Skip to content
1981
Italian Ecomedia: Archaeologies, Theories, Perspectives
  • ISSN: 2047-7368
  • E-ISSN: 2047-7376

Abstract

The article proposes a comparative discussion from an ecocritical perspective of two Italian and two Japanese films produced between the end of the Second World War and the publication of Rachel Carson’s (1962): by Visconti (1948), by Rossellini (1950), by Shindō (1960) and by Teshigahara (1964). The analysis focuses on the relationship between the filmic representation of a harsh natural environment and the hardships of the characters who interact with it. This representation is not limited to an oppositional function; it is rather a layered model of the agency of the environment towards humans, and vice versa. The idea of nature proposed in these films contributes to the further isolation of characters who are already on the fringe of society, offering a metaphor for the struggle to define our place in the surrounding environment and society.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00381_1
2026-03-26
2026-04-17

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Bernardi, Sandro (2002), Il paesaggio nel cinema italiano, Venice: Marsilio.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Brunetta, Gian Piero (2009), Il cinema neorealista italiano: Storia economica, politica e culturale, Rome and Bari: Laterza.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Desser, David (1988), Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Dionisi, Chiara (2021), ‘Una introduzione all’ecocritica del cinema’, Fata Morgana, XV:45, pp. 10927.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Ehrlich, Linda C. and Santos, Antonio (2001), ‘The taunt of the gods: Reflections on Woman in the Dunes’, in D. Washburn and C. Cavanaugh (eds), Word and Image in Japanese Cinema, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 89107.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Garrard, Greg (2004), Ecocriticism: The New Critical Idiom, Abingdon: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Hall, Stuart (1992), ‘The west and the rest: Discourse and power’, in S. Hall and B. Gieben (eds), Formations of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 275320.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Hatzantonis, Emmanuel (1987), ‘Contrastive characterization in Verga’s I Malavoglia and Visconti’s La terra trema’, Perspective on Contemporary Literature, 13:1, pp. 4149.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Iovino, Serenella (2016), Ecocriticism and Italy: Ecology, Resistance, and Liberation, London: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Kitsnik, Lauri (2018), ‘Real and slow: The poetics and politics of The Naked Island’, Asian Cinema, 29:2, pp. 26173, https://doi.org/10.1386/ac.29.2.261_1.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Kordzińska-Nawrocka, Iwona (2009), ‘Patterns of emotion in Japanese society’, in N. Pawlak (ed.), Codes and Rituals of Emotions in Asian and African Cultures, Warsaw: Elipsa, pp. 24051.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kroll, Gary (2001), ‘The “Silent Springs” of Rachel Carson: Mass media and the origins of modern environmentalism’, Public Understanding of Science, 10:4, pp. 40320, https://doi.org/10.3109/a036878.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Lussana, Fiamma (2002), ‘Neorealismo critico: Politica e cultura della crisi in Luchino Visconti’, Studi Storici, 43:4, pp. 1083103, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41057579. Accessed 22 February 2023.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. McDonald, Keiko I. (2000), From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Film, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Meeker, Joseph W. (1972), The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology, New York: Scribner’s.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Micciché, Lino ([1990] 2006), Visconti e il neorealismo: Ossessione, La terra trema, Bellissima, Venice: Marsilio.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Novielli, Maria Roberta and Scrolavezza, Paola (2012), Lo schermo scritto: Letteratura e cinema in Giappone, Venice: Cafoscarina.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. O’Brien, Adam (2018), Film and the Natural Environment: Elements and Atmospheres, New York: Wallflower.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Rondolino, Gianni ([1981] 2006), Luchino Visconti, Torino: UTET.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Rossellini, Roberto (1950), Stromboli, Italy and USA: Berit Films and RKO Radio Pictures.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Rueckert, William ([1978] 1996), ‘Literature and ecology: An experiment in ecocriticism’, in C. Glotfelty and H. Fromm (eds), The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, pp. 10523.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Rust, Steven, Monani, Salma and Cubitt, Sean (eds) (2013), Ecocinema: Theory and Practice, Abingdon: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Shindō, Kaneto (1960), Hadaka no shima, Japan: Kindai Eiga Kyokai.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Shirane, Haruo (2012), Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts, New York: Columbia University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Shriver-Rice, Meryl and Vaughan, Hunter (2020), ‘What is environmental media studies?’, Journal of Environmental Media, 1:1, pp. 313, https://doi.org/10.1386/jem_00001_2.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Standish, Isolde (2011), Politics, Porn and Protest: Japanese Avant-Garde Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, London: Continuum.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Teshigahara, Hiroshi (1964), Suna no onna, Japan: Teshigahara Productions.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Visconti, Luchino (1948), La terra trema, Italy: Universalia Film.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Wada-Marciano, Mitsuyo (2007), ‘Ethnicizing the body and film: Teshigahara Hiroshi’s Woman in the Dunes (1964)’, in A. Phillips and J. Stringer (eds), Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 18092.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Wagstaff, Christopher (2007), Italian Neorealist Cinema: An Aesthetic Approach, Toronto: Toronto University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Yuki, Masami (2018), ‘On harmony with nature: Toward Japanese ecocriticism’, in H. Wake, K. Suga and M. Yuki (eds), Ecocriticism in Japan, Lanham, MD and London: Lexington Books, pp. 119.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00381_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test