IN LIMINE. FORME MARGINALI E DISCORSI DI CONFINE/FRINGE FORMS AND BORDER DISCOURSES.

In organizing the second edition of the Graduate Conference of the PhD programme in Literary, Linguistics and Comparative Studies at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", which took place in the splendid setting of Palazzo Du Mesnil on 20-21 October 2016, the members of the organizing committee – in full accordance with the PhD coordinator, prof. Carlo Vecce, and the Board of Professors – continued the path traced by their predecessors, remaining faithful to the interdisciplinary dialogue that has characterized our PhD training programme for years. The conference debate was devoted to investigating the concept of limen in its various meanings: limen as threshold, textual and meta-textual margin; limen as border, boundary; limen as extreme limit; limen as in-betweenness, the threshold of consciousness and perception. The concept of limen is referable to what defines, separates, combines, allows the crossing and contamination, the identification or differentiation. It can be fixed, variable, incorporated or invented and is understood as an object in its literal meaning or as a metaphorical concept. The richness of ambivalent meanings linked to this concept has allowed a wide discussion panorama, in which marginal forms and boundary discourses have been analyzed in a multicentric and multidisciplinary perspective. Given the many submissions (almost three times more than the tight constraints), the committee had the delicate and unenviable task of selecting them; the choices were based on the pre-established themes – marginality in literature, linguistics and in the arts – without favouring any kind of approach and remaining open to innovative proposals that could demonstrate the arbitrariness of superficial and hasty 'labels' present in today's cultural landscape. While aware of the inadequacy of any subdivision for an event such as this one, characterized by a constant strive for interdisciplinary contact, it was decided to place the essays gathered together in this volume in three sections: even if corresponding to distinct research areas, they all share the same field of inquiry in a broader sense. The first section of the volume focuses on Textual Crossings. In this part, we find papers analyzing the relationship between text and 'paratext', those describing the processes of rewriting (understood as evolution of a text according to the different wills of the author, both as a re-use and as transfer to different cultural, chronological and linguistic contexts) and those focusing on innovative solutions adopted in some Italian literary texts at linguistic and stylistic levels. In the second section, Boundaries between Arts and Culture, there is room for contributions that deal with literary works relegated to the margins of the canon (for a rate of originality that is too high compared to current trends or because they are considered to be ancillary in some ways). There are also essays that deal with the theme of socio-anthropological margins, particular notions of the concept of limen and those on different artistic and cultural expressions in motion. Finally, we find studies that make an in-depth examination of issues related to cultural crosses and the loss of collective and individual identity. The third section, Linguistic Marginality, focuses on the contacts between different linguistic systems, on the varieties that arise from those contacts, on speakers’ perception of those varieties, on the ways in which the concept of 'crossing a border' is expressed in different linguistic codes, and, not least, about variations related to unusual communication situations (such as, for example, telematic events). A more detailed description of the essays is provided in the abstracts preceding each paper. Before dismissing this volume, we would like to thank all those who made its realization possible: the speakers, who participated in the Graduate Conference and decided to commit themselves by sending their proposals for the publication of its proceedings; the session chairs, who enthusiastically accepted our invitation, enriching the debate with precious insights; the scientific committee members, who meticulously reviewed the papers, guaranteeing the achievement of the standards required for such a publication, and finally Professor Carlo Vecce, for the constant and discreet support at all stages of our work