JISCMail - MECCSA Archives

*Call for papers*

*Special Issue of the Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies*

*With hat and red scarf**. *

*The building of Federico Fellini’s public image*

*Guest-edited by Clizia Centorrino, Marco Dalla Gassa, Andrea Minuz*

The centenary of the birth of director Federico Fellini in 2020 invites a
unique opportunity to reassess his contribution to the history of Italian
culture from new perspectives.

With his monumental film production, which has been extensively studied—at
least from *La dolce vita* forward—the Riminese director gradually seeped
into Italy’s daily life. While his films have sparked lively debates since
he first became popular in the 1950s, less attention has been devoted to
the process that has led many scholars to consider him the emblematic
figure of the film artist, both as a major character in the cultural
history of Italy and as the symbol of what is quintessentially ‘Italian’.

Unlike other Italian directors, Fellini became a newsworthy and publicized
figure beginning in the 1960s. He contributed to the creation of an
‘elusive’ image of himself (Hodsdon 2017) both through the construction of
several cinematic alter-egos and through unmistakable appearances with his
hat and red scarf in documentaries, feature films, illustrated news
magazines, press and TV reports, and other forms of media. Equally, he
emerged as a staunch defender of certain political and cultural struggles,
such as those against television commercials or against Berlusconi (who was
still an editor at that time). Additionally, he became an object of
scrutiny and discussion for journalists, critics, cinephiles, colleagues,
and biographers searching for an openly hagiographical definition of the
threshold of the Italian artistic tradition.

Earlier theoretical contributions have thoroughly assessed the concept of
‘author’. Had Mikhail Bakhtin studied Fellini as an aesthetic and narrative
object, he might have introduced him as a case study in *Author and Hero in
Aesthetic Activity* to highlight the reciprocal nature between his creative
acts and his activism on the public scene (Bakhtin 1920-23). Michel
Foucault, on the other hand, would have praised the discursive feature
“characterized by […] plurality of egos” (Foucault 1969). Roland Barthes,
for his linguistic sensibility, might have asked how Fellini influenced
even common vocabulary such as the transformation of his name into an
adjective as well as other words such as ‘dolcevita’, ‘amarcord’, and
‘vitelloni’ (Barthes 1967-68).

However, from our point of view, it becomes essential to consider Fellini
from a social and historical angle, calling upon cultural and social
disciplines to furnish new analytical perspectives— measuring the impact of
his personality on today’s and yesterday’s Italy, and on the Italian
identity abroad. For example, Fellini was keen on creating a public image
of himself both as a ‘magician’ and as a country bumpkin, playing with a
combination of two Italian stereotypes: the creative artist (the ‘maestro’)
and, by a sort of ‘reverse patriotism’, a heap of irredeemable flaws
(Patriarca 2010). In short, the creation of his reputation is a crucial
case study of how an ‘artist’ is socially constructed and of the cultural
forces that influence his public image (Kapsis 1992).

This angle unlocks promising and abundant research possibilities: the idea
of masculinity offered by Fellini’s voice and body (his *acousmatic* force,
as Chion [1999] would say, is flagrant); the fashion in which his
cumbersome presence has transformed urban spaces, such as Rimini, a film
library dedicated to him, the Cinecittà theme park, Rome, and the EUR
district. Moreover, contributions to this special issue can discuss the
exoteric vein in Fellini’s life experiences as often illustrated in
magazines and news outlets; the numerous parodies of which he is the
unconscious victim; the proliferation of commercial activity using the
names of his films (here, too, a re-semanticized lexicon); and the way in
which his wife, and his collaborators, friends, and colleagues evoke him in
biographies, interviews, public statements (Giulietta Masina, Marcello
Mastroianni, Vincenzo Mollica, Tullio Kezich, Milo Manara).

Overall, the broad and innovative perspective described in this call for
papers pursues the goal of rediscovering the aspects that contributed to
Fellini’s mythification and integration into the sphere of Italian public
speech. If we can believe Morin when he says Fellini “is more than an actor
incarnating characters, [since] he incarnates himself in them, and they
become incarnate in him,” (Morin 1961) is it then possible to study Fellini
as a character/*divo* in the film of social history and Italian culture in
the last half century? If the articles composing this single-issue journal
confirm that proposition, may one consider Fellinian heritage as the
ability to inhabit social spaces, the ability to be inscribed in the
(Italian) public sphere but in flesh, bones, and other phantasmal forms?

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Fellini as an actor (in his films, in others’ films and in
documentaries;

2. The embodiment of Fellini: voice and body of the ‘maestro’ on the
radio, in his films and the question of dubbing his voice;

3. The mediatized Fellini on television, the radio, and in magazines:
for example, the relation between Fellini and reporter Mollica in RAI
programs; Fellini in feminist magazines; Fellini in daily newspapers in
Italy and abroad; the ceremony at Cinecittà following Fellini’s death and
its representation; and Fellini in contemporary art;

4. Fellini recounted and invented (by his wife Giulietta Masina, his
collaborators and actors;

5. Fellini and public spaces: transformations in Rimini and Cinecittà,
‘Fellinian’ commercial activities in the world and cinema tourism;

6. Fellini’s image abroad: the mythification of the director from a
particular perspective (be it American, European);

7. The illustrated Fellini: comics, graphic novels;

8. The photographed Fellini: themes, motifs, poses; the construction of
a visual semiotic through famous photographs, in magazines devoted to him;

9. The Fellinian lexicon and its re-semantization: ‘Fellinian’ as an
adjective.

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 15th April 2019.

Interested contributors should send:

- 500 word abstracts outlining the topic, approach and theoretical
bases

- relevant bibliography and filmography

- 200 word biographical notes (including academic publications)

to the three Guest Editors:

Clizia Centorrino, Université Grenoble Alpes

Marco Dalla Gassa, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Andrea Minuz, Sapienza University of Rome

at the following addresses:

[log in to unmask]

*The accepted proposals will be notified by 30th April 2019; completed
articles should be sent by 31st July 2019 for peer-review; authors will be
notified of the results of the peer-review by 15th October 2019.*

*References*

Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich, “Author and hero in aesthetic activity”,
1920-23, Eng. trans. in Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich, *Art and
Answerability*, ed. by M. Holquist and V.V. Liapunov, Austin 1990.

Barthes, Roland, “The Death of the Author”, *Aspen Magazine*, n° 5/6, 1967.

Bondanella, Peter, *The Films of Federico Fellini*, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, New York, 2002.

Burke, Frank, Waller, Marguerite R. (edited by), *Federico Fellini:
Contemporary Perspectives*, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2002.

Burke, Frank; Waller, Marguerite; Gubareva Marita (edited by), *Wiley
Blackwell Companion to Federico Fellini*, forthcoming in 2019.

Chion, Michel, *The Voice in Cinema*, Columbia University Press, New York,
1999.

Dyer, Richard, *Stars*, British Film Institute, London, 1979.

Fellini, Federico, *Making a film*, Contra Mundum Press, New York, 2015.

Foucault, Michel, “What is an author?” in Preziosi, Donald (edited by), *The
art of art history: a critical anthology*, Oxford University Press, 1998,
pp. 299-314.

Hodsdon, Barrett, *The Elusive Auteur: The Question of Film Authorship
Throughout the Age of Cinema*, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers,
Jefferson, North Carolina, 2017.

Kapsis, Robert E., *Hitchcock: the making of a reputation*, Univ. of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992.

Marcus, Millicent, *After Fellini: National Cinema in the Postmodern Age*,
JHU Press, 2002.

Morin, Edgar, *The stars. An Account of the Star-System in Motion Pictures*,
Grove Press, New York, 1961.

Patriarca, Silvana, *Italian Vices: Nation and Character from the
Risorgimento to the Republic*, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010.

Stubbs, John C., *Federico Fellini as Auteur: Seven Aspects of His Films*,
Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, 2015.*Call for papers*