'Captioned Landscapes' is the first comprehensive monograph on intermedial combinations between writing and natural environments. Writing is traditionally considered as a distinctive sign of the human; interrogating its interactions with the world beyond the human means questioning its presumed centrality and separateness. The multiple angles from which these combinations are studied in this two-volume anthology are relevant for questions regarding the ontologies that structure the relationships between human and non-human, as well as for questions of ideology, interculturality, memory, gender and the postcolonial.
Landscape reception studies usually assume not only a distinction but also a separation between the human and the non-human, attributing the privilege of subjectivity only to the former. This dualistic paradigm has been recently replaced by intermedial ecocriticism, which conceives the relationship between human and non-human as a negotiation without rigid and pre-established roles. However, attention has been focused so far on the representations (verbal, but also visual) of these relationships. In this monograph, for the first time, instead of representations of natural environments (in writing or other media), intermedial combinations between writing and landscapes are taken into account; particular attention is also paid, in the second volume, to verbal and visual representations of these combinations.
The book addresses Intermedial and Visual Studies and Environmental Humanities scholars. Because of the specific focus on combinations of writing, landscape, and verbal and visual representations of the latter, the book is also aimed at scholars of Literature, Garden and Landscape Design and History, and Visual Arts. By virtue of the case study approach in the chapters and the general theoretical framework provided in the introduction, the book also addresses students of all these disciplines.
About the Author :
Marco Maggi is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Theory of Literature at the Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland. He is Co-Director of the Master in Italian Language, Literature and Civilisation and was Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society in the period 2020-2022. He was visiting professor at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa) and at the University of Palermo, visiting scholar at Stanford University and 'chargé de cours' at the University of Geneva.He is a member of the scientific committee of the Swiss Association of General and Comparative Literature (ASLGC/SGAVL), of the PhD programme in Visual Culture at the University of Palermo, of the journals 'Arabeschi' and 'Walter Benjamin Studies' and of numerous publishing series. He is curator of the Lea Ritter Santini Papers at the archives of the Fondazione Centro Studi storico-letterari Natalino Sapegno.His work focuses on literary intermediality from critical, historical and methodological perspectives, with a focus on Baroque and Neo Baroque and first half of the 20th century. His publications include the monographs 'Walter Benjamin e Dante. Una costellazione nello spazio delle immagini' (2017), 'Modernità visuale dei Promessi Sposi. Romanzo e fantasmagoria da Manzoni a Bellocchio' (2019) and 'Forme intermedie. Percorsi di cultura visuale nell'opera di Guido Gozzano' (2025). He has edited 17th and 20th century texts: 'Aurore barocche. Concerto di arti sorelle' (2005), Emanuele Tesauro's 'Vocabulario italiano' (2008) and 'Anacronismi e didascalie. Prose varie (1903-1916)' by Guido Gozzano (2023). He has edited anthologies and journal issues: '"Selbstdenken". Atti della giornata di studi in ricordo di Lea Ritter Santini (2020); "Fototestualità" ('Versants', 2021); 'Walter Benjamin e la cultura italiana' (2022); "Prometeo, mito e intermedialità" ('Arabeschi', 2024). He also edited new editions of classics of inter-artistic comparison: 'Ut pictura poesis' by Rensselaer W. Lee (2011) and 'Studi sul concettismo' by Mario Praz (2014). He is the principal investigator of a project on the Italian genealogies of inter-arts studies funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation ('20th Century Italian Studies of Literature and Arts. An Archival, Intermedial and Digital Approach', 2026-2030). He writes regularly for 'L'Indice dei Libri del Mese' and other cultural magazines and appears in local and national media.
Review :
This exciting and timely collection of essays on 'captioned landscapes', i.e. inscriptions in natural environments, does what its title promises: through an ecomedial approach, it opens inspiring new ways of thinking intermedial networks beyond the human and across centuries and cultures. As the editor Marco Maggi in his illuminating introduction explains, captioned landscapes have the potential to trigger transformative encounters between the human and non-human world. The impressively wide range of articles analyze captioned landscapes from antiquity to the present day and from Europe to Eurasia, thus kindling a profound literary discussion of captioned landscapes as a specific, yet under-researched intermedial phenomenon. As a notable intervention in the vibrant scholarly debates of intermediality and ecomedia, the two volumes of this essay collection will no doubt enjoy a wide readership.
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rippl
University of Bern, Switzerland
These two volumes explore historical and contemporary dimensions of textualized-or textualizing-"captioned" landscapes, ranging from gardens and nature parks to land art and other 'geo/graphies'. Editor Marco Maggi's thoughtful Introduction provides an inspiring point of entry, and the contributing authors enrich contemporary intermedial studies while extending ecocritical and environmental thought in fresh directions. The proposed "ecomedial turn" clearly merits careful, creative elaboration and sustained critical engagement.
Prof. Dr. Jørgen Bruhn
Linnaeus University Centre for Intermedial and Multimodal Studies, Sweden
This very learned book is a treasure of high academic standard. Path breaking it offers a new take on ecocritical theory dedicated to gardens and landscapes, allying studies on the human and non-human intermedial studies, relying on strong references and former works by scholars specialising in intermediality and cross-disciplinary exchanges. It also pertains to comparative literature in its broader sense as captioning-a well defined term-landscape is a fine example of associating and combining media. It is also wide-ranging in its cross-cultural approach as it includes various civilizations and practices such as the Chinese one, and includes the historical perspective of garden studies.
It is a far-reaching book which might appeal to museum curators, historians and garden students. One of its kind, it is so stimulating and far-reaching due to its intrinsec qualities by its earnestness and genuiness, offering a new way of renewing literary studies dedicated to ecocriticism and ecological mores.
Liliane Louvel
Emeritus Professor
University of Poitiers, France
"Captioned Landscapes. Intermedial Combinations Beyond the Human" brings together fascinating essays on the interlacing of words and things in landscapes and gardens from ancient China to the present day. With a useful introduction by editor Marco Maggi, this book makes a significant contribution to literature on intermediality as a theoretical tool for understanding the complexities of spaces that are simultaneously material and immaterial, whole and fragmented, and represented and experienced. Drawing on careful analysis of significant case studies and genuine theoretical ambition, this collection will appeal to readers and scholars from various disciplines who are interested in a multidisciplinary approach to gardens and landscapes.
Prof. Dr. Denis Ribouillault
Département d'histoire de l'art, de cinéma et des médias audiovisuels
University of Montreal
