© Michelangelo Miani 1982
Crossing Boundaries
Perspectives on the Fantastic in Italian Arts and Cultures
September 22-23, 2007
University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
The Fantastic has traditionally been a source of new epistemologies for it allows a crossing of the threshold between diverse realities. The Dantesque journey and the Ariostean flight, for example, represent models of voyages to other worlds that offer new paths through the meanderings of existence. The present age of ontological doubt has seen an increasing recourse to the various manifestations of this heritage and thus cultural expressions in modern Italy continue to present fantasies that unveil “truths” and allow for a re-examination of Italian Fantastic traditions.
It is the space of the unconscious, of repressed desire and imaginary worlds, a place consecrated to violence and sex, to confusion and paradox - in sum to everything that opposes the conflicts of a world governed by reason: that potential monster we must hold at bay, lest we become contaminated by its influence.
Robert Dombroski
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