Afasie e strategie: appunti di metodo attorno a una (quasi) critica di danza in Italia

Abstract

Unlike what happens in the rest of Europe and in America, throughout the first half of the twentieth century Italian press can’t boast the presence of an authentic dance criticism. Grounded on these assumptions, my project focuses on a particular and controversial phase of Italian history such as the fascist period, aiming, on the one hand, to reconstruct the discourses on dance produced by italian journalism in the early twentieth century, and trying, on the other hand ,to wonder about the cultural dynamic underlying the lack of a authentic dance criticism in Italy during the Fascism.

Starting from the recognition of some formal and conceptual elements characterising the discourses on dance elaborated in daily newspapers and periodicals, I will propose a methodological approach that intertwines an historiographical perspective with concepts derived from semiotics of culture. By this I will analyze the discourses mentioned above by posing the following questions : how can dance become one of the topics of journalistic discourse? What's the image of the dancing body developed in Italian journalism during the fascist period? What kind of cultural dynamics can generate the development of a critical discourse on dance? And, on the contrary, in which case is the emergence of a dance criticism inhibited?