Research Walter Geerts

Abstract

This project intends to establish an overview, as complete as possible, of the intertextuality in Primo Levi's works. In the first place the part intertextuality plays in the holocaust testimony will be examined in depth: the appearance of literary authorities in the framework of a 'unique' drama leads to a historicization of the events. Furthermore, the intertextuality discovered in Levi's works serves as a case for the intertextuality practice: in Levi's works a permanent tension is at work between the new text and the original one: the latter is absorbed, but also partly rejected, thus revealing the intertextuality mechanism. Finally the internal connection between Levi's different works will be demonstrated through the repetition of intertextual practices.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Centre for Digital humanities and literary Criticism (ACDC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In texts on paper, highlights are used to indicate structure or important features of content. In online texts, the function of highlights is different: their purpose is to indicate hyperlinks and to attract the reader's attention. The question is whether this new function of highlights in a text causes a fundamental change in foreign language reading. The present research aims at investigating whether highlighted hyperlinks have an influence on the word acquisition, text comprehension and the underlying cognitive processes that support reading.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Waes Luuk
• Co-promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

• Management

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Around the turn of the century the epistemological conditions of the dealing with the human body radically changed. Both in the humanities and the exact sciences a new image of mankind emerged which led to a reconceptualization and reformulation of the functions of the human body: this body is no longer considered the vehicle or container of the soul but an autonomous entity capable of interacting with the latest technologies. Modernist writers and artists were fascinated by the mixture (or interaction) between the living and the mechanical, wo/man and the machine. A new hybrid being was created: the human machine or mechanized wo/man, a technological or prosthetic being. This evolution was supported by a new kind of thinking, i.e. prosthetic thinking, in which all extensions of the human body (tools as weIl as senses) are considered as prostheses. The issue of the prosthetic body therefore cannot be separated from a thorough historical and epistemological foundation which covers the entire twentieth century and requires substantiation with theoretical as weIl as practical contributions.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Centre for Digital humanities and literary Criticism (ACDC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The application domain of AMICA will be foreign-language instruction, which is generally regarded as being crucial for improving European integration and competetiveness. The integration of sound and videos into foreign-language courseware is extremely advantageous since it allows one to directly link written language courseware with spoken language, and to provide examples of situated language use. Foreign language learners cover the whole range of European population, including primary and secondary students who learn languages as part of their professional skills and people of all ages (included the elderly and the handicapped) who learn a foreign language for touristic purposes or by intrinsic motivation. //..AMICA will help overcome the shortcomings intrinsic in the current standard form on CD-ROM by employing a number of state-of-the-art technologies and applying and combining them in an novel and integrated way. Key characteristics of the planned AMICA system include://..1.electronic distributiuon of the course material using the World Wide Web;//..2- dynamic runtime generation of the course material using distributed multi-modal databases//..3- adaptation of the course material to learners' knowledge level, interests, and learning progress;//..4- adaptation of the presentation to the technical abilities of the learners' hardware platform;//..5- adaptation of the presentation to the learners' sensory and motoric abilities;//..6- possibilitiy to consult human teachers during a learning session through tele-communication

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Co-promoter: Calvi Licia

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the Italian avant-garde (1910-1930) in its heterogeneity of forms of expression, departing form the comparison of three very divergent key figures. Marinetti, Pirandello, D'Annunzio. In this particular context we focus on the developing film art. Our objective is to discuss the catalytic function of this new medium in terms of a crisis dialogue. On the one hand, the invention of cinema has caused a paradigm shift in the human perception and creativity; on the other, the literary and artistic avant-garde signified an important source of inspiration for the experimental cinema of the twenties.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Fellow: Strauven Wanda

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The distribution of educational multimedia courses through the World-Wide Web offers a significant potential for dynamically adjusting computer-based instruction to the constantly changing needs of learners, to ascertain human intervention in critical learning situations, and to store and organize the elements of course material in such a way that they can be easily reused. However, these possiblities have so far not yet been exploited: WWW courses largely consist of "canned" material that does not cater in any way to the different and changing needs of learners and is also hard to reuse for other purposes. The use of multimedia material in foreign-language tutorial software, and particularly the integration of sound and video, is extremely beneficial to learners since it allows them to directly associate written language with spoken language and to experience realistic examples of situated language use. Depending on the degree of users' visual impairment, the font size of the displayed material increases; the granularity of graphics decreases; and the graphics, images and videos are replaced by text or descriptions of the visual material. The aim of the AMICA project is to help overcome these shortcomings by employing a number of state-of-the art technologies and applying and combining them in a novel and integraled way.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of the study of the category of "time" in the contemporory Italian novel (corpus) is to determine the presence of a "savoir a l'oeuvre" on time (Pierssens). It also includes the status of the narrative text and the relation (convergence) between human time and the scientific approach.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Fellow: Lanslots Inge

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The objective of this comparative study is to draw an overall picture of the Italian avant-garde in the first decades of the 20th century. In this particular context we focus on the developing film art. This new medium will be analysed in relation to other art forms, such as literature and theatre, and its specific function will be discussed within the framework of the spirit of the modern age.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Fellow: Strauven Wanda

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

At the beginnings of the 16th century, the Italian courtly dialogue becomes a rhetoric and cognitive model. To what extent this model influences the dialogue production in cultural areas outside Court? That is, to what extent scientific, philosophical and religious dialogues can escape courtly codification?

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

1. Aim. - 2. Objectives. - 3. Design and methodology. ITEM (Interactive Tutoring Encyclopaedia based on Multimedia) aims at applying hypermedia technology to the modern languages curriculum, which is no longer concerned with the mere language practice, but which is more and more focusing on civilization issues, such as economy, policy, latest history, and general culture of the language-specific country.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

ITEM aims at applying hypermedia technology to the modern languages curriculum, which is no longer concerned with the mere language practice, but which is more and more focusing on civilization issues, such as economy, policy, latest history, and general culture of the language specific country. As an illustrative example a prototype has already been implemented dealing with the Italian economy. The main focus of the project is to develop a framework that, due to its intrinsic features such as modularity and adaptability can be extended to other domains.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to study new tendencies in the film language and culture by analytically discussing a selected amount of films.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Terminological and methodological elaboration of the notion Modernism, consisting in a series of case studies of modernist authors and in comparative approaches, with special attention for the relation between literature and other arts, included film; special focus on the development of literary theory and on the emerging sciences of the humanities.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Co-promoter: Berg Christian
• Co-promoter: Couttenier Piet
• Co-promoter: Humbeeck Kris
• Co-promoter: Lernout Geert
• Co-promoter: Pelckmans Paul

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project aims at applying multimedia technology to the study of modern languages. The central hypothesis is to learn-by-doing, to create a sort of artificial microworld where users can experience language lear ning in the same way as it typically occurs in natu ral settings, where they can manipulate pieces of the larger whole in order to master them. The field that has been chosen in this first phase is Italian economy. The reason for such a choice is that we see the advantage of the approach we propose in the emerging university curricula where language training is applied to the study of a more specific subject, normally economy or law.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In the 16th century Italian courtly literary dialogu es, frame narrative and theater codify courtly inter action by their rhetorical form itself. The study develops a phenomenology of the rhetorical figures of decorum that underlie the interaction model of the Ancien RÚgime, the cradle of our contemporary "poli teness", whereas sociological and linguistic studies on politeness (Brown, Levinson, Goffman) rather underrate impact of courtly literature on western social norm.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The basic assumption of this research is that the view of contemporary aesthetics and semiotics on the image contributes to new insights in literary theory. This will be tested on the work of Jean Cocteau whose transsystemic dimension (novel, poetry, movie, play, plastic arts) and unremitting questioning of the limits of representability constitutes a real challenge to the theory.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Fellow: Roelens Nathalie

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of the study of the category of "time" in the contemporory Italian novel (corpus) is to determine the presence of a "savoir a l'oeuvre" on time (Pierssens). It also includes the status of the narrative text and the relation (convergence) between human time and the scientific approach.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Fellow: Lanslots Inge

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Conception and construction of an interactive multimedia courseware for teaching of contemporary Italian society, with special emphasis on Italian economy.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The Italian postwar film in an interdisciplinary approach that combines socio-historical research and cinematographic style, technique and critique. The problem of rhetoric of film and the cultural revolution of the sixties : a research conducted on the films of L. Cavani.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Analysis of the crisis of values invading the contemporary Italian novel at the end of neorealism and the "Gruppo 63" narrative experiments : international congress; proceedings edited by N. Roelens and I. Lanslot and pyblished by Longo, Ravenna.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Evolution of the 16° century Italian dialogue as a genre: from the civil dialogue, over the courtly dialogue, the academical disput and the utopia, to the scientific dialogue. This variety of forms, in contradiction with normative tendency in the treatises on the dialogue form, will be approached by a pragmatical-rhetorical study, starting from changing socio-cultural and hermeneutical pre-suppositions

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Fellow: Paternoster Annick

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The tragedy in the poem "Jerusalem liberated" by T. Tasso is analysed from two angles : as a cultural phenomenon of the epoch of Cinquecento with its dilusive humanistic renaissance ideals and as a personal fate. The life and works of the Russian poet K. Batjuchkov show some striking similarities to Tasso.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Evolution of the 16° century Italian dialogue as a genre: from the civil dialogue, over the courtly dialogue, the academical disput and the utopia, to the scientific dialogue. This variety of forms, in contradiction with normative tendency in the treatises on the dialogue form, will be approached by a pragmatical-rhetorical study, starting from changing socio-cultural and hermeneutical pre-suppositions

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Geerts Walter
• Fellow: Paternoster Annick

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project