Discourse of Italian Cinema and Beyond

Roberta Piazza is a Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Sussex, UK.

The Discourse of Italian Cinema and Beyond joins a growing body of work that is taking forward work in stylistics by expanding not only the subject of analysis, from poetry and prose fiction to film and television, but also the set of methods in acknowledging the visual alongside the verbal. While Piazza herself is modest in speculating how her investigation might contribute to the study of film within media and culturalstudies, this truly interdisciplinary work is a clear contribution to both stylistics and film studies. Piazza’s analyses are grounded equally well in linguistics and film theory, and this book stands as a relevant contribution to our knowledge of both discourse and the cinema.

• 1. Background and Introduction 2. The Verbal-Visual Interrelation in Cinema 3. The Focus on the Representation of Conflict in Film 4. Confrontational Discourse in Comedy and the Disengagement of Dramatic Talk 5. Spaghetti and American Westerns: Textual Conflict Marking the Clash Between Opposing Masculinities 6. The Struggle for Narrative Autonomy in Antonioni's When Love Fails 7. The Discourse of Identity and Confrontation in Mohsen Melliti's Me, the Other 8. Conclusions 9. References and Filmography Index