theory, the author argues that the move from one linguistic environment to another profoundly destabilizes the subject’s relation to both language and reality, resulting in the search for a substitute for language in vision itself – a reversal, as it were, of speaking into seeing. The dynamics of this shift are particularly evident in the works of many displaced filmmakers, which often manifest a conflicted interaction between language and vision, and through this question the signifying potential, and the perceptual ambiguities, of cinema itself.

In tracing the encounter between cinema and language loss across a wide range of films – from Billy Wilder’sSunset Boulevard to Chantal Akerman’s News from Home to Michael Haneke’sCaché – Mamula reevaluates the role of displacement in postwar Western film and makes an original contribution to film theory and philosophy based on a reconsideration of the place of language in our experience and understanding of cinema.

È possibile per una giovane donna diventare l'erede di una storia e di una famiglia tutta al maschile? Sì, se si è 'inclini all'amore' e se si possiede l'arte del racconto, l'arte di avvincere con le parole. Parole che restituiscono un secolo, il Novecento, nelle sue trasformazioni, nelle sue euforie e nelle sue tragedie. Si comincia con Milovan, il nonno di Arianna, che sul finire dell'Ottocento insieme ad altri cinque compagni parte da un piccolo paese sperduto del Montenegro per andare a fare fortuna prima in Europa e poi in America. Di questo viaggio Milovan sarà protagonista ma anche narratore, educando all'arte affabulatoria il figlio Vladimir (il futuro padre di Arianna) che a dodici anni, a seguito dell'occupazione tedesca e italiana, entra nelle forze partigiane di Tito per seguire il suo personale Dio, il fratello Mihailo. A Vladimir verrà amputato un braccio per lo scoppio di una granata, ma alla fine della guerra ritroverà l'amore e scoprirà la poesia, di cui diventerà uno splendido interprete. Nella Jugoslavia socialista, con i suoi riti e le sue stravaganze, nasce la primogenita di Vladimir, Arianna. E quello tra il padre poeta e la figlia appassionata di libri sarà un amore smisurato, divertente, pieno di magia. Cresciuta, Arianna si innamora di un giovane architetto, figlio di un generale del controspionaggio. Sarà grazie alle indagini di quest'ultimo che Arianna scoprirà un terribile segreto che il padre le ha tenuto nascosto...

Il volume esamina il pensiero musicale di György Ligeti da diverse prospettive. La prima parte è dedicata alle vicende biografiche, alla rete di relazioni, al contesto culturale e politico. La seconda parte ripercorre l'intero arco produttivo di Ligeti, integrando le informazioni generali sulle opere con l'illustrazione degli aspetti più significativi della tecnica compositiva; alla base di questa indagine vi è uno studio approfondito di manoscritti musicali, carteggi inediti e annotazioni di poetica conservati presso la Fondazione Paul Sacher di Basilea. Il capitolo conclusivo è dedicato al contributo di Ligeti nel campo della teoria musicale e al ruolo che egli svolse nel dibattito tra i maggiori esponenti dell'avanguardia. Il volume si configura come un lavoro ampio e aggiornato sul compositore ungherese e sugli ambienti in cui operava, includendo numerosi scorci sulla cultura e sugli orizzonti musicali della seconda metà del XX secolo.

What are motor abilities of Olympic champions? What are essential cognitive characteristics of Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis and Roger Federer? What are the secrets of selection for the future Olympic champions? Does for every sport exist a unique model of an Olympic champion? 'Complex Sports Biodynamics' gives modern scientific answers to the above questions. Its purpose is to give you the answer to everything you ever wanted to ask about sport champions and advanced tennis in particular. It dispels classical myths of a 'biomechanically sound' serve, forehand, and backhand, and describes and explains the physical and mental abilities of a champion in future tennis with full appreciation to the long-time world number one, Roger Federer. Regarding the future tennis champion model outlined in this book, the Federer–model will be taken as a basis. This book includes 12 chapters on various topics related to complex sports biodynamics, a strong list of references on sports science in general and tennis in particular, as well as a comprehensive index. To make the book more readable for the widest possible audience, the last Chapter on tennis has been written in a popular (non-rigorous) question & answer format.

Complex Nonlinearity: Chaos, Phase Transitions, Topology Change and Path Integrals is a book about prediction & control of general nonlinear and chaotic dynamics of high-dimensional complex systems of various physical and non-physical nature and their underpinning geometro-topological change. The book starts with a textbook-like expose on nonlinear dynamics, attractors and chaos, both temporal and spatio-temporal, including modern techniques of chaos–control. Chapter 2 turns to the edge of chaos, in the form of phase transitions (equilibrium and non-equilibrium, oscillatory, fractal and noise-induced), as well as the related field of synergetics. While the natural stage for linear dynamics comprises of flat, Euclidean geometry (with the corresponding calculation tools from linear algebra and analysis), the natural stage for nonlinear dynamics is curved, Riemannian geometry (with the corresponding tools from nonlinear, tensor algebra and analysis). The extreme nonlinearity – chaos – corresponds to the topology change of this curved geometrical stage, usually called configuration manifold. Chapter 3 elaborates on geometry and topology change in relation with complex nonlinearity and chaos. Chapter 4 develops general nonlinear dynamics, continuous and discrete, deterministic and stochastic, in the unique form of path integrals and their action-amplitude formalism. This most natural framework for representing both phase transitions and topology change starts with Feynman's sum over histories, to be quickly generalized into the sum over geometries and topologies. The last Chapter puts all the previously developed techniques together and presents the unified form of complex nonlinearity. Here we have chaos, phase transitions, geometrical dynamics and topology change, all working together in the form of path integrals. The objective of this book is to provide a serious reader with a serious scientific tool that will enable them to actually perform a competitive research in modern complex nonlinearity. It includes a comprehensive bibliography on the subject and a detailed index. Target readership includes all researchers and students of complex nonlinear systems (in physics, mathematics, engineering, chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology, economics, medicine, etc.), working both in industry/clinics and academia.

Saggi di: Aurora Arjones Fernández, Claudio Baldoni, Rosario Camacho Martínez, Mario Centofanti, Emanuela Chiavoni, Michela Cigola, Romolo Continenza, Dino Coppo, Gaspare De Fiore, Mario Docci, Arturo Gallozzi, Alfonso Ippolito, Flaminio Lucchini, Diego Maestri, Roberto Maestro, Carlo Mezzetti, Juan María Montijano García, Eugenio Pezzuti, Gianfranco Ruggieri, José Antonio Ruiz de la Rosa, Roberta Spallone, Rodolfo Maria Strollo, Pier Paolo Valentini.