En ce qui concerne les conversations, nous avons relevé dans le §5.1 (cf. ta-
bleau 2) que le taux d'erreur est en général plus élevé dans les CL, ce qui est
confirmé dans le tableau 8 pour la prononciation de l'appendice consonan-
tique: les réalisations non conformes en CL sont en moyenne deux fois plus
fréquentes qu'en CG.

6. Analyse et discussion

Les difficultés des apprenants dans la prononciation des nasales ne viennent pas apparemment de difficultés articulatoires. En effet, le fait que, dans la tâche de répétition de mots, tous les sujets reproduisent une voyelle nasale avec uniquement parfois des erreurs de timbre montrent qu'ils sont capables de les articuler. Dans les tâches de lecture du Texte et de conversation, les réalisations non conformes liées à une production erronée de la consonne, couplées généralement à l'oralisation de la voyelle, sont plus nombreuses: 53% par rapport à 30% d'erreurs de timbre (cf. tableau 6). Ce résultat conforte notre intuition de travailler sur le phénomène qui implique la prononciation erronée de la consonne nasale finale, qui nous avait interrogées à partir de l'étude des liaisons. Nous nous appuierons en particulier sur les tableaux 7 et 8, qui montrent la répartition des erreurs d'articulation de la consonne nasale selon les tâches et selon la position de la voyelle nasale dans le mot et la phrase. En reprenant les questions de recherche présentées dans l'introduction, nous allons nous interroger sur l'influence possible de la tâche.

6.1 Les tâches contraintes: les listes et la lecture du Texte

Si l'on prend en compte les tâches dans lesquelles la production orale du sujet est contrainte, la seule tâche qui prévoit un *input* oral concerne la répétition d'une liste de mots, et c'est celle qui montre le meilleur taux de réalisations conformes (84%, cf. tableau 2) et une présence presque exclusive d'erreurs de timbre (97%, cf. tableau 5).

Parmi les deux autres tâches contraintes, la lecture de la liste de mot montre
un taux de réussite plus élevé (78% cf. tableau 2) que la lecture du Texte PFC
(73% cf. tableau 2). La dégradation de la performance en passant de la répé-
tition à la lecture de la liste, puis à la lecture du Texte peut être relevée pour
presque tous les sujets.<fnref n="13" />

Si l'on affine la recherche à l'appendice consonantique, on constate que
dans la tâche de lecture de la liste (cf. tableau 5), la répartition des réalisations
non conformes des voyelles nasales présente un profil spécifique: les erreurs de
timbre prédominent (68%), certes, mais les appendices consonantiques sont
également fréquents (32% au total, associés à la dénasalisation de la voyelle dans
20% des cas de production non conforme). En revanche, pendant la lecture
du Texte (cf. tableau 6), 46% d'erreurs concernent l'appendice consonantique,
souvent couplé à la désanalisation. Nous discuterons à présent de la distribu-
tion de cette réalisation non conforme selon la position de la voyelle nasale
dans le mot et dans le Texte, à partir des données du tableau 8.

a) *En début de mot ou en position antépénultième.* C'est dans ces positions que l'on repère le plus haut pourcentage de prononciation de l'appendice consonantique par rapport à la position de la voyelle nasale dans la lecture de la liste (16%, cf. tableau 8). Cette erreur est plus fréquente dans la lecture des mots qui commencent avec la graphie <en> ou <em> (embraser, embrasser, entrevue), mais se retrouve également avec les items demain et Inde. Il en est de même lors de la lecture du Texte: ce dernier est prononcé surtout au début ou au milieu des mots (28%, cf. tableau 8), qu'ils soient longs (indiqueraient, Martinville, sentiment) ou probablement inconnus (impasse, entamé), en correspondance des graphies <en> ou <em> vues plus haut, mais aussi de la graphie <ym> (olympiques, sympathique).

b) *En syllabe finale fermée.* Dans le mot en syllabe fermée, les erreurs sur l'appendice consonantique sont peu nombreuses dans la lecture des mots (5%) et s'élèvent à 19% dans la lecture du Texte, où elles se concentrent autour des graphies <en> et <em> dans les mots centre, membre et dans le numéral trente (à l'intérieur de 1936). Ces résultats suggèrent que l'exposition à l'écrit semble exercer une influence négative sur les performances des apprenants italophones, qui tendent à transférer les règles de correspondance grapho-phonémiques de leur langue maternelle, surtout dans des syllabes qui seraient pour eux fermées dans le

<footnote n="13">13 Le seul sujet qui a un score plus bas en répétition qu’en lecture est GG; CD et GS ont le même pourcentage d’erreurs en répétition qu’en lecture de mots, mais un score plus bas dans la lecture du Texte.</footnote>
mot équivalent italien (*olimpico, simpatico*) et cette prononciation s'étend à
des mots inconnus n'ayant pas d'équivalents italiens comme *entamé*.

c) *En fin de mot*. En revanche, en fin de mot devant consonne à l'intérieur de la phrase, le pourcentage d'erreurs sur l'appendice est plus bas: aucune erreur dans la lecture des mots et 9% pour le Texte, les réalisations non conformes se concentrent pour les deux tiers sur les morphèmes grammaticaux *un*, *dans* et *en*, qui sont pourtant des mots de très haute fréquence présentés dès le début de l'apprentissage.

6.2 *Les tâches libres: les conversations libres et guidées*

Examinons maintenant les performances de nos sujets dans les tâches de produc-
tions libres, afin de vérifier si elles ont révélé un taux de réalisations non conformes
plus faible que les productions contraintes sur la réalisation de l'appendice nasal,
du fait de la possibilité pour les sujets de choisir eux-mêmes les mots à prononcer.

En réalité le taux général d'erreurs passe de 16% en CG, à 33% en CL, alors
que dans la lecture du Texte, on avait 27% (cf. tableau 2).

Plusieurs raisons peuvent être invoquées. On peut souligner premièrement
un effet de tâche: la participation de l'enquêteur (un professeur ou un cher-
cheur) à la conversation a pu inciter les sujets à parler plus longtemps (dans
les CG, le nombre de voyelles codées est presque le double, cf. tableau 1), mais
sur des sujets mieux connus (présentation de soi et biographie linguistique, les
études, les loisirs...); en outre l'enquêteur a réglé les tours de parole et incité les
sujets à surveiller leur production. Le taux d'erreurs plus élevé en CL, couplé à
un nombre plus bas d'occurrences, nous incite cependant à une certaine pru-
dence dans les conclusions, qui pourraient subir, outre l'influence de la tâche,
celle du sujet et de ses choix lexicaux.

Concernant plus précisément le pourcentage de présence de l'appendice consonantique parmi les réalisations non conformes, il est par contre en croissance de la lecture du Texte (46% cf. tableau 6), à la CL (54%) pour finir par la CG (62%). Nous discuterons maintenant de sa répartition selon la position dans le mot et dans la phrase à partir des données du tableau 8.

a) *En finale absolue devant pause*

En CL, le pourcentage plutôt élevé de prononciation de l'appendice consonantique finale absolue devant la pause (24%, cf. tableau 8) dépend probable-
ment d'un choix de codage: nous avons adopté ce codage en cas de disfluence<fnref n="14" /> ou si la voyelle était suivie d'un *euh* d'hésitation, donc dans des positions particulièrement sujettes à erreur car le sujet se corrige dans la partie suivante de la réplique: par exemple, *tu as vu ce film en en italien, ce film parle de d'un d'un journal*. En CG, les réalisations non conformes sont moins nombreuses (11%) et concernent en particulier la prononciation de l'article indéfini *un* dans un contexte de disfluence ou hésitation (7 occurrences sur 11).

b) *En fin de mot, suivie d'un mot commençant par consonne*

En CL, dans le cas de la voyelle nasale en position finale et suivie d'un mot commençant par consonne, on relève un taux de réalisation non conforme plutôt bas pour la tâche (16%); les 39 erreurs se répartissent principalement entre trois sujets (9 TC, 10 CR, 10 GS).

De même, en CG, ce sont deux sujets (CR et GS) qui sont responsables de la plupart des occurrences (13 et 16 sur 44). Les appendices nasals sont produits surtout dans les mots-outils: les prépositions *dans* et *en*, l'article indéfini *un*, la conjonction *quand*, les possessifs *mon* et *son*.

c) *En syllabe finale fermée*

Le taux de réalisation non conforme le plus élevé en CL est enregistré pour les voyelles nasales en syllabe finale fermée (33% cf. tableau 8): pour l'interprétation de ce résultat qui dépasse largement les autres, une analyse fine des occurrences est nécessaire, car elle révèle une surreprésentation des erreurs chez deux sujets – TC et CR – responsables à eux seuls de plus de la moitié des occurrences (13 et 10 sur 44 productions non conformes); en outre, on repère qu'environ un tiers des erreurs (29 occurrences), tous sujets confondus, concerne le mot *donc*.

En CG, le taux de réalisations non conformes est plus bas (13%), mais la répartition par sujet et par item suit celle de la CL: sur 38 erreurs, 17 sont attribuables à GS dans la prononciation du mot *donc*. En outre, le thème des questions posées par l'enquêteur concernant les études et la biographie linguistique des sujets est certainement responsable de la présence de nombreuses erreurs (9) sur le mot *langue*.

<footnote n="14">14 Le codage 100 en troisième position (cf. par. 3.3.) correspond à la voyelle nasale en finale absolue, suivie d'une pause.</footnote>
d) *En début ou milieu de mot.*

En ce qui concerne les voyelles nasales en syllabe non finale (16% de réalisations non conformes), il est important de souligner que les mots de deux syllabes ou plus sont très peu nombreux chez ces sujets, qui dénasalisent presque systématiquement la voyelle dans cette position. En outre, on relève un grand nombre d'appendices nasals dans cette position chez un seul sujet (ME, 7 sur 18 erreurs, dont 4 sur le mot *anglais*).

Les mêmes tendances se repèrent en CG, avec un taux de réalisations non conformes très bas (7%), couplé à une répartition des erreurs plus homogène entre les sujets.

Les résultats et exemples présentés ci-dessus montrent bien qu'au-delà de l'influence de la tâche et de l'orthographe, à ce stade de l'apprentissage, la compétence phonologique de chaque sujet peut influencer de manière significative les résultats. En outre, l'analyse de quelques cas de disfluence impliquant la production d'une voyelle nasale (cf. §6.2.1) suggère cependant qu'au-delà de la compétence phonologique, les connaissances lexicales et grammaticales de chaque sujet entrent en jeu dans la production des voyelles nasales. Le cas le plus fréquent est celui d'une hésitation probable sur le genre des mots, qui provoque une hésitation dans le genre des articles indéfinis. Si nous prenons l'exemple *dans une dans un lieu* et que le sujet italophone parle de vacances, on peut imaginer qu'ayant en tête le mot italien *località* qui est féminin, il ait produit l'article féminin en premier et qu'il se soit corrigé juste avant la production du mot *lieu*. Inversement, dans la suite *un une place* [œynplas], c'est le mot italien *posto*, de genre masculin, qui a pu influencer la production de la voyelle nasale en première position.

Afin de minimiser cet effet de sujet, il faudrait coder un nombre plus élevé de sujets ou bien imaginer une tâche qui permette à chaque sujet de produire plus ou moins le même nombre d'occurrences avec les mêmes mots, par exemple une description d'image.

7. *Conclusion*

A l'issue de ce parcours essentiellement quantitatif qui nous a permis de définir la nature des réalisations non conformes portant sur la réalisation des voyelles nasales, nous pouvons conforter notre hypothèse: si on observe des
réalisations erronées de liaison impossible en [n] ou [m], la raison est à rechercher davantage dans la prononciation des voyelles nasales elle-même que dans la méconnaissance des règles de la liaison. En effet nous avons pu montrer que le type d'erreur consistant à prononcer la consonne nasale était significatif hors contexte de liaison.

Le codage IPFC des voyelles nasales ne permettait pas de prendre en compte dans les comptages la réalisation effective de l'appendice consonantique dans les sites de liaison. Sur ce point, nous concluons à la nécessité de modifier le codage IPFC des nasales dans les sites de liaison afin de faire apparaître immédiatement les liaisons en [n] ou [m], simplement en diversifiant le champ 6: 30 (pour les liaisons autres que les consonnes nasales), 3N ou 3M pour les liaisons en [n] ou [m].

Notre étude a permis de voir que les deux tâches où apparaissent le plus de réalisations non conformes sont la conversation libre et la lecture du Texte. Pour cette dernière, une explication pourrait venir du fait qu'une partie des mots sont inconnus et donc uniquement déchiffrés en phase de lecture, rendant plus prégnant le transfert des habitus de lecture de la L1. Sans doute faudrait-il repenser à un texte spécifique pour ce niveau d'apprenants avec des mots connus. Par ailleurs, si on retrouve des réalisations non conformes en CL, sans que le modèle écrit soit sous les yeux, il apparaît alors que dans la phase d'interlangue, on a comme une étape intermédiaire qui consiste à décomposer la voyelle nasale en voyelle orale + consonne nasale, comme des natifs du reste le font spontanément en site de liaison (on a [ɔna]). Un exemple typique de cette décomposition accentuée par la présence d'un schwa épentétique serait *un écrivain américain* = [*œnə# ekvivənə# amebikənə*].

Deux autres hypothèses seraient alors à tester. La première pourrait être de penser que la présence d'un mot congénère italien, similaire du point de vue du signifiant, pourrait avoir une influence sur la qualité de la prononciation du mot proche français par interférence. Il faudra comparer les résultats entre les mots transparents et les mots complètement différents dans les deux langues. Une étude plus fine sera donc à conduire afin d'examiner qualitativement les lexèmes ou morphèmes sur lesquels portent les erreurs.

La seconde hypothèse est de se poser la question de la prononciation de l'appendice nasal par rapport à la prononciation en général des consonnes finales. On peut prédire que la prononciation du [n]/[m] nasal n'est qu'un aspect du phénomène plus large consistant à oraliser la consonne finale muette aujourd'hui, alors qu'elle ne l'a pas toujours été au cours des siècles passés.
Une autre piste de recherche sur ce même corpus sera d'analyser de plus près l'autre grande catégorie d'erreur, à savoir les changements de timbre. Pour l'instant, il s'agit uniquement de la perception spontanée que les chercheurs ne peuvent pas coder avec le système actuel IPFC, mais dont ils prennent note, avec parfois des divergences de perception. Nous avons constaté en effet que le codeur non natif apparait plus "sévère", percevant un appendice consonantique là où le codeur natif perçoit une nasale plus ouverte comme dans un accent régional. Seule une étude acoustique permettrait de trancher éventuellement.

Enfin, il serait utile de corréler des études perceptives chez les apprenants sur les voyelles nasales pour comprendre si les réalisations non conformes constatées en production peuvent être rapprochées d'une perception inexacte des phonèmes sous la pression de la L1.

Les nasales du français n'ont pas fini de faire parler d'elles!
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Michela Murano. Professeure associée de français auprès de la Faculté de Sciences Linguis-
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Marie-Christine Jamet. Normalienne, agrégée, docteur en linguistique et didactique des langues, professeure associée de langue française à l'Université Ca' Foscari Venezia, elle donne des cours de linguistique française et d'analyse de discours et s'occupe de la formation des futurs enseignants de FLE. Elle est membre de l'équipe italienne du projet IPFC. Ses recherches portent sur l'interphonologie, la compréhension orale, l'intercompréhension entre langues romanes. Elle a participé à plusieurs projets européens d'intercompréhension, et dirige actuellement le projet Coralive (Strategic partnership Erasmus +).
statusquaestionis•
language text culture•

MISCELLANEA
<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>
Silvana Ameruoso

Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro-Università di Augsburg

Il tema della conversione in *Ivanhoe* di Walter Scott
e nel *Rabbi di Bacherach* di Heinrich Heine

Abstract

The present paper examines the relationship between Walter Scott's *Ivanhoe* and Heinrich Heine's *The Rabbi of Bacharach* with regard to the theme of conversion to Christianity. Both historical novels are based on the stories of Jewish people whom Christians try to convert to their faith. I start with the reception of Scott in Restoration Germany. The Scottish author is chosen by Heine as model for his *Rabbi* and at the same time surpassed. Compared with the model, the attempts of conversion are developed in a very different way in Heine's *Rabbi*, although, in both works, such attempts concern the female protagonists, Rebecca of York for *Ivanhoe* and Sara for *The Rabbi*. After comparing the two characters, I will try to explain the different conclusions that Scott and Heine reach: if the former considers emigration as the only possible solution to Christian oppression, the latter offers several possibilities of survival, though none of them proves truly satisfying.

1. Ivanhoe: *un modello letterario tra realtà e finzione*

In una lettera del 25 giugno 1824, Heinrich Heine confessa con entusiasmo all'amico e compagno del *Verein für Cultur und Wissenschaft der Juden* Moses Moser il proprio impegno profuso nello studio delle cronache, in particolare della *historia judaica*: “Der Gest der jüdischen Geschichte offenbart sich mir immer mehr und mehr, und diese geistige Rüstung wird mir gewiß in der Folge sehr zu statten kommen” (Heine 1970 e ss., 20:167). Allora l'autore aveva concepito il *Rabbi* non come una narrazione romanzesca a sfondo storico, quale l'opera è nella sua versione odierna, bensì come un vero e proprio saggio che esponesse la storia del popolo ebraico e smontasse i pregiudizi antisemiti alla base dei *pogrome*, quali la profanazione delle ostie e gli omicidi
rituali (Bosco 2012, 46). Sarà poi l'influsso di Walter Scott, e in particolare
del suo *Ivanhoe*, a spingere Heine a inserire il racconto della storia e delle
tradizioni ebraiche in un quadro narrativo di più ampio respiro ispirato ai
romanzi dello scrittore scozzese.

Ambientato nell'Inghilterra del 1194 e pubblicato negli ultimi giorni del
1819, il romanzo cavalleresco *Ivanhoe* riscosse un successo di pubblico immedia-
to, rendendo Scott ricco e famoso. Alla sua morte (1832) il libro era già diven-
tato un best seller nell'intero Occidente (di Carpegna Falconieri 2019, 65-66),
modello per romanzi, opere drammatiche e pittoriche in tutta Europa (Amalvi
2002, 46, 57; Porciani 2004, 261; Alexander 2007, 30-33, 50-51; Pittock 2007;
Pastoureau 2019, 307-9). La narrazione di *Ivanhoe* si caratterizza per la presenza
di numerosi anacronismi: compaiono rosari, una tabaccheria e persino "a poor
brother of the Order of St Francis" (Scott 2000, 209), in azione nell'anno in cui
il poverello di Assisi ha solo dodici anni. A un'attenta lettura, è l'intero sfon-
do sociopolitico a dover essere messo in discussione: sebbene ambientata nel
1194, l'opera presenta come ancora in corso lo scontro tra Sassoni e Normanni,
conclusosi in realtà nel 1066. I cavalieri delle pagine scottiane si comportano,
poi, come quelli del Trecento e indossano armature del Quattro-Cinquecento
(di Carpegna Falconieri 2019, 73). Gli anacronismi, connaturati al genere del
romanzo storico, testimoniano l'intreccio tra fiction e history e dunque l'appor-
to romanzesco alla narrazione storica: il primo falsifica la verosimiglianza della
seconda e la trasforma in una performance letteraria e finzionale. Tale condi-
zione si ritrova nella riflessione di Scott fin da Waverley (1814), la sua prima
opera romanzesca, ritenuta l'archetipo del romanzo storico (Aust 1994, 64).

2. Scott nella Germania del primo Ottocento

La ricezione del romanzo storico di Scott in Germania comincia con un proces-
so traduttivo e mimetico: le traduzioni delle sue opere, che vengono realizzate in
vere e proprie *Übersetzungsfabriken*, ben presto superano quelle dei testi teatrali
francesi, come dimostrano le stime effettuate da Wilhelm Hauff, che in *Die Bü-
cher und die Lesewelt* (1827) menziona un totale di 60.000 esemplari, tra tradu-
zioni e imitazioni, di opere scottiane diffuse in Germania (Hauff 1962, 2:734).

Otto Johnston individua tre ragioni alla base dell'ossessione per Scott che
fin da subito si registra in Germania: in primo luogo, lo scrittore scozzese mos-
tra ammirazione per la lingua tedesca, da lui percepita come una lingua letteraria e per questo particolarmente adatta ad essere tradotta, come mostrano le traduzioni delle ballate *Der wilde Jäger* e *Lenore* di Gottfried August Bürger che egli realizza (Johnston 1980, 77-78). Sebbene manchino di accuratezza letterale, queste varianti riescono a trasmettere lo spirito dell'opera, pregio che fa guadagnare a Scott l'ammirazione di Goethe. Questi afferma – e si arriva così al secondo motivo che Johnston vede alla base del successo dello scrittore scozzese in Germania – che Scott deve il suo successo alla affascinante storia del Regno Unito oggetto del suo romanzo, mentre un simile fascino è interdetto al poeta tedesco (Eckermann 1836, 2:304). Da ultimo, l'abilità letteraria di Scott – e dunque il suo successo in Germania – sarebbe stata alimentata dallo studio dei Romantici tedeschi, tra cui Veit Weber, le cui *Sagen der Vorzeit* non solo avrebbero stimolato l'immaginazione dello scrittore scozzese, ma gli avrebbero anche insegnato a selezionare con metodo le fonti che documentano la storia del proprio Paese (Johnston 1980, 77-78).

### 3. Scott: un modello controverso

La ricezione di Scott in Germania è mediata anche da illustri rappresentanti della letteratura tedesca come Ranke, Alexander von Humboldt, Goethe e Heine. Essi apprezzano i romanzi dello scrittore scozzese per il loro stile narrativo, ma ne criticano le analisi storiche. Heine dichiara di aver scritto i drammi *Alman sor e William Ratcliff*, contenuti nella raccolta *Tragödien nebst einem lyrischen Intermezzo* (1823), sotto l'influsso di Scott e, in *Die Nordsee. Dritte Abtheilung* (1826), ne elogia le opere per aver dato voce a popoli eliminati dalla memoria collettiva, come gli Scozzesi e i Sassoni. Heine li paragona agli aztechi e agli ebrei sefarditi in virtù della loro comune identità di minoranze oppresse e perseguitate, eppure non ancora del tutto dimenticate (Heine 1973-1997, 6:160-61).<fnref n="1" /> Solo due anni dopo, nel 1828, commentando *The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte* (1827) di Scott per i «Neue allgemeine politische Annalen», Heine lo attacca pubblicamente: “Lobt ihn, den braven Bürger! lobt ihn, ihr sämmtlichen Philister des ganzen Erdballs! lob ihn, du liebe Krämertugend, die Alles aufopfert, um die

<footnote n="1">1 Di seguito citata con la sigla “DHA” (Düsseldorfer Heine-Ausgabe), seguita dall'indicazione del numero di volume e di pagina.</footnote>
Wechsel am Verfalltage einzulösen – nur Mir muthet nicht zu, daß auch ich ihn lobe” (DHA, 7/1:223). Solo poche righe più avanti si legge: “Es war Britanniens größter Dichter, man mag sagen und einwenden, was man will” (Ibid.).

Sebbene questo rapporto ‘schizofrenico’ di odio e amore sia tipico degli esponenti del *Junges Deutschland*, la distanza che Heine marca da Scott e dall’egemonia da lui esercitata sul panorama letterario tedesco degli anni Venti e Trenta non rappresenta semplicemente l’istintiva reazione di un ‘patriota’, peraltro aspro oppositore dello sciovinismo prussiano. Amato e odiato dai riformatori tedeschi negli anni Trenta, stimato e denigrato dai rivoluzionari negli anni Quaranta, emulato e preso in giro dai critici nell’immediato perio- do post-hegeliano, Walter Scott è probabilmente l’autore che esercita l’impatto più paradossale sui letterati tedeschi (Johnston 1980, 74). Questa relazione am- bivalente sembra intensificarsi dal 1826, quando il fallimento delle case editri- ci Ballantyne e Constable causa a Scott un debito di 117.000 sterline, per far fronte al quale lo scrittore compone una serie di opere, tra cui la biografia di Napoleone che però, a detta di Heine, non lo avrebbe aiutato a risollevarsi, ma danneggiato (DHA, 7/1:222).

Heine si confronta con Scott anche nell'Introduzione alla nuova traduzione tedesca del *Don Chisciotte* del 1837 (Furlani 2017, 1n1). Egli presenta in maniera sintetica e incisiva la propria poetica, inserendovi una breve storia del romanzo moderno: identificandosi con Cervantes e con il suo eroe, Heine riflette su se stesso, sulla propria lirica e sul proprio tempo.<fnref n="2" /> Come sempre accade con l’aut- tore tedesco, l’identificazione non è totale e scontata, ma problematica, e lascia scoperte alcune incongruenze dalle quali traspaiono altre personalità letterarie, tra cui Walter Scott:

> Wie nemlich Cervantes das demokratische Element in den Roman hineinbrachte [...] so brachte Walter Scott in den Roman wieder das aristokratische Element zurück, als dieses gänzlich darin erloschen war, und nur prosaische Spießbürgerlichkeit dort ihr Wesen trieb. Durch ein entgegengesetztes Verfahren hat Walter Scott dem Roman jenes schöne Ebenmaß wiedergegeben, welches wir im Don Quixote des Cervantes bewundern. [...] Es ist ein Irrthum, wenn man Walter Scott nicht als den wahren Begründer des sogenannten historischen Romans ansehen will und letztern von deutschen Anregungen herleitet. Man verkennt, daß das Charakteristische der historischen Romane eben in der Harmonie des

<footnote n="2">2 Scrivendo di *Don Chisciotte*, Heine si inserisce nel solco della riflessione avviata da Hegel, di cui era stato allievo all’università (Ferron 2016, 220-21).</footnote>
aristokratischen und demokratischen Elements besteht; daß Walter Scott diese Harmonie
[...] durch die Wiedereinsetzung des aristokratischen Elements aufs schönste herstellte, statt
daß unsere deutschen Romantiker das demokratische Element in ihren Romanen gänzlich
verläugneten und wieder in das aberwitzige Gleise des Ritterromans, der vor Cervantes
blühte, zurückkehrten (DHA, 10:258).

Heine lega la figura di Cervantes e quella di Scott in un rapporto comple-
mentare: se il primo ha reintrodotto nel romanzo l'elemento democratico, il
secondo vi ha reintrodotto quello aristocratico, indispensabile perché un ro-
manzo storico sia tale. È per questo che Heine riconosce Scott come il fondat-
tore del genere e smentisce coloro che avevano avuto la pretesa di individuarlo
in presunti modelli tedeschi. L'ammirazione che Heine sembra riservare a Scott
in questa sezione viene però mitigata nella successiva:

Ich habe Walter Scott den zweiten großen Dichter Englands und seine Romane
Meisterwerke genannt. Aber nur seinem Genius wollte ich das höchste Lob ertheilen. Seine
Romane selbst kann ich dem großen Roman des Cervantes keineswegs gleichstellen [...].
Cervantes war, wie ich schon erwähnt habe, ein katholischer Dichter, und dieser Eigenschaft
verdankt er vielleicht jene große epische Seelenruhe, die, wie ein Krystallhimmel seine
bunten Dichtungen überwölbt [...]. Walter Scott aber gehört einer Kirche, welche selbst
die göttlichen Dinge einer scharfen Diskussion unterwirft; als Advokat und Schotte ist er
gewöhnt an Handlung und Diskussion, und wie in seinem Geiste und Leben, so ist auch in
seinen Romanen das Dramatische vorherrschend. Seine Werke können daher nimmermehr
als reine Muster jener Dichtungsart, die wir Roman nennen, betrachtet werden (Ibid.: 259).

Heine precisa che di Scott bisogna lodare il genio, laddove questo termine è da
intendersi secondo quanto postulato dal Romanticismo: il genio è un creatore,
un doppio di Dio che però, a differenza della divinità, non crea *ex nihilo*, ma da
una realtà preesistente, ponendo delle regole sue e non subendo quelle altrui
(Zumbusch 2019, 51, 63-64, 70; Agazzi e Gabbiadini 2024, 52). Di Scott non bi-
sogna lodare, dunque, la persona che ha prodotto romanzi i quali, peraltro, non
sono assolutamente equiparabili all'opera cervantina. Secondo la lettura che ne
danno i Romantici, in particolar modo Friedrich Schlegel (1958, 159 e ss.), il *Don
Chisciotte* costituirebbe l'unico vero archetipo del genere del romanzo: avendo
dato vita a un cavaliere connotato da libertà individuale, ma anche debolezza e
imperfezione, Cervantes tocca aspetti fondamentali della riflessione romantica
che condiziona in maniera evidente la lettura del romanzo cervantino suggerita
da Heine (Ferron 2016, 220-21). Lo scrittore tedesco elogia il *Don Chisciotte* in
quanto opera imbevuta di umanità e di vita autentica (DHA, 7:198), doti dovute
alla capacità di Cervantes di capovolgere in chiave ironica la realtà del racconto
attraverso i suoi personaggi. Tale rovesciamento, che Heine individua come pe-
culiare del romanzo moderno (Ibid.: 10:261), lo avvicina al genere epico<fnref n="3" /> e lo
contrappone al dramma, dando luogo a un rapporto antitetico che assume una
conformazione umana nell'antitesi tra Cervantes e Scott. Se solo poco prima
erano stati posti da Heine in un rapporto complementare (Ibid.: 258), adesso i
due autori sembrano collocarsi in un rapporto oppositivo entro cui Cervantes
è un poeta cattolico dallo spirito epico e sereno – e per questo insuperabile –,
Scott un poeta protestante dallo spirito spiccatamente drammatico.

L'atteggiamento mutevole di Heine nei confronti di Scott può essere ri-
condotto all'elemento che caratterizza la vita e l'opera dello scrittore tedesco,
ossia la sua Zerrissenheit (Foi 2015, 175-92), i cui numerosi aspetti fanno capo
alla polarità di fondo su cui si basa la sua esistenza: essere ebreo ed essere tedes-
co. Tutti i temi e i motivi della poetica heiniana, e dunque anche il suo modo
di rapportarsi ai modelli, risentono di questo radicale conflitto identitario, di
certo alimentato dall'ostilità antisemita della società tedesca del suo tempo.

4. La questione ebraica nell'Inghilterra e nella Germania post-napoleoniche

L'argomento ebraico che accomuna *Ivanhoe* e il *Rabbi di Bacherach* è estremamente attuale per entrambi gli autori: mentre Scott sta scrivendo il suo romanzo tra l'estate e l'autunno del 1819, in Germania la rinascita del medievalismo, che si accompagna a una interpretazione sempre meno inclusiva del concetto di identità nazionale, si sta rivelando particolarmente nociva (Ragussis 1993, 181). L'affermazione del nazionalismo tedesco, sancito dall'abolizione della lingua francese dopo la sconfitta di Napoleone, culmina nella *Hepp-Hepp Bewegung*, termine con cui si fa riferimento alle agitazioni antisemite che nel 1819 scuotono l'intera Germania con tumulti di piazza al grido di "Hep! Hep! Jude verreck!".<fnref n="4" /> Michael Ragussis (1993, 181) interpreta le persecuzioni del 1819 come

<footnote n="3">3 L'ironia è un elemento peculiare della narrazione epica occidentale fin da Omero (Pellizer 1994, 1).</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 Il grido “Hep” è probabilmente un acronimo del motto latino “Hierосolyma est perdita” (Gerusalemme è perduta). Cfr. Heine 2017, 33n42.</footnote>
il segno più evidente di un problema dalle conseguenze internazionali a cui il
romanzo di Scott voleva essere una risposta: il confitto tra identità nazionale
europea e identità etnica ebraica. La sincronia tra stesura di *Ivanhoe* e recrudes-
cenza delle ostilità nei confronti degli ebrei in Germania può essere allora così
motivata: il romanzo storico di Scott esplora il rapporto tra le persecuzioni
ebraiche e la nascita dell'unità nazionale inglese nel XII secolo e si rivolge in
tal modo a tematiche cruciali per la situazione tedesca del 1819 (Ibid.: 181-82).
L'opera di Scott induce infatti a riflettere sul modo in cui le nazioni europee
contemporanee cercano di risolvere il conflitto tra ascesa del nazionalismo e
rivendicazione dell'emancipazione ebraica, non escludendo tra le varie opzioni
il ritorno degli ebrei in Palestina. Scott riflette su questo tema perché, all'epoca
in cui egli concepisce *Ivanhoe*, la questione ebraica sembrava pervadere l'intera
Europa sin dai tempi della Rivoluzione Francese. Ottenuta l'emancipazione
degli ebrei in Francia, Napoleone si batte invano per il loro ritorno in Palestina,
e in breve tempo l'antigiudaismo torna a imperversare anche in Germania e
in Inghilterra. Oltremanica, d'altro canto, numerosi sermoni, libri e *pamphlet*
proclamano gli ebrei come le figure centrali di una crisi mondiale che richiede
l'attenzione di tutte le nazioni, come mette in evidenza già dal titolo il saggio di
James Bicheno *The Restoration of the Jews, The Crisis of All Nations* (1800), nel
quale l'autore propone al suo governo di attuare un intervento antinapoleonico
di insediamento degli ebrei in Palestina (Ibid.; Ascarelli 2019, 123). In Inghilter-
ra, l'idea di riportare gli ebrei in Palestina è spesso alternativa a quella di conver-
tirli al cristianesimo, obiettivo con il quale nascono associazioni riconosciute in
tutta Europa, tra cui la più nota è la *London Society for Promoting Christianity
amongst the Jews* (1809), che diviene oggetto di scandalo per aver convertito gli
ebrei con mezzi illegittimi (Ragussis 1993, 184). Il fenomeno delle conversioni si
intensifica così tanto da diventare una problematica di interesse pubblico, con
la quale inevitabilmente anche la letteratura finisce per confrontarsi.

In *Ivanhoe*, le scene di proselitismo nei confronti degli ebrei sono numerose
e costituiscono per Scott parte integrante della storia dell'Inghilterra medievale;
ricorrendo al tema della conversione, egli si inserisce nel dibattito ottocentesco
sull'identità nazionale inglese, in particolare sulla questione della contrappo-
sizione tra identità etniche e identità nazionali (Ibid.: 185).<fnref n="5" /> All'interno di tale

<footnote n="5">5 Tale questione, ancor prima che dagli scrittori di romanzi, è sollevata dagli storici del tempo (Freeman 2018; Turner 2018; Burke 2020).</footnote>
dibattito, Scott si colloca in una posizione eccentrica che gli deriva, almeno in parte, dalla sua identità di scrittore scozzese di storia inglese: Scott ne critica e rivede il modello convenzionale, che si basava sull'idea di una diretta e 'pura' continuità tra l'inglese moderno e il suo antenato sassone. In una simile prospettiva, *Ivanhoe* si configura allora come un attacco al cittadino inglese moderno in favore dell'idea di storia come "record of difference" (Ibid.: 191).

Inserendo il tema della conversione nel contesto della storia degli ebrei inglesi, Scott lo demistifica e secolarizza, riscrivendo la storia inglese come storia anglo-ebraica e svelando così come le differenze etniche e culturali fossero state fino a quel momento ignorate per scrivere una storia inglese nazionalista, più che nazionale (Ibid.: 185). Scott si oppone dunque all'idea di conversione come "form of evolutionary continuity" (Ibid.: 187), preferendone la lettura di "form of radical discontinuity" (Ibid.), un mezzo di separazione dell'ebreo dalle sue origini ancestrali. Attraverso la conversione, infatti, una cultura cerca di assorbirne un'altra, obiettivo che in certi momenti storici si è tentato di raggiungere in maniera radicale con il genocidio. Questo spiega il parallelismo che Scott istituisce tra il progetto inglese di convertire gli ebrei e inglobare gli scozzesi nell'Inghilterra a lui contemporanea e il tentato genocidio dei Sassoni durante la conquista normanna che fa da sfondo a *Ivanhoe*: la storia degli ebrei inglesi privati dei diritti politici e civili, con la conseguente mancanza di uno *status* nazionale che li identifichi, è per Scott analoga alla condizione, di cui egli stesso fa esperienza, degli Scozzesi dopo la loro annessione alla Gran Bretagna con l'Atto di Unione del 1707 e a quella dei Sassoni dopo la conquista normanna (Ibid.: 189).

## 5. *La fede ebraica in Ivanhoe: Rebecca di York*

Partendo dall'analisi del caso specifico degli ebrei inglesi del XII secolo, Scott sembra indagare il problema dell'osmosi tra il legame con l'eredità religiosa e culturale e la necessità di emancipazione nella società moderna secolare. Questa esigenza è comune tanto agli ebrei inglesi del 1194 di *Ivanhoe* quanto a quelli tedeschi del 1495 del *Rabbi di Bacherach*, che vede nell'opera dello scozzese il suo principale modello. Oltre ad appartenere allo stesso genere e ad essere ambientati entrambi nel Medioevo, i due romanzi presentano in partenza molti temi simili che, però, si sviluppano nel corso della narrazione con esiti piuttosto differenti.
Un tema comune a entrambe le opere è quello della conversione dall'ebraismo al cristianesimo, che in ambedue i casi interessa le protagoniste femminili, Rebecca di York in *Ivanhoe* e Sara nel *Rabbi*. La prima, figlia del ricco usuraio Isaak di York, è la protagonista femminile della trama ebraica del romanzo, se si accoglie la bipartizione in "Saxon-Norman plot" e "Jewish plot" individuata da Ragussis (1993, 200). All'interno della narrazione, è possibile riconoscere tre tentativi di convertire Rebecca. Ciascuno di essi rappresenta una risposta diversa alla questione dell'identità ebraica nella storia europea e suggerisce dunque una possibilità alternativa di definire l'identità nazionale inglese.

Rebecca viene indotta per la prima volta alla conversione nel capitolo 24, quando il templare Brian de Bois-Guilbert prova a sedurla prospettandole l'allettante possibilità di un ritorno degli ebrei in Palestina. Per raggiungere il suo scopo, Guilbert fa leva su una questione molto dibattuta in Europa tra fine Settecento e inizio Ottocento, ossia la possibilità che gli ebrei siano disposti a rinunciare alla propria religione per ottenere l'emancipazione sociale. Il tentativo di convertire Rebecca cela quella che in realtà è la vera intenzione del templare, ma le due richieste vengono presentate in maniera tale da apparire complementari. La donna, incorruttibile, non cede ai ricatti:

"Submit to my fate!" said Rebecca – "and, sacred Heaven! to what fate? – Embrace thy religion! and what religion can it be that harbours such a villain? – *Thou* the best lance of the Templars! – Craven knight! – forsworn priest! I spit at thee, and I defy thee. – The God of Abraham's promise hath opened an escape to his daughter – even from this abyss of infamy" (Scott 2000, 199).

Il secondo tentativo di convertire Rebecca si ha nel capitolo 37 durante il processo a Templestowe intentatole dai templari con l'accusa di stregoneria, causa e conseguenza della sua condizione di donna ebrea molto attraente, che la espo-ne al rischio di una condanna al rogo.<fnref n="6" /> Durante il processo, in cui si susseguono testimonianze superstiziose e prive di fondamento, Rebecca non si lascia inti-morire dalla ferocia dei presenti e dichiara ad alta voce la propria innocenza:

"There is yet one chance of life left to me", said Rebecca, "even by your own fierce laws. Life has been miserable – miserable, at least, of late – but I will not cast away the gift of

<footnote n="6">6 In età medievale e moderna, l'antigiudaismo si avvale ampiamente dell'accusa di stregoneria rivolta agli ebrei (Caffiero 2021a; Caffiero 2021b).</footnote>
God while He affords me the means of defending it. I deny this charge – I maintain my innocence, and I declare the falsehood of this accusation. I challenge the privilege of trial by combat, and will appear by my champion” (Ibid.: 329).

L'accusa di stregoneria è solo il pretesto per attaccare Rebecca in quanto ebrea, poiché il giudice è disposto ad assolverla solo se si convertirà: “"[...] Repent, O my daughter – confess thy witchcrafts – turn thee from thine evil faith – embrace this holy emblem, and all shall yet be well with thee here and hereafter. [...]"” (Ibid.: 330). Con questo episodio Scott vuole dunque muovere una critica al trattamento cristiano degli ebrei: a essere sotto processo non è Rebecca con l'accusa di stregoneria, ma il clero cristiano con l'accusa di fanatismo e xenofobia ai danni degli ebrei (Ragussis 1993, 201). A conferma di questo, la donna alla fine riesce a sottrarsi sia alla conversione sia al rogo.

La collisione tra etnie e religioni, che rimanda alla questione dell'identità nazionale inglese, culmina nella figura di Rowena, la protagonista femminile della trama sassone-normanna: il suo matrimonio con Ivanhoe suggella l'imagine della nuova Inghilterra come realtà ibrida di Sassoni e Normanni, ed è per questo che il suo personaggio appare a Scott particolarmente adatto a essere lo strumento del terzo e ultimo tentativo di conversione di Rebecca. L'autore colloca l'incontro tra le due donne in una posizione strategica, ossia il giorno immediatamente successivo al matrimonio tra Rowena e Ivanhoe, a cui partecipano sia la nobiltà sassone sia quella normanna: se da un lato la cerimonia suggella la felice unione dei due popoli, non riesce dall'altro a dirimere la questione del futuro dell'etnia ebraica in Inghilterra:

> She entered – a noble and commanding figure, the long white veil, in which she was shrouded, overshadowing rather than concealing the elegance and majesty of her shape. Her demeanour was that of respect, unmingled by the least shade either of fear, or of a wish to propitiate favour. Rowena, however full of her own rank, was ever ready to acknowledge the claims, and attend to the feelings, of others. [...] Elgitha had no sooner retired with unwilling steps, than, to the surprise of the Lady of Ivanhoe, her fair visitant kneeled on one knee, pressed her hands to her forehead, and bending her head to the ground, in spite of Rowena's resistance, kissed the embroidered hem of her tunic (Scott 2000, 398).

L'entrata improvvisa e inaspettata di Rebecca nella camera di Rowena nell'ultimo capitolo permette la riscrittura della storia inglese come storia anglo-ebraica. La sua è una vera e propria intrusione, non solo di tipo spaziale nella stanza, ma anche e soprattutto di tipo psichico nella coscienza di Rowena, chiamata
ora “Lady of Ivanhoe”, e per estensione in quella dell’Inghilterra tutta. L’im-
provviso rientro di Rebecca nell’epilogo del romanzo rappresenta “the power
of the return of the repressed” (Ragussis 1993, 202): dopo essere uscita di scena
al capitolo 37, ella torna nel capitolo 44 a macchiare la coscienza dell’Inghilter-
ra in quanto rappresentante di quella questione religiosa ed etnica che il Paese
non è in grado di risolvere. Con la scusa di voler salutare e ringraziare Ivanhoe
per averla sostenuta a Templestowe permettendo la sua assoluzione, Rebecca
ribadisce le sue riserve nei riguardi dell’Inghilterra cristiana:

“You leave England, then”, said Rowena, scarce recovering the surprise of this extraordinary visit.
“I leave, lady, ere this moon again changes. My father hath a brother high in favour with Mohammed Boabdil, King of Granada – thither we go, secure of peace and protection, for the payment of such ransom as the Moslem exact from our people”.

“And are you not then as well protected in England?” said Rowena. “My husband has favour with the King – the King himself is just and generous”.

“Lady”, said Rebecca, “I doubt it not – but the people of England are a fierce race, quarrelling ever with their neighbours or among themselves, and ready to plunge the sword into the bowels of each other. Such is no safe abode for the children of my people. [...] Not in a land of war and blood, surrounded by hostile neighbours, and distracted by internal factions, can Israel hope to rest during her wanderings” (Scott 2000, 399).

In occasione della sua visita, Rebecca annuncia che a breve lascerà l’Inghil-
terra cristiana per la Spagna musulmana, da lei ritenuta un luogo più sicuro
e ospitale per gli ebrei. Con questa affermazione Rebecca si fa portavoce di
un’idea condivisa nella realtà storica da molti suoi correligionari e non solo,
tanto nel XII secolo, l’epoca di ambientazione del romanzo, quanto nel XIX,
l’epoca della sua stesura. La Spagna del XII secolo è erede di quella dell’XI,
considerato un secolo d’oro per gli ebrei (Sonino 2006, 38), che possono
vivere senza timore di persecuzioni e pienamente integrati nella società del
tempo, alla cui crescita contribuiscono non solo con i commerci, ma anche
con l’arte, la letteratura, le conoscenze matematiche e filosofiche. La Spagna
dell’XI secolo è un Paese aperto e florido in cui convivono pacificamente mu-
sulmani, ebrei e cristiani, o questa è perlomeno l’immagine divulgata dalla
storiografia ottocentesca.<fnref n="7" /> Tale percezione, infatti, è in parte falsata e idealiz-

<footnote n="7">7 Si pensi agli scritti di Leopold Zunz e Immanuel Wohlwill, ma già Johann Jacob Schudt nel secolo precedente aveva sostenuto questa visione (Jäger 1999, 111-12, 124).</footnote>
zata: da un'attenta analisi delle fonti che documentano questo periodo della storia della Spagna, è possibile rivedere e rettificare in maniera significativa l'idea di un'epoca d'oro della penisola iberica sotto il dominio arabo (Altamira 1999, 483, 500-1). Nonostante questo, è pur vero che in Spagna l'antiguidaismo attecchisce più tardi rispetto a quanto accada in Inghilterra, dove la prima espulsione forzata degli ebrei si verifica già nel 1290.<fnref n="8" />

L'esilio volontario di Rebecca sembra anticipare tale episodio, che molti storici leggono come una conseguenza diretta del fallimento della politica nazionalista inglese di convertire gli ebrei. Presa la sua decisione, a nulla valgono neppure i tentativi di Rowena di persuadere Rebecca a rimanere e, anzi, questa avverte il bisogno di omaggiare la “signora d'Ivanhoe” con un dono d'addio:

> “[...] Farewell. One, the most trifling part of my duty, remains undischarged. Accept this casket – startle not at its contents”.

Rowena opened the small silver-chased casket, and perceived a carcanet, or necklace, with ear-jewels, of diamonds, which were visibly of immense value.

“It is impossible”, she said, tendering back the casket. “I dare not accept a gift of such consequence”.

“Yet keep it, lady”, returned Rebecca. – “You have power, rank, command, and influence; we have wealth, the source both of our strength and weakness. The value of these toys, ten times multiplied, would not influence half so much as your slightest wish. To you, therefore, the gift is of little value – and to me, what I part with is of much less. Let me not think you deem so wretchedly ill of my nation as your commons believe. Think ye that I prize these sparkling fragments of stone above my liberty? or that my father values them in comparison to the honour of his only child? Accept them, lady – to me they are valueless. I will never wear jewels more” (Scott 2000, 400).

Il dono che Rowena riceve da Rebecca sottolinea ancora di più la distanza che separa le due donne secondo una visione stereotipata: l'una cristiana, quindi aristocratica e potente, l'altra ebrea, dunque attaccata ai beni materiali che rappresentano il suo unico valore, secondo un pregiudizio ampiamente attestato nel Medioevo<fnref n="9" /> che pesa ancora di più su di lei a causa

<footnote n="8">8 L'antigiudaismo in Spagna si intensifica infatti a partire dal XIV secolo e raggiunge l'apice alla fine del XV con l'espulsione definitiva degli ebrei nel 1492.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">9 Dall'epoca post-diasporica in poi, gli ebrei sono sempre stati considerati un popolo benestante, ma proprio questo aspetto è stato impiegato in alcuni periodi storici per alimentare il pregiudizio antisemita (Todeschini 1989; Trivellato 2021).</footnote>
della professione di usuraio del padre; proprio da questo pregiudizio Rebecca sente il bisogno di difendersi sbarazzandosi del prezioso portagioie. Più che indice dell'avidità degli ebrei, i gioielli sono l'emblema dell'orgoglio e della vanità di Rowena; la loro cessione equivale al sacrificio che Rebecca compie per dimostrare come la donna ebrea sia in grado di definire se stessa anche al di là dei valori mondani tradizionalmente attribuitile; a riprova di questo, ella afferma perentoriamente che non indosserà mai più alcun gioiello. Rowena coglie il momento di difficoltà della donna per prospettarle la soluzione della conversione:

"You are then unhappy", said Rowena [...]. "O, remain with us – the counsel of holy men will wean you from your unhappy law, and I will be a sister to you".

"No, lady", answered Rebecca [...] "that may not be. I may not change the faith of my fathers [...] and unhappy, lady, I will not be. He, to whom I dedicate my future life, will be my comforter, if I do His will" (Scott 2000, 400).

La posizione di Rowena è molto chiara: la religione cristiana è fatta di “holy men” a cui conviene appoggiarsi per allontanarsi dalla “unhappy law” che è l’ebraismo. Altrettanto chiara è la posizione di Rebecca: nessuna protezione cristiana varrà mai tanto quanto la sua volontà di preservare e difendere la fede dei padri. Il suo punto di vista rimanda ad aspetti fondamentali della riflessione ottocentesca sull’ebraismo: donna colta e attraente, Rebecca rapresenta l’interstizio che si forma tra il legame con la tradizione ebraica d’origine e il contatto con l’ambiente cristiano esterno (Krobb 1993, 106); quest’a sua natura la rende particolarmente vicina alla sensibilità di Heine che, come molti altri autori dell’epoca, fa di *Ivanhoe* il suo principale modello. Egli sente, tuttavia, di avere un obiettivo diverso da quello dei suoi connazionali, i quali si erano accostati all’opera dello scrittore scozzese con superficialità, come dimostra la sfilata satirica, al limite del ridicolo, che viene messa in scena a Berlino nel 1822 (DHA, 6:28-29): con il suo *Rabbi*, Heine mira a un esame più serio e meno sentimentale del *best seller* attraverso il quale riflettere sul problema dell’integrazione sociale degli ebrei nella prima metà nel XIX secolo (Krobb 2000, 49), con particolare riferimento al fenomeno della conversione.
## 6. La fede ebraica nel Rabbi di Bacherach: “la bella Sara”

Analogamente a quanto si legge in *Ivanhoe*, anche nel *Rabbi* la conversione è ritenuta un pericolo da respingere per preservare la propria identità e, come in *Ivanhoe*, anche nel *Rabbi* a essere esposta a questo rischio è la protagonista femminile: Sara, la moglie di Rabbi Abraham. La sua descrizione è in linea con “that tradition of sympathetic Jewesses which Scott had so notably furthered” (Prawer 1986, 86) e infatti appare molto simile a quella di Rebecca. Le due sono accomunate da una bellezza straordinaria, che però è connotata diversamente per l’una e per l’altra. Nel primo capitolo del *Rabbi*, per la precisione nella sezione in cui viene descritto il rito della Pasqua, Sara viene presentata così: “Die schöne Sara [...] trug als Wirtin nichts von ihrem Geschmeide, nur weißes Linnen umschloß ihren schlanken Leib und ihr frommes Antlitz. Dieses Antlitz war rührend schön, wie denn überhaupt die Schönheit der Jüdinnen von eigentümlich rührender Art ist [...]” (DHA, 5:113). La bellezza di Sara sta nella sua semplicità disadorna, nella sua pudicizia e nella sua devozione; sembra che Heine non applichi indistintamente questa sobrietà spoglia a tutte le donne ebree, ma solo a Sara. Le donne invitate alla celebrazione, contrariamente a lei, indossano infatti vesti sfavillanti di pregevole fattura e portano intorno al capo e al collo gioielli d’oro e di perle. Heine ritrae Sara in questo modo per sottolineare la distanza che la separa dalle altre donne e la rende a esse superiore: la sua bellezza semplice è specchio della sua pudicizia, valore fondamentale perché la preserva dal rischio di conversione e dunque assimilazione.

La bellezza di Rebecca, al contrario, rispecchia i ritratti orientaleggianti delle donne ebree diffusi nella pittura a partire dal XVII secolo e ben noti al pubblico di lettori europeo:

Her form was exquisitely symmetrical, and was shewn to advantage by a sort of Eastern dress, which she wore according to the fashion of the females of her nation. Her turban of yellow silk suited well with the darkness of her complexion. The brilliancy of her eyes, the superb arch of her eyebrows, her well-formed aquiline nose, her teeth as white as pearl, and the profusion of her sable tresses, which, each arranged in its own little spiral of twisted curls, fell down upon as much of a anow-white neck and bosom as a simarre of the richest Persian silk, exhibiting flowers in their natural colours embossed upon a purple ground, permitted to be visible [...]. It is true, that of the golden and pearl-studded clasps which closed her vest from the throat to the waist, the three uppermost were left unfastened on account of the heat, which something enlarged the prospect to which we allude. A diamond necklace, with
pendants of inestimable value, were by this means also made more conspicuous. The feather of an ostrich, fastened in her turban by an agraffe set with brilliants, was another distinction of the beautiful Jewess [...] (Scott 2000, 71-72).

Se la descrizione della bellezza di Sara si concentra sulle qualità spirituali, quella di Rebecca si concentra sull'aspetto fisico, dando luogo a un ritratto influenzato dall'esotismo femminile di stampo orientale. Questa descrizione è, tuttavia, del tutto anacronistica: nel 1194, infatti, gli ebrei in Inghilterra vestono esattamente come i cristiani; sarà solo nel 1218 che verrà loro chiesto di indossare come segno distintivo una spilla di stoffa bianca con la riproduzione delle due Tavole della legge date a Mosè (Lewin 2006, 37). Gli anacronismi, funzionali al genere del romanzo storico, in questo caso servono a Scott per caratterizzare Rebecca secondo le convenzioni dell'epoca e mettere in risalto il punto di vista di chi la osserva, ossia un 'maschio cristiano superiore', sia egli il principe Giovanni, citato immediatamente prima come esperto conoscitore della bellezza femminile, il narratore onnisciente o il lettore (Lewin 2006, 31). La caratterizzazione dell'ebrea come orientale risulta così amplificata dal punto di vista di figure, siano esse interne o esterne alla narrazione, che, per i loro condizionamenti ideologici e sociali, saranno portati a percepire Rebecca come una pericolosa tentatrice. L'aspetto esteriore della donna ne maschera però la vera essenza: come gli episodi del romanzo dimostrano,<fnref n="10" /> Rebecca è una donna dotata di grande bontà, qualità che la avvicina alla Sara heiniana, con la quale ella condivide anche l'epiteto "bella". Come Rebecca viene spesso definita "la bella Rebecca", "la bella ebrea", "la bella figlia di Sion", "la perla di Sion", allo stesso modo Sara viene sempre definita "la bella Sara": il nome proprio non viene mai dissociato dall'aggettivo che lo qualifica, formando un binomio inscindibile e caratterizzante. Attribuendo questo epiteto alle due figure femminili, sia Scott sia Heine si inseriscono in un filone narrativo consolidato: l'espressione "bella ebrea" rinvia, infatti, a un *tépos* letterario e sociale che si afferma nella letteratura europea a partire dal *Mercante di Venezia* di Shakespeare, la cui Jessica costituisce il prototipo di questa nuova figura. Divisa tra un amante cristiano e un padre ebreo il cui unico potere è il denaro e il cui unico scopo è vendicare le ingiustizie che il suo popolo ha subito, ella incarna la questione ebraica in età moderna (Krobb 1993, 14-15).

<footnote n="10">10 Si pensi, ad esempio, a quando Rebecca, resa esperta nell'arte medica dagli insegnamenti della famosa Miriam, guarisce Ivanhoe, rimasto gravemente ferito durante un torneo, nonostante la diffidenza dell'uomo nei suoi confronti (Scott 2000, 234-36).</footnote>
Se Heine si mostra tradizionalista definendo Sara “bella”, egli compie un gesto innovativo capovolgendo l’immagine canonica della “bella ebrea”: Sara è, come la definisce Florian Krobb, una “mitleiderregende Paria” (Ibid.: 136), solenne nella sua semplicità e serietà durante la celebrazione della Pasqua. La definizione dello studioso non è casuale, ma rimanda al concetto di *Mitleid*, che svolge una funzione chiave nella cultura tedesca a partire dalla riflessione estetica formulata da Gotthold Ephraim Lessing durante l’Illuminismo. Se-condo quanto riportato dal *Deutsches Wörterbuch* dei fratelli Grimm (2023, 12, col. 2356), il *Mitleid* indica la “theilnahme an eines andern leid”<fnref n="11" /> ed è vista da Lessing come il fine della tragedia: essa deve rafforzare la capacità dell’uomo di provare compassione, categoria morale che diviene il fondamento di una nuova dottrina teatrale che si prefigge l’obiettivo di aderire alla realtà in tutte le sue forme, superando gli ideali estetici del bello e del sublime (Agazzi e Gabbiadini 2024, 28). La poetica della compassione lessingiana, che si rifà soprattutto al pensiero di Jean-Jacques Rousseau e Francis Hutcheson, riprende e trasforma la nozione di catarsi, fondativa del dramma greco antico: essa non identifica la purificazione dalle passioni, ma il sentire e il fare proprio il dolore altrui, contri-buendo così al progetto illuminista di emancipazione del genere umano (Ibid.: 29). Attribuendole l’aggettivo “mitleiderregend”, Krobb sembra voler inserire Sara nel solco della riflessione avviata da Lessing, invitando il lettore del *Rabbi* a provare per lei quella stessa emozione che l’illuminista tedesco considera il fine ultimo della tragedia. La connotazione di Sara come “mitleiderregend[e]” è conseguenza della sua identità di “Paria”, termine che amplifica l’immagine, già evidente nell’aggettivo, del suo essere innocente e indifesa, come si evince dalla semplicità del suo aspetto esteriore. Con i capelli raccolti con modestia secondo il costume previsto per le donne sposate, Sara è l’antitesi della classica “bella ebrea” con i capelli agghindati e le vesti sfarzose all’orientale, tratti che si ritrovano, invece, nella Rebecca scottiana (Krobb 1993, 137).

Nonostante la ben nota critica di Heine ai principi della *Kunstepoche*, non si può fare a meno di cogliere nella semplicità e compostezza di Sara un’eco dell’ideale della *schöne Seele*, caposaldo della riflessione etico-estetica di Friedrich Schiller: nel trattato *Über Anmut und Würde* (1793), l’autore smentisce il rigorismo etico kantiano in favore della possibilità di una conciliazione di inclinazione e dovere, sensualità e ragione (Borchmeyer 1998, 239-41; Meier

<footnote n="11">11 https://www.woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB (ultimo accesso: 07/01/2025).</footnote>
2008, 59-60); questa coesistenza armonica si realizza nel principio mediatore della grazia, che bilancia le opposte tendenze (Agazzi e Gabbiadini 2024, 109) sulle quali si fonda la *schöne Seele*: “In einer schönen Seele ist es also, wo Sinnlichkeit und Vernunft, Pflicht und Neigung harmonieren, und Grazie ist ihr Ausdruck in der Erscheinung” (Schiller 1994, 111). La grazia non ha a che vedere con l’estetica del corpo, ma è un’espressione dell’anima bella nella realtà fenomenica: essa si manifesta con movimenti distesi e liberi (Meier 2008, 61), che sono in perfetta armonia con i sentimenti e la volontà di chi la possiede. Una persona graziosa agisce con naturalezza e senza sforzo secondo un modello di comportamento che riflette la vera bellezza dell’anima umana. Con le sue azioni, che sono il riflesso diretto della sua bontà interiore, Sara sembra aderire a questo ideale, presente anche in molte altre opere della letteratura tedesca di fine Settecento e inizio Ottocento. Alla luce di questo, se da un lato è certo che, adottando l’espressione “schöne Sara”, Heine abbia voluto mettere in evidenza la sua adesione alla prospettiva letteraria e sociale inaugurata da Shakespeare, dall’altro è assai probabile che sempre con la stessa espressione egli abbia voluto richiamare la formula schilleriana “schöne Seele”, la cui evidente assonanza con la locuzione heiniana è a dir poco suggestiva e, pertanto, degna di essere sottolineata.

L’innata bontà di Sara, qualità che la avvicinerebbe all’ideale schilleriano della *schöne Seele*, si realizza nella tendenza della donna a fidarsi e ad affidarsi alla realtà circostante con candore e ingenuità, basandosi sulla forza del suo sentire. Siegbert S. Prawer (1986, 231) parla a proposito di Sara di una “sad and submissive beauty”: in ogni episodio del racconto ella appare indifesa e bisognosa di protezione e le sue parole sono sempre quelle di una donna che sembra non possa far altro che accettare passivamente quello che le accade, lasciando che siano gli altri a decidere per lei. Questo risulta maggiormente evidente nel secondo capitolo: dopo il *pogrom* che colpisce Bacherach, Sara e Rabbi Abraham sono costretti a fuggire e trovano riparo nel ghetto di Francoforte. Sottoponendo a un attento esame i vari momenti del cammino di Sara e del Rabbi attraverso Francoforte, Hartmut Kircher (1973, 235) ha constatato: “‘Mach die Augen zu, schöne Sara’ kommt nicht nur die Funktion einer klaren szenischen Gliederung des Aufbaus der Erzählung zu. Darüber hinaus deutet dieser Satz jedesmal auf eine Situation des Nichtteilhabens hin”. Di contro, Krobb osserva come paradossalmente proprio la non partecipazione di Sara mostri la sua volontà di prendere attivamente parte agli eventi che le capitano:
essa è da intendersi come il suo desiderio di appartenere alla società, che costituisce a sua volta la condicio sine qua non per raggiungere l'assimilazione. Come la Rebecca scottiana, anche Sara viene infatti esposta per tre volte a pericolose tentazioni assimilatrici. Tuttavia, se in Ivanhoe sono cronologicamente distinti e perpetrati da persone diverse, nel Rabbi i tentativi di conversione sono consecutivi e riconducibili alla stessa causa: la pericolosità della città. Provenendo dal ghetto di un piccolo villaggio, Sara rimane impressionata alla vista, per lei del tutto insolita, della grande fiera di Francoforte:

> Wie staunte die schöne Sara ob der Masse kostbarer Sachen und ihrer nie gesehenen Pracht!
> Da standen Venezianer, die allen Luxus des Morgenlands und Italiens feilboten, und die
> schöne Sara war wie festgebannt beim Anblick der aufgeschichteten Putzsachen und
> Kleinodien [...] "Mach die Augen zu, schöne Sara" - sagte der Rabbi, und führte seine Frau
> weiter durch das Menschengedränge (DHA, 5:122).

La fascinazione di Sara per questo ambiente mondano e cosmopolita sembra quasi farle dimenticare il *pogrom* da cui era fuggita solo poche ore prima. Il Rabbi percepisce la situazione e avverte la necessità di scongiurare il rischio che sua moglie si lasci coinvolgere dal mondo non ebraico così tanto da assimilarvisi. Proseguendo il loro cammino, i due si imbattono in un gruppo di prostitute in abiti succinti:

> Hierauf folgte, angeführt von dem Stöcker, der eine rote Fahne trug, ein Rudel fahrender
> Fräulein, die aus dem Frauenhause "Zum Esel" von Würzburg herkamen [...] "Mach
> die Augen zu, schöne Sara!" - sagte der Rabbi. Denn jene phantastisch und allzu knapp
> bekleideten Weibsbilder, worunter einige sehr hübsche, gebärdeten auf die unzüchtigste
> Weise, entblößtem ihren weißen, frechen Busen, neckten die Vorübergehenden mit
> schamlosen Worten [...] (Ibid.: 124).

La pudicizia di Sara dev'essere preservata, e per questo il Rabbi la sottrae alla vista di una tale oscenità. Se per lui è necessario metterla al riparo dalla promiscuità, lo è altrettanto allontanarla dalla religione cristiana che, allo stesso modo, potrebbe pericolosamente indurla all'assimilazione. Egli allontana allora Sara da un corteo sospetto di monaci, i quali compiono un rituale cristiano che il Rabbi avverte come particolarmente rischioso; esso, infatti, mostra apertamente la sontuosità del cerimoniale che lui e la moglie, in quanto ebrei, possono solo osservare dall'esterno, senza farne esperienza diretta neppure attraverso i consueti gesti cristiani della genuflessione e del segno della croce:
Das war ein trauriger Zug von kahlköpfigen und baarfüßigen Mönchen, welche brennende Wachslichter, oder Fahnen mit Heilgenbildern, oder auch große silberne Kruzifixe trugen [...]. In der Mitte des Zuges, unter einem prächtigen Baldachin, sah man Geistliche in weißen Chorhemden von kostbaren Spitzen oder in buntseidnen Stolen, und einer derselben trug in der Hand ein sonnenartig goldnes Gefäß, das er, bei einer Heiligennische der Marktecke anlangend, hoch emporhob, während er lateinische Worte halb rief, halb sang... Zugleich erklingelte ein kleines Glöckchen und alles Volk ringsum verstummte, fiel auf die Knie und bekreuzte sich. Der Rabbi aber sprach zu seinem Weibe: "mach die Augen zu, schöne Sara!" – und hastig zog er sie von hinnen [...] (Ibid.: 124-25).

I tre episodi che si svolgono lungo questo itinerario rappresentano i possibili contatti di Sara col mondo non ebraico. A differenza di quanto accade in *Ivanhoe* per Rebecca, nel *Rabbi* i tre tentativi di persuadere Sara alla conversione non sono espliciti, ma indiretti, celati dietro immagini che vengono comunque percepite da Rabbi Abraham come potenzialmente pericolose per la moglie. In questo risiede un'ulteriore differenza tra il *Rabbi* e il modello scottiano: se in *Ivanhoe* è Rebecca stessa a opporsi fermamente alle esplicite esortazioni a convertirsi, nel *Rabbi* Sara appare affascinata da questa prospettiva, che però è suggerita solo indirettamente da immagini viste di sfuggita.

Sebbene collocati nel contesto storico del Medioevo, i tre episodi si riferiscono alla necessità di assimilazione che gli ebrei della Germania di Heine ritengono indispensabile per poter partecipare alla vita pubblica e integrarsi così pienamente nella società. Heine, tuttavia, ritiene queste possibilità d'integrazione chiaramente poco efficaci, se non addirittura irrealizzabili; le parole con cui egli descrive le vesti preziose che Sara ammira alla fiera di Francoforte enfatizzano sin da subito il carattere profondamente ingannevole di ciò che viene percepito, smascherando la convinzione che Heine ha dell'insensatezza di simili processi assimilatori: "[...] die goldgestickten Kleider blinzelten nach ihr wie mit tausend Schelmenaugen und redeten ihr alles Dunkle aus dem Sinn" (Ibid.: 122).

Nonostante la consapevolezza del costante pericolo a cui è esposto Israele, per mettere al sicuro Sara, il Rabbi non offre una soluzione alternativa a quella dell'assimilazione. L'unica strategia che egli riesce a mettere in atto è ordinare a Sara di ignorare la minaccia che attenta alla loro condizione di vita: il cristianesimo, che si manifesta sottoforma di materialismo, fantasie sessuali e fanatismo religioso (Krobb 2000, 54-55).
7. *Identità nazionale e identità etnica: un conflitto insanabile*

Mentre in *Ivanhoe* Scott associa agli ebrei un ruolo che corrisponde a una loro immagine stereotipata, nel *Rabbi* Heine rappresenta più ruoli possibili – l'ebreo devoto, la donna attratta dal mondo non ebraico, il marrano blasfemo – e al tempo stesso li rifiuta tutti, non riuscendo a fornire, contrariamente a quanto si era prefisso, una risposta al problema degli ebrei nella società a lui contemporanea. Nessuno dei personaggi, infatti, testimonia la possibilità di un'esistenza appagante per gli ebrei; in quest'ottica va letto anche lo stato lacunoso del testo heiniano, la cui frammentarietà permette di formulare più interpretazioni dello stesso racconto.<fnref n="12" /> Tale pluralità sembra non essere contemplata in *Ivanhoe*, in cui il destino dell'ebreo è ricondotto a un bivio tra la conversione e la libertà. Rebecca riesce a sottrarsi a questa logica binaria perversa emigrando in Spagna: rassegnatasi all'inconciliabilità delle differenze religiose, ella si vede costretta ad abbandonare l'Inghilterra.

Secondo Krobb (2000, 57), il *Rabbi* avrebbe portato alla luce i limiti del romanzo storico di Scott, la cui “epische Geschlossenheit” sarebbe inadatta a presentare l’insolubilità della questione della vita degli ebrei negli ambienti a maggioranza non ebraica e apertamente ostili nei loro confronti. Un simile quadro può essere presentato efficacemente solo da un’opera incompiuta che, in quanto tale, è irrisolta, come irrisolta e irrisolvibile è la questione che affronta. Se da un lato la tesi di Krobb sull’efficacia della forma frammentaria per presentare le condizioni di vita degli ebrei è convincente, dall’altro appare discutibile la sua opinione sull’inefficacia del romanzo unitario scottiano nel trattare la materia

<footnote n="12">12 La frammentarietà del *Rabbi* è voluta ed esplicitamente dichiarata da Heine, il quale infatti gli dà il sottotitolo di *Ein Fragment* (DHA, 5:107). Molteplici sono le interpretazioni che la critica ha formulato per giustificare tale scelta: essa potrebbe essere indizio della volontà dell’autore di aderire alla poetica romantica del frammento di schlegeliana memoria (Feuchtwanger 1985, 30) o segno della consapevolezza, da lui maturata nel corso del tempo, della impossibilità di realizzare quella simbiosi culturale ebraico-tedesca di cui l’opera voleva essere il simbolo (Bosco 2012, 56). Si è anche sostenuto che la scelta del frammento, che permette all’autore di presentare il suo racconto come una narrazione *in fieri* a finale aperto, sia specchio del modo con cui egli vuole raccontare la storia ebraica: essa si configura non come una ricostruzione ordinata e progressiva degli eventi del passato, ma come il disvelamento della loro molteplicità, vitalità e contraddittorietà, in accordo con la polifonia e la multiformità connaturate nell’esperienza storica (Ibid.; Witte 1997, 45).</footnote>
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Silvana Ameruoso ha studiato Lettere classiche e Germanistica alle Università di Bari e di Kiel. Attualmente, è dottoranda in Letteratura tedesca presso l'Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro in co-tutela con l'Università di Augsburg. Il suo progetto di ricerca indaga le possibili modalità di codificazione di un'identità ebraico-tedesca nell'opera di Georg Hermann.
<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>
Letizia Cinganotto
University for Foreigners of Perugia

AI-CLIL:
Artificial Intelligence for CLIL methodology

Abstract

Grounded in recent developments related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its growing impact on education, this study investigates how CLIL (Content and Language Integrat-ed Learning) teachers perceive and apply AI in lesson planning and classroom practice. Drawing on training initiatives on CLIL carried out during the 2024/25 academic year, the research explores how teachers are using AI to address common challenges, such as time constraints in planning, the need for personalized education, adapting materials to the actu-al students' levels of competence, managing immediate and effective feedback. During the research a mixed-methods approach was used, combining a quantitative survey involving 249 teachers with qualitative interviews conducted with four experienced CLIL teachers. Thematic analysis of the interviews and open-ended survey responses indicates a generally optimistic view of the potential of AI to enrich student engagement, support personal-ized learning, enhance language and content acquisition and digital competence. Teachers highlighted the efficiency and adaptability of AI tools in creating dynamic and accessible resources. However, they also raised concerns about inadequate training, limited techno-logical infrastructure, and the absence of clear implementation policies on AI. Overall, the study shows the importance of comprehensive investment in professional development, school resources, and strategic planning to ensure that AI can be effectively integrated into daily teaching practice and foster CLIL pedagogy.

1. *Introduction*

We live in a globalized, interconnected world where change is constant and rapid, especially in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is reshaping every aspect of society, including education and language learning. In this con-text, it is crucial for language professionals to adopt a growth mindset enabling
them to rethink and reimagine the language learning process in response to
students' evolving needs and contemporary educational challenges.

AI refers to software that produces outputs based on human-defined objec-
tives, using various techniques and approaches. Trained on large datasets, these
tools can perform tasks traditionally requiring human intelligence and reason-
ing. In educational settings, such datasets often include personal information
classified as educational data. Therefore, educators should integrate AI tools
into instructional designs that prioritize the privacy and security of sensitive
information (Punie and Redecker 2017; Vuorikari et al. 2022).

This principle is at the core of the “Ethical Guidelines on the Use of Arti-
ficial Intelligence (AI) and Data in Teaching and Learning” (European Com-
mission 2022), a key reference document that outlines the opportunities and
risks associated with AI in education. Focused on systems that process large
volumes of data, including sensitive data, the document, part of the broader
“Digital Education Action Plan”, aims to support the digital transformation
of education and training systems across Europe.

Among its key contributions is the development of a legal framework for
the use of AI in high-risk sectors, such as education and vocational training,
introducing mandatory safeguards for implementation. Complementing this,
the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Students and Teachers (UNE-
SCO 2024) offers a comprehensive guide for integrating AI literacy in educa-
tion. It highlights the knowledge, skills, and attitudes students and educators
need to understand, engage with, and use AI effectively in educational settings.

In the field of language learning, the UNESCO “Guidelines for Genera-
tive AI in Education and Research” (UNESCO 2023) underline the poten-
tial of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to act as an individual tutor,
supporting the autonomous development of core language skills. When used
within sound pedagogical frameworks tailored to learners’ needs, GenAI can
foster both receptive and productive language competencies through mode-
ling, correction, and personalized feedback.

In recent years, the intersection of AI and language education has been in-
vestigated by several studies. Research identifies AI as a form of artificial scaf-
folding in language learning, contributing to a paradigm shift that integrates
advanced technologies into the language acquisition process.

The implementation of AI-powered technologies, especially dialogue sys-
tems, has improved connectivity, boosted efficiency, and reduced uncertainty
in educational processes. AI tools can support personalized, online learning (Cunningham-Nelson et al. 2019; Ellikkal and Rajamohan 2024). Examples include chatbots that engage learners in natural language interactions, assist in daily language practice, answer questions, conduct assessments, and provide tailored feedback (Cinganotto et al. 2024).

Students' active participation in dialogue and immersive learning environments is essential to developing communicative and linguistic competence. Studies (Weizenbaum 1966; Lucas et al. 2014; Fryer and Carpenter 2006; Fryer et al. 2019) have shown that chatbots may reduce learners' anxiety during language practice compared to human interaction.

Parallel research has also highlighted the benefits of AI-based writing assistants in enhancing learners' writing skills, improving linguistic accuracy, coherence, and overall proficiency (Gayed et al. 2022).

In this new educational landscape, structured pedagogical reflection is crucial. This reflection should not only identify the potential of digital tools but should also integrate them into robust methodological frameworks (Rivoltella and Rossi 2024).

From this perspective, the educator's role goes beyond technological proficiency; it requires embedding technology into inclusive, equitable, and ethically responsible learning environments (Pokrivcáková 2019). It is essential to ensure that technology does not exacerbate existing inequalities, but instead provides all learners, regardless of background, with equal access to quality education. Achieving this goal requires continuous professional development that equips teachers to respond effectively to current educational demands and use emerging tools to foster inclusive and innovative teaching practices.

Within language education, AI introduces promising opportunities (Rusmiyanto et al. 2023), offering advanced tools for personalized instruction and continuous support. AI-powered systems, such as chatbots and intelligent learning platforms, enable practice in authentic contexts, simulate real-life communication, and help learners address personalized linguistic challenges (Zawacki-Richter et al. 2019; Cinganotto and Montanucci 2024). These innovations align with the principles of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), where AI-based tools can combine language acquisition with subject-specific learning, creating rich, authentic scenarios in which learners can truly act as “social agents” (Piccardo and North 2019).
## 2. From E-CLIL to AI-CLIL

CLIL has become increasingly popular in Europe and Italy in recent years (Cinganotto 2016a), considering its potential to foster both language competence and subject mastery. Moreover, it supports the development of a broader range of skills, such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and intercultural dialogue.

The literature (Coyle et al. 2010; Coyle and Meyer, 2021; Mehisto et al. 2008; Graziano et al. 2021) has widely highlighted the innovative aspects of CLIL as a student-centered approach that enhances learners' agency, participation, collaboration, and Willingness to Communicate (WTC).

The European Commission and the Council of Europe have long supported the integration of learning technologies to enhance CLIL competences, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly reshaped the ways teachers and students interact both face-to-face and online, by adopting a wide range of platforms and digital tools (Cinganotto 2016b; Cinganotto 2021).

The term “E-CLIL” (Langé and Cinganotto 2014) was coined to describe the application of learning technologies to CLIL methodology, with the aim to enrich teaching and learning pathways. One of the first projects promoted by the Italian Ministry of Education in 2011 was titled “E-CLIL per una didattica innovativa” (“E-CLIL for Innovative Teaching”). This initiative aimed to guide upper secondary school teachers in discovering and using web tools and platforms for CLIL pedagogy, with support from a group of experts who delivered lectures, webinars, and practical workshops on learning technologies for CLIL. The project was appreciated by the teachers, who designed and implemented E-CLIL modules in their classrooms, reporting high levels of student engagement and enthusiasm. At that time, Web 2.0 tools were primarily used, allowing students to enhance their digital agency and participation through mobile devices, tablets, or laptops, often following a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) model.

With the advent of the AI revolution in 2022, AI-powered tools began spreading across all school levels and subject areas, including CLIL. Initially, their adoption was met with skepticism and concern, due to fears of being replaced by machines or students using AI in improper ways.

Today, despite ongoing resistance from some more conservative teachers, a growing number of them are more and more engaged with AI tools and plat-
forms. Many appreciate their potential for increasing student participation, gam-
ifying content, supporting lesson planning, and enabling learning analytics.

In the Italian context, for many teachers, AI tools for CLIL, or “AI-CLIL”
appears to be a promising solution to several common challenges related to
CLIL implementation, such as:

- the lack of tailor-made materials for CLIL across different subject areas

- limited time for planning and content creation

- the need to align materials with students’ actual competence levels

- the demand for personalized content and teaching pathways

- the provision of effective, individualized feedback

- the ability to monitor students’ progress.

These reactions and attitudes seem to be common with teachers from other
European countries: studies such as Chounta et al. (2022) reveal that many Eu-
ropean teachers, including those in Estonia, have limited knowledge of Artifi-
cial Intelligence but view it as a very good opportunity for education. Teachers
require targeted support to integrate AI effectively into their practice, as it can
enhance their professional efficiency. However, socio-cultural challenges are
also highlighted, particularly regarding the use of AI for accessing and adapt-
ing multilingual materials.

Another study in the Italian context (Petrucco et al. 2025) shows that Generative AI is increasingly used in schools to support teaching and learning, but its adoption raises ethical and practical challenges, especially in lower grades. Surveying 1,223 teachers from 572 schools, the study found widespread uncertainty about GenAI’s applications and a need for more professional development.

Under the framework of Ministerial Decree 65 (DM65) of 2023, which al-
lowed schools to organize CLIL teacher training programs, many teachers had
the opportunity to receive training on both CLIL methodology and the use of
AI as an added value to CLIL pathways.

As a result of these training courses, AI-CLIL modules (Cinganotto 2025)
were planned and, in many cases, implemented in the classroom.

To investigate how AI-CLIL can support CLIL pathways and address
the challenges outlined above, a survey was conducted among course partic-
ipants, and four teachers volunteered to participate in follow-up semi-struc-
tured interviews.
3. Training initiatives on AI-CLIL

AI-CLIL training courses were designed to equip teachers with essential tools for planning, implementing, and testing CLIL pathways that incorporate AI-powered tools and platforms as added value. These courses did not aim to be exhaustive or to replace traditional (“analog”) CLIL approaches entirely. Instead, AI tools were presented as opportunities to innovate and “augment” CLIL methodology, tailored to specific learners and educational contexts. It remains the teacher’s responsibility to select the most appropriate and relevant tools and to adapt them to every target of learners.

Among the various AI-based platforms introduced during the training, the most appreciated by the teachers were Twee and Curipod.

Twee (Chen et al. 2024) is an AI-based platform that allows teachers to select a target language and proficiency level based on the CEFRCV (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, Companion Volume 2020), enabling the creation of teaching materials as language input in second or foreign language classrooms. It is designed to meet practical teaching needs by enhancing multimodal input and supporting vocabulary acquisition through interactive exercises and learning activities with automated, real-time feedback. From a glottodidactic perspective, Twee serves as an effective instrument for facilitating learners’ vocabulary development, enabling targeted morphosyntactic practice, and supporting activities that foster metalinguistic awareness. Teachers attending the CLIL courses found Twee particularly engaging and used it to develop creative and effective teaching material for their students.

Below is an example of a Twee-generated CLIL activity on Biology in English, created by one of the course participants, starting from a video used as a multimodal input.
<figure><img src="image_15.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1. Example of Twee CLIL activity on Biology in English</figcaption></figure>

Curipod is another platform that exploits Generative AI to enhance lesson planning and actively engage students. It is designed to support teachers by using AI to generate interactive lessons across all educational levels.
This free AI tool can transform a concept or learning objective into a fully in-
teractive presentation, fostering student feedback, and maintaining engagement.

As demonstrated in a study by Moura and Tchiang (2024), students express
strong interest in tools like Curipod, particularly for writing revision activities,
recognizing their potential for both classroom use and independent learning.
In glottodidactic terms, Curipod acts as an effective instructional tool that
nurtures learners' creative language use and actively promotes their engage-
ment through interactive and participatory classroom activities. This supports
the development of communicative competence by encouraging both expres-
sion and collaborative involvement.

The screenshot below shows an example of a Curipod activity created by a CLIL trainee, depicting her idea of “plastic ocean” within a CLIL unit on sustainability. This activity is especially appreciated by students, as it allows them to draw directly on their screens, processing multimodal input creatively and interactively. The added value of this function is the “AI feedback”, describing the image and providing an interpretation for it.

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

Great start on conveying the "plastic ocean" concept by incorporating
the prominent image of a plastic bottle. The outline resembling an
ocean wave inside the bottle is a creative touch. To enhance your
drawing, consider adding more types of plastic waste like bags,
straws, or nets to emphasize the variety and scale of pollution in the
oceans. Additionally, integrating some effects on marine life could
further underline the environmental impact. Keep exploring your
ideas!

<caption>Figure 2. Drawing and AI-feedback in Curipod</caption>

4. *Research questions and methodological framework*

Drawing on the CLIL training initiatives carried out during the 2024/25 academic year, this study aimed to investigate teachers' perceptions and attitudes toward the use of AI in planning and delivering CLIL pathways.

The following research questions guided the research:

- How do CLIL teachers perceive and use AI in their teaching practices?

- How can AI address key challenges faced by CLIL teachers, such as lack of time for planning and creating content, aligning materials with students'
*actual competence levels, personalizing content and feedback, and monitoring student progress?*

Qualitative data were triangulated with a quantitative survey administered to a broader sample of 249 teachers participating in CLIL training courses.

Semi-structured expert interviews (Meuser and Nagel 2009; Kvale and Brinkmann 2009) were conducted with four teachers who had specific expertise in integrating AI into their CLIL teaching practices. These interviews explored pedagogical approaches, integration strategies, specialized knowledge, and training needs.

Each interview lasted approximately one hour and aimed to explore themes that emerged from the online survey in greater depth. The interviews followed a structured guide as follows:

- Personal and professional context

*What is your professional background?*

*Have you received specific training in the use of digital technologies or AI?*

- Understanding and perception of AI

*What does Artificial Intelligence mean to you in the context of education?*

*What tools or platforms do you use?*

- Practical experiences

*Can you describe a teaching activity where you used AI-based tools?*

*In your opinion, what is the added value of AI in terms of planning, instruction, content creation, and personalization?*

- School regulations

*Are there any regulations in your school regarding the use of AI?*

- Future perspectives

*How do you envision the evolution of your teaching role concerning AI?*

*What training needs do you foresee for your professional development?*

The interviews were conducted and recorded via Zoom. Transcripts were analyzed using Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006), following these steps:

a. Familiarization with the data

b. Generation of initial codes

c. Searching for themes

d. Reviewing themes

e. Defining and naming themes

f. Producing the report.
5. The online questionnaire

An online questionnaire was administered to a group of CLIL trainees to explore their perceptions of using AI in their teaching practice.

A total of 249 teachers responded to the survey: 40.6% were from upper secondary schools, 31.7% from primary schools, 21.3% from lower secondary schools, and the remainder from adult education and pre-primary institutions.

The majority (87.2%) taught CLIL in English, while smaller percentages used French, Spanish, German, or Italian as a foreign language.

One of the survey questions focused on the frequency of using learning technologies for CLIL. In response, 69.5% indicated they used them “often,” 15.3% said “always,” and 13.3% reported using them “rarely.”

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /><figcaption>Figure 3. Frequency of using learning technologies for CLIL</figcaption></figure>

An interesting finding from the survey was that 65.5% of respondents expressed a preference for using both analog and digital resources in their teaching, while 33.7% preferred digital resources exclusively. This suggests that learning technologies are becoming increasingly integrated into teachers' daily instructional practices, complementing rather than replacing traditional methods. Only a very small percentage of respondents indicated a preference for using analog resources alone, highlighting a clear shift towards blended or fully digital approaches in the classroom: digital tools are recognized as an effective complement to face-to-face lessons.
<figure><img src="image_18.png" /><figcaption>Figure 4. Preferences for analog (blue), digital (red) resources or both (orange)</figcaption></figure>

An open-ended question in the survey was designed to gather teachers' ideas regarding the integration of AI into CLIL practices. The responses were analyzed thematically, and the main points are presented below, grouped according to the Thematic Analysis:

a) *Need for specific teacher training*

There is a pressing need to invest in teacher training in a structured way.

According to some respondents, training opportunities should be increased, but without overburdening teachers with commitments that hinder meaningful participation. Professional development in AI and CLIL should be considered an essential and integral part of the teaching profession.

Respondents called for practical training specifically tailored to the integration of AI in CLIL contexts.

Some respondents suggested offering training that is not only free but also mandatory for all teachers.

Greater investment is necessary in both language and CLIL-specific training. It was also suggested that CLIL and digital education should be embedded into school curricula across all educational levels.

b) *Need for improved IT infrastructure in schools*

According to the respondents, all schools should be equipped with equal access to technologies and educational tools. Effective and up-to-date multimedia resources should be made available across the school system.
Institutional platforms and teacher accounts should be integrated with digital learning technologies. Some respondents suggested that schools should have access to the tools necessary for supporting teachers in the practical application of innovative methodologies, not just in theory, but in everyday classroom practice.

### c) *Need for clear policies and strategic planning*

The respondents' remarks showed that a successful implementation of CLIL in Italian schools requires a multi-level, systemic intervention involving policymakers, school leaders, politicians, and educational institutions.

Teachers should be given opportunities, funded by their schools, to get advanced qualifications in CLIL-related fields. One major challenge identified was the limited space for CLIL within the school timetable. The respondents advocated for additional hours to develop at least one CLIL module per semester, preferably through co-teaching models. Overall, the respondents emphasized that a coherent national strategy addressing professional development, sufficient resourcing, and stronger collaboration between schools, institutions, and families would be crucial.

### d) *Potential of AI for CLIL: personalization, engagement, feedback, and time efficiency*

The respondents highlighted numerous perceived benefits of integrating AI into CLIL practices, including:

- student engagement and interactivity: AI tools were considered to make lessons more dynamic and captivating

- improved language learning: AI was thought to foster language acquisition through immersive and active learning experiences

- personalization of materials: teachers valued the ability to create tailored resources and learning material

- skill development: AI tools were considered to support not only content and language learning but also digital literacy and metacognitive skills.

- ease of content creation: the respondents were impressed by the possibility to provide customized templates and material

- increased inclusivity: the integration of visual, interactive, and gamified elements was considered valuable for inclusivity
- support for innovative methodologies: AI was appreciated for enhancing innovative, multi-modal teaching techniques

- efficient feedback: automated responses were considered time-saving.

Some sample comments from the respondents are reported below:

- “AI makes the lesson more engaging and captivating.”

- “I believe AI can help create coherent and customized learning units.”

- “It supports inclusion and motivates students through gamification and interactive content.”

- “AI speeds up everything, it helps in preparation and fosters innovative teaching.”

- “It’s easier to create alternative activities and personalize instruction.”

- “These tools promote autonomy, experimentation, and joy in learning.”

- “AI can transform traditional teaching methods and provide more time for direct student interaction.”

## 6. *The interviews*

Through the online survey, teachers were invited to volunteer for an online interview to further explore the strengths and challenges related to AI-CLIL that emerged from the questionnaire.

The semi-structured interviews aimed to elicit teachers’ reactions and reflections on the use of AI at the upper secondary school level, with particular attention to the potential of AI in supporting CLIL implementation.

### 6.1. *Profile of the interviewees*

Four CLIL teachers from upper secondary schools were interviewed via Zoom. The details of their geographical range and of the declared training circumstances were erased for anonymity.

*Teacher 1* has been teaching history and philosophy for about 20 years. She has also worked as a special needs teacher, which she describes as a highly rewarding experience.

Her first exposure to CLIL was in 2018 during an Erasmus experience in Malta. She found this methodology to be a powerful tool for helping students
understand complex philosophical and historical concepts. She values CLIL not only for its pedagogical advantages but also on a personal level, as it allows her to use English meaningfully. She feels more comfortable speaking English in CLIL lessons due to the purposeful context it provides. Although she has not received specific CLIL training, she acknowledges growing pressure to do so. However, she finds most available training too theoretical and lacking practical application. She believes effective training should be hands-on and directly relevant to classroom practice.

*Teacher 2* has been teaching Natural Sciences for nearly 10 years. She completed a CLIL training course that introduced her to the methodology, although she has not yet implemented it in the classroom. Recently, she has gained more confidence and is considering trying CLIL in the next school year. Through recent training, she has become familiar with various digital tools and software, which she believes could enhance student engagement. One major challenge she identifies is her students' limited English proficiency. While some students excel, the majority struggle, making full-English lessons difficult. She has taken both CLIL-specific and subject-related training, which she found helpful. However, limited access to devices and unreliable internet in the classroom often pose a serious obstacle to CLIL.

*Teacher 3* has been teaching Economics (with a focus on accountancy) for nearly a decade, following a 20-year career in the private sector.

She first approached CLIL through self-study, researching laws, best practices, and online resources. Currently, she is enrolled in a CLIL course, which she values especially for its digital tools and methodologies. She has already applied some of these strategies in her teaching. She also attended an Erasmus+ course in Barcelona focused on AI-enhanced tools, but she still does not feel fully confident using AI with students. She stresses the need for structured, in-school training led by qualified instructors. Her school currently lacks a formal AI policy, though students begin learning about AI in their second year.

*Teacher 4* is interested in teaching history in English, particularly Sardinian history, as a way to promote cultural understanding. He sees CLIL and Erasmus exchanges as powerful tools for meaningful language learning and international collaboration.
He teaches in an urban high school with campuses in Monserrato and central Cagliari. Although he has not yet participated in formal AI training, his school offers such opportunities, and the interest in this topic is growing among both teachers and students.

## 6.2. *Teachers' perceptions of AI*

Teacher 1: “I think that now we can’t escape from using AI tools. It’s part of our society, and also of our school.”

She recently held a class discussion on philosophical and scientific revolu-
tions, asking whether AI might be seen as a continuation of the scientific rev-
olution. This reflection inspired her to deepen her own understanding of AI.
She uses AI to draft documents and verify ideas, appreciating its precision.
In her view, AI supports CLIL by offering valuable tools to engage with both
language and content.

*Teacher 2:* “AI is a great tool in potential, but it’s also very dangerous. I fear stu-
dents might relate to it more than to their own minds. If I assign homework,
they can easily generate responses with AI.”

She expressed both caution and curiosity. She sees AI as a powerful tool for simulating experiments and natural phenomena. She believes AI will increasingly be integrated into education.

*Teacher 3:* “I believe we must embrace AI, study it, and try using it ourselves. It’s everywhere, and our students are already immersed in it. Their mindset is shaped by AI. It’s not just about cheating.”

She emphasized the need for training. The current range of AI tools is vast
and confusing, so clear guidelines would help teachers identify the most effec-
tive resources.

*Teacher 4:* “AI can benefit both teachers and students. For instance, I use AI to generate tests, it saves me minutes of preparation.”

He is skeptical about students’ use of AI, questioning their maturity to use
it responsibly. While recognizing its potential, he believes teachers must guide
students in its proper use.
## 6.3. Potential of AI-CLIL to address common challenges

**Teacher 1:** "I don't forbid AI, but I encourage students to understand what should come from themselves and what AI can help with. Some admit they use AI and I appreciate their honesty. AI is useful when students integrate it with their own work and reflection."

Her students enjoy imagining future scenarios involving AI, like schools with AI teachers or hospitals run by machines. These exercises promote critical thinking. She uses simple AI tools like ChatGPT for lesson ideas, especially for CLIL and she appreciates its outputs. She also reflects on the importance of human mediation in teaching, as no AI machine can replace humans.

**Teacher 2:** "AI can really help. I'm starting to create tests with it. I've also used it to research articles, just asking AI to find content on a specific topic."

She highlighted the support of AI in lesson planning and interdisciplinary learning, for example, combining science with math or philosophy.

She worries about AI misuse but admits it's hard to detect. Many students rely on AI when under pressure. She believes AI can support both language and content in CLIL but stresses the need to ease students into English-medium instruction to reduce anxiety.

**Teacher 3** stated that students often feel intimidated by CLIL lessons, especially due to low confidence in English. However, digital tools can help break this barrier. She used Curipod to create an interactive lesson in just ten minutes: students wrote, spoke, and voted actively. She also uses YouTube, Kahoot, Magic Tablet, and Wordwall to make learning inclusive and dynamic.

**Teacher 4** uses ChatGPT and Gemini to create historical dialogues between students and figures like Caesar or Alexander the Great. These activities are very popular. He builds games using Wordwall and InteractiCity, keeping activities short and engaging. To prevent misuse, he prefers to organize collaborative activities in class rather than assign tasks for homework.
## 7. Discussion and Conclusion

Since the first "*Norme Transitorie*" issued by the Italian Ministry of Education on CLIL in 2012 and 2014, the use of learning technologies to support CLIL teaching and international exchange has been strongly encouraged.

The recent AI revolution has brought not only new risks and challenges but also new opportunities.

Findings from both the survey and interviews suggest that, despite possible risks and bias, AI can be an added value for CLIL, acting as a "co-teacher", brainstorming lesson ideas, saving time, and personalizing content. AI is widely recognized by teachers as enhancing CLIL through roles like lesson ideation support, time-saving, dynamic adaptation to learners' needs, and as a generator of engaging visual and multimedia content that can deepen discussion and critical thought. The major theme across feedback is that AI sharply increases personalization, not just of core content, but also of classroom activities and assessment tools, helping teachers better differentiate for ability and learning profiles. In fact, teachers can customize digital material to suit their students' needs, levels, and learning styles. Visual content, including images and videos created with AI, can enhance CLIL modules by providing engaging, unusual, or even dystopian materials that stimulate discussion and critical thinking.

Personalization emerged as a key theme: AI supports personalization of content, activities, and assessment.

In response to the research questions:

e) *How do CLIL teachers perceive and use AI in their teaching practices?*

Teachers generally view AI positively. Despite concerns about cheating, they find it effective for CLIL planning and believe it improves student engagement and motivation.

f) *How can AI address key challenges faced by CLIL teachers, such as lack of time for planning and creating content, aligning materials with students' actual competence levels, personalizing content and feedback, and monitoring student progress?*

According to the respondents, AI can help teachers create customized resources quickly, deliver automated feedback, and monitor progress efficiently. Dig-
ital and AI can enhance engagement, support both digital and language skills, and promote active learning and autonomy. AI tools can make content more accessible, foster inclusion, and allow for flexible, gamified, and interactive learning experiences, reducing preparation time, making teaching more innovative and effective overall.

At the same time, the respondents expressed the need for structured training and investment in infrastructure, as integrating AI into CLIL will only reach its full innovative potential if such support systems are put in place. They also advocated for a national strategy that fosters cooperation among all stakeholders to effectively integrate AI into teaching and learning processes, including CLIL pedagogies.
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Letizia Cinganotto is an Associate Professor of Language Education at the University for Foreigners of Perugia, Italy, where she also serves as a Rectoral Delegate for International Relations and as a member of both the Board of Directors and the Scientific Committee of the CVCL (Centre for Language Evaluation and Certification). She is the coordinator of two Special Interest Groups within ALTE (Association of Language Testers in Europe): the YAL SIG (Young Learners) and the CEFR SIG.

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Ali Dehdarirad
Sapienza Università di Roma

How “Sincere” Was Steinbeck?
Conceptual and Stylistic Arrangements in
William T. Vollmann’s *The Lucky Star*
and John Steinbeck’s *The Grapes of Wrath*

Abstract

Concentrating on *The Lucky Star* (2020) and *The Grapes of Wrath* (1939), this paper aims to analyze how William T. Vollmann’s writing style might have benefited from and/or bears resemblance to that of John Steinbeck’s from conceptual and stylistic points of view. In 2009, Vollmann suggested that “Steinbeck was the most American of us all” (260). Interestingly, what seems to fascinate him about Steinbeck is “his sincerity” (Ibid.: 259) – a concept that brings together the novelists’ ideas about America with a kind of empathetic knowledge that aspires to truth and resistance to abusive power. Considering Vollmann’s laudatory observations regarding Steinbeck’s writing, it is worth scrutinizing the linguistic and stylistic strategies that he employs to highlight the moral qualities in his works. Such an analysis indicates resonances between Vollmann’s oeuvre and the “New Sincerity” in American fiction. Furthermore, it helps better understand the affinities between his writing and Steinbeck’s “sincerity”.

1. *Vollmann and Steinbeck: (New) Sincerity and (Post)Postmodernism*

“Post-postmodernist”, “Late-postmodernist”, “Post-ironic”, “New Sincerity”,
and a number of other labels are among the most popular terms to describe
the condition that putatively characterizes the cultural and aesthetic reality of
our world in the last quarter of a century or so. Proposing a label for the best
next thing after postmodernism in the realm of fiction, most famously in 2010,
Adam Kelly coined the term the “New Sincerity” to refer to a generation of
writers that came after the widely recognized first-wave postmodernist mas-
ters such as Thomas Pynchon, William Gaddis, and Don DeLillo. Enjoying
a controversial fame for almost a decade and a half, the “New Sincerity” ini-
tially referred to David Foster Wallace’s literary peers, notably William T. Vol-
lmann, Susan Daitch, and Jonathan Franzen.<fnref n="1" /> As it is well known, Wallace’s
1993 essay “E Unibus Pluram” has held a focal, yet problematic, position with
regard to questions addressing the possibilities of U.S. fiction, especially in the
twenty-first century. One of the main issues that he brings to the fore is that
postmodern irony has created an impasse for the successive generation of writ-
ers. Wallace (1993, 192-93) observed that these authors “back away from ironic
watching” and “treat old untrendy human troubles [...] in U.S. life with rever-
ence” although they would be labeled “Too sincere [...], naive”.<fnref n="2" />

Skepticism or rejection of ironic attitudes and a move toward constructive
possibility have been a fundamental concern in almost all theorizations, in-
cluding the “New Sincerity”, positing the end of postmodernism and specu-
lating about what it has morphed into in the new millennium. Therefore, it is
important to understand what role it plays in (relation to) Vollmann’s fiction.
Clearly, the idea of literary categorization or periodization is problematic in to-
day’s complex global literary atmosphere – all the more so when one considers
the still contested issue of what precisely postmodernism refers to as a descrip-
tor for U.S. literature.<fnref n="3" /> That said, in light of Vollmann’s numerous homages to
Steinbeck, a critical understanding of his ideas vis-à-vis the “New Sincerity”,
and the contentious question of what has supplanted postmodernism, helps

<footnote n="1">1 As early as 1993, Larry McCaffery had written about the interactive qualities among the works of Vollmann, Wallace, and Daitch. In the successor generation, one might think of others such as Richard Powers and Mark Z. Danielewski.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 Such a tendency to move away from postmodernist suspicion regarding the possibilities of American society is reflected elsewhere in the next thing after postmodernism or “The Fiction of Image” (Wallace 1997, 51), to use Wallace’s words. Observing that it has been la-
beled “post-postmodernism”, he suggested that this new kind of fiction is not characterized
“just by a certain neo-postmodern technique but by [...] an effort to impose some sort of
accountability” on the state of affairs in U.S. society, as opposed to the “entertaining” (Ibid.:
50-51), yet “unuseful” (67), characteristic of postmodernist “irony” (50).</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 The question of what has supplanted postmodernism in the twenty-first century is be-
yond the purview of this essay. However, there have been two main tendencies: while some
critics have interpreted the nature of this shift in terms of a development of postmodernism,
rather than an absolute break with it, others have argued for a more radical leave-taking
from the works of high postmodernists. See, respectively, Nealon 2012 and Kirby 2009.</footnote>
situate the concept of sincerity in his work in relation to Steinbeck's writing.

Unlike Wallace and Franzen who have directly explored the concerns related to contemporary U.S. literature, Vollmann has been relatively reticent in providing explicit commentary on that issue, or the works of his contemporaries for that matter.<fnref n="4" /> However, one can think of his 1990 statement “American Writing Today”, in which he engaged with the shortcomings of recent American fiction and culture. In the section “The Failure of Humanity”, Vollmann observes that nowadays, to survive and be happy, we “depend on knowledge”, which “can only be obtained through openness” toward “the Other” and “understanding [...]. By empathizing” (Vollmann 1990a, 330).<fnref n="5" /> He goes on to suggest that the best way to realize that objective is through art and “Of all the arts, [...] literature articulates best” (Ibid.: 331). So, in “The Prescription”, he maintains that “We need writing with a sense of purpose” (Ibid.).

Curiously, in the same critique of the contemporary, “insular” literature of the U.S., Vollmann mentions no other author than Steinbeck as a writer of “works which strive to be useful and fail in proportion to be beautiful” (Ibid.). He considers that a “mistake”, which nevertheless “does happen, as in the spots where *The Grapes of Wrath* is mildewed” (Ibid.). Such notions as “a sense of purpose” in writing, or being “useful” rather than “beautiful”, reinforce the conclusion of the short critical piece, where Vollmann remarks that “We should believe that truth exists” and “Health is more important than novelty” (Ibid.: 332). As it may be expected, Vollmann’s thoughts about empathy, happiness, and truth could strike a jarring note when it comes to postmodernist stalwarts. Nonetheless, his observations are pretty much in tune with the declarations of other writers of his generation such as Wallace and Franzen.<fnref n="6" />

<footnote n="4">4 Other than the above-mentioned nonfiction works by Wallace, one can think of his review essay “The Empty Plenum” and the earlier essay “Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young”. As for Franzen, see his 2002 essay collection, where he offers considerations about the struggle with “despair about the American novel” (Franzen 2002, 55) and the attempt to understand the best next thing after postmodernism.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">5 Elsewhere, in *Rising Up and Rising Down*, he reiterated a similar position: “*We bear an obligation to study and intuit the identity of the other, his rights and his needs*” (Vollmann 2003, 3:286). He further suggested that “empathy [...] is always a good [...] principle of human relations” (Ibid.: 6:8).</footnote>

<footnote n="6">6 For a useful discussion of the similarities between Vollmann and several writers of his generation, see Savvas and Coffman 2019.</footnote>
Bearing that in mind, it is no novelty to associate Vollmann’s work with the literature of post-postmodernism and the peculiar relationship that it might have with that fiction’s commitment to sincerity, as opposed to the widespread irony of postmodernist literature.<fnref n="7" /> In view of Vollmann’s ideas that “We should portray important human problems” and “seek solutions” (Ibid.), however, it is enticing to understand how his works interact with Steinbeck’s oeuvre. Apart from the above-mentioned consideration regarding *The Grapes of Wrath*, Vollmann has made a host of laudatory comments about Steinbeck’s writing. In his 2009 nonfiction book *Imperial*, he suggested that “Steinbeck was the most American of us all” (Vollmann 2009, 260).<fnref n="8" /> In a work that addresses the unconscionable conditions surrounding immigrant workers from Mexico to the U.S., it stands to reason that he draws upon Steinbeck’s oeuvre.<fnref n="9" /> Along the same lines of praise, in 2000, he had stated that “I really, really do admire Steinbeck” (Cooper 2020, 122).

While the afore-mentioned selection of Vollmann’s comments concerning Steinbeck could be broadened, this brief assortment probably suffices to propound the significance of his literary production to Vollmann’s work. In fact, in one of the appendices to Larry McCaffery and Michael Hemmingson’s *Expelled from Eden*, the former suggests reading Vollmann’s appreciative essay “Steinbeck: Most American of Us All” for “an account of some of the features of Steinbeck’s work that have influenced Vollmann’s own writing” (McCaffery and Hemmingson 2004, 410).<fnref n="10" /> As such, I have chosen to consider that question, not least because of the aesthetic implications deriving from the “New Sincerity”. Indeed, what seems to fascinate Vollmann about Steinbeck is his sincerity: “this is what I love about Steinbeck most of all, his sincerity” (Vollmann 2009, 259). In a 2009 interview, he made a similar remark: “What I admire most about Steinbeck: He had heart. He wasn’t afraid to say, ‘Look,

<footnote n="7">7 See, for instance, Coffman 2015.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">8 The beginning of his report “Life as a Terrorist” delineates the same thought, in which he considers Steinbeck “the writer I have always considered the most American of us all” (Vollmann 2013).</footnote>

<footnote n="9">9 In *The Grapes of Wrath*, he famously dealt with the plight of the desperate Okies to California.</footnote>

<footnote n="10">10 McCaffery indicates a further similarity in the works of the two writers by recourse to the story of Cain and Abel: “an event that later resonates throughout Steinbeck’s *East of Eden* and Vollmann’s *The Royal Family*” (Ibid.: 388).</footnote>
this is how I see it”” (Berton 2009).<fnref n="11" /> Following Vollmann’s concern with “sin-
cerity” as well as moral conditions and causes, in this paper, I aim to show how
his writing style might have benefited from and/or bears resemblance to that of
Steinbeck’s from two perspectives: a) conceptual, indicating the importance of
empathy, pursuit of truth, resistance to abusive power, and benevolent action,
and b) stylistic, including an interest in narrative openness, the use of multiple
narrative voices, the choice of certain temporal and spatial indicators, and the
repetition of specific words and sentences.

2. Empathy as “the Golden Rule”: Conceptual Engagements

Although sincerity, “a congruence between avowal and actual feeling” (Trilling
1971, 2), in its absolute form is hard to pin down in a work of fiction, a signif-
icant way in which Vollmann’s writing has helped aesthetically realize the im-
plications of the “New Sincerity” is by depicting the importance of empathy
and truth in his works. Reflecting Vollmann’s thoughts about violent action,
its justifications, and “the Other” (Vollmann 1990, 330) is one of his statements
in *Rising Up and Rising Down*: “First respect the inertia of an alien situation.
Don’t inject yourself into it for your own gain” (Vollmann 2003, 2:461). As a
reaction to the irony of hip postmodernists, perceiving the world through the
optic of suspicion, such a position seems familiar to Vollmann readers when
they think about the representation of the disenchanted in his oeuvre.

In *The Ice-Shirt*, the reader comes across several episodes, in the section “The Hermaphrodite”, about the characters Elder Brother and Younger Brother, who “lived on the ice without knowing where they had come from” (Vollmann 1990b, 85). Curiously represented as “Self and Other” (Ibid.), the elder sibling takes care of his brother. Nevertheless, “Younger Brother feared more than loved him” (Ibid.) insofar as his brother is ever more convinced about the “truths that he had learned from ice” (Ibid.: 86). In fact, Elder Brother ignores the insecurities of the younger, who “sometimes thought he was [...]

<footnote n="11">11 In a 2000 interview, he had offered a similar characterization of Steinbeck's writing: "I think he has such a fine heart. [...] I want to write about people with problems, and [...] make other people understand them [...]. Certainly Steinbeck was interested in that, too" (Cooper 2020, 122).</footnote>
not human” (Ibid.). Travelling through ice, and on the verge of death, a mysterious “Spirit Woman” (Ibid.: 90) appears to the siblings, providing them with shelter. Bending over Younger Brother, however, something abstruse happens: the enigmatic woman turns him into his brother’s wife whereby he is forced to satisfy Elder Brother’s sexual needs even though “he could not understand the otherness of his wife” (Ibid.: 95). Indeed, he makes fun of her “jokingly”: “he knew that she was no woman at all, but just his Younger Brother who had carelessly lost his penis” (97). Meanwhile, Younger Brother mysteriously and secretively develops the ability to transform his arms into wings. Tired of being what “she did not want to be” (Ibid.: 96) and his brother’s teasing, eventually “She took her bone-needle; she poked him again and again. [...] Elder Brother was dead! She had killed him!” (Ibid.: 99).

This episode brings to mind Vollmann’s debate on the issues of empathy and violence. If respecting “the inertia of an alien situation” does not bear fruit, according to Vollmann (2003, 2:461), we should “intervene on the side of the righteous, respecting the most justified version of the Golden Rule” – perhaps the “*Justified* [...] Empath’s Golden Rule: Do unto others, not only as you would be done by, but also as they would be done by”. In line with such positions on moral agency in favor of the dispossessed, Vollmann (2009, 259) is truly appreciative of Steinbeck’s “sincerity” – a salient concept that brings together the novelists’ ideas about America with a kind of empathetic knowledge that aspires to truth, resistance to abusive power, and benevolent action.

Taking into consideration the entirety of Vollmann’s comments on Steinbeck, we might say that, to him, Steinbeck’s compassionate and defensive writing of poor and underprivileged Americans was a “sincere” position. Vollmann maintains that “People simplify Steinbeck into a populist, [...] a socialist” (Ibid.: 257). Concerning *The Winter of Our Discontent*, he remarks that it is a novel with defects reminiscent of those of socialist realism: “Here lies a book with a message” (Ibid.: 259). With that in mind, Vollmann suggests that precisely because of having messages in his books, Steinbeck “hoped to actually accomplish something in his own time, in which case I love him for that” (Ibid.). The notion of accomplishing something and realizing solutions to the problems of the underclass calls to mind the post-postmodernist tendency in Vollmann’s own writing on two accounts: the idea of believing in some sort of “truth” (Vollmann 1997, 332) as well as “empathy”, or “the supreme principle of human relations” (Vollmann 2003, 6:8), toward the achievement of that truth.
In *East of Eden*, we come to learn about the Chinese servant Lee who, endowed with such qualities as intelligence and compassion, might be considered an embodiment of “sincerity”. Compared to “psychic monsters” (Steinbeck 1952, 79), Cathy Ames (later in the novel, Kate Trask) at some point gives birth to twin boys with the assistance of Samuel Hamilton. During the delivery, however, he feels some unease about the woman as she “tore at his hand [...]. The flesh was torn” (Ibid.: 205). Later, in response to Samuel’s invitation to see her newborn children, she says, “I don’t want them” (Ibid.: 207). Feeling disconcerted, Samuel tells Lee, “A frightened sorrow has closed down over my heart” (Ibid.).

Interestingly, when Lee stitches Samuel's wound, the servant behaves in such a way as though he himself were going through the pain: “The Chinese bit his lips, feeling the inflicted pain in himself” (Ibid.: 208). Lee's practical and compassionate way of thinking is further confirmed by Samuel's wife, Liza, who “didn't quite believe in him” (Ibid.: 211) at first. Nonetheless, taking on the task of caring for the Trask household, she comes to develop an unexpected affinity for the Chinese servant as she identifies maternal characteristics in him, essential to the growth of the boys. “He learned everything I told him” (Ibid.: 213), she tells her husband. Noticing Lee's “sincerity”, Liza approvingly considers him “a Presbyterian” rather than “a heathen” (Ibid.).

But if we think about Lionel Trilling's definition of “sincerity”, as “the avoidance of being false to any man through being true to one's own self” (Trilling 1971, 5), Lee incarnates that concept more straightforwardly in the conversation after taking care of Samuel. Even though the wounded man is still in pain, Lee feels the need to tell the truth and describes his experience as an unwillingness to be in “a slaughter house” (Steinbeck 1952, 208), emphasizing that “the words came out” of his mouth naturally. When Samuel, in shock, states that he feels “a dreadfulness coming”, again Lee says, “I feel it too” (Ibid.). Understanding the significance of this moral conundrum, nevertheless, he repeats the sentence “what do you want to say?” (Ibid.: 208-9) three times to help Samuel overcome his despair: “I want my wife” (Ibid.: 209), he finally replies.

Some critics have argued that Steinbeck's fiction was sentimental in its depiction of the common man's problems.<fnref n="12" /> Others have simply lauded the

<footnote n="12">12 To cite an early critic, in a piece in the *New York Times*, Arthur Mizener argued that in most cases, and sometimes to an “intolerable” (quoted in Souder 2020, 335) extent, Steinbeck insisted upon providing a sentimental moral to each story. Among more contempo-</footnote>
writer’s compassion for his characters.<fnref n="13" /> When it comes to the rendition of Lee’s character, the reader realizes the predetermined quality of aspiration to truth and empathy. Clearly, to Vollmann (2009, 259), writing in a message, personified by Lee, is “a flaw”. Despite that, what mostly matters to him is striving toward compassion and truth as a way of finding solutions to problems, and “Whether or not we find them, the seeking will deepen the portrait” (Vollmann 1990a, 332). To use the words of Peter Monro Jack (1939), Steinbeck wrote “with a sincerity seldom equaled”. On that note, Vollmann (2009, 259) remarks, “Do I care that nobody I’ve met talks like that? He [Lee] is sincere because Steinbeck is sincere”.

What can we make of such an attitude? Certainly, it reminds us of Wallace's famous proposal about a "single-entendre" (Wallace 1993, 192) fiction toward constructive moral engagement rather than the generally unproductive tendencies of contemporary critique. Admitting that "Steinbeck occasionally mistook sentimentality for truth", Vollmann (2009, 259) believes that "he was never cynical". In other words, the anger or bitterness in his works were devices to highlight the importance of truth and individual choice in U.S. society. In effect, a novel like *The Grapes of Wrath* "had something to say" and the straightforward expression of the Okies' plight, as a result of a greedy corporate agribusiness, made many raise their eyebrows at Steinbeck – the "un-American" who, "unaffiliated with anything but balance" (Ibid.: 258), was "most American" (Ibid.: 260). In this sense, Vollmann's remark that "I want to be un-American like him" (Ibid.: 258) resonates with his earlier view on the importance of holding an empathetic position regarding "the Other" (Vollmann 1990, 330) so as to ward off abuses of power: "*We should aim to benefit others in addition to ourselves*" (Ibid.: 332).

Significantly, this inclination toward the upholding of truth, fostering empathy to achieve helpful knowledge, and in one word we might say “sincerity”, is further evident in both writers’ works of nonfiction and personal lives.<fnref n="14" /> The

<footnote>rary critics is John Seelye who has used terms such as “sentimental novel” (Seelye 2002, 13) and “sentimental fiction” (Ibid.: 14) to refer to Steinbeck’s novels.</footnote>

<footnote n="13">13 As early as 1939, Charles Poore pointed out Steinbeck's "remarkable sympathy and understanding" for his characters (Poore 1939). Concerning *Travels with Charley*, Edward Weeks (1962) later wrote that it "exposed once more the power of sympathy" in Steinbeck's novels.</footnote>

<footnote n="14">14 While the tendency toward sincerity generally applies to these authors' works, in Vollmann's oeuvre it might be best interpreted in relation to the "New Sincerity" as a response</footnote>
most basic, but seminal, feature of their nonfiction is a common journalistic
nature. According to Steinbeck biographer Jay Parini (1995, 274), the writer
“came, increasingly, to see himself as a journalist”.¹⁵ Albeit Steinbeck did not
define himself as a journalist, he was familiar with the complexity, danger, and
influence of journalism: “It has the greatest virtue and the greatest evil. [...]
But [...] it is perhaps the purest thing we have. Honesty has a way of creeping
in” (Ibid.: 391). Nonetheless, the goal of his journalism was “to get it right [...].
He always tried for the human perspective [...] without prejudice” (Steinbeck
2002: xvii). On his experience as a reporter, in a *New York Times Magazine*
article, he wrote, “I couldn’t learn to steal a picture from a desk when a family
refused to be photographed and I invariably got emotionally involved and tried
to kill the whole story to save the subject” (Ibid.: 34) – an attitude reminiscent
of his comment in a letter that “the hardest thing about writing is simply to tell
the truth” (quoted in Marshall 1988, 105).

Such a proclivity to write about truth, while being compassionate toward
the other, has been a staple of Vollmann's nonfiction, too. In fact, Steinbeck's
refusal to remain emotionally separate from his subjects reminds the reader of
one of Vollmann's observations about migrant farmworkers in *Imperial*. He
deliberately chooses not “to fictionalize them” because of the empathetic bond
that he feels: “The truth is that I do not understand enough about border peo-
ple to describe them” (Vollmann 2009, 251), which is why “I would never con-
sider changing a word of their stories” (Ibid.: 262). As a writer who has been
moving through various genres of writing, Vollmann's journalism is inspired
by a search for truth and empathy, so much so that in a 2007 interview he
said, “I would like to do something of significant service for my fellow human
beings. [...] I don't really want to [...] put myself in harm's way. But I would
consider it” (Seaman 2007).

On that score, reflecting upon writing his *Grapes of Wrath* about Imperial,
Vollmann (2009, 179-80) observes that it would be crucial to see the difficulties
of Mexican farmers firsthand:

to the poetics of postmodernism, whereas for Steinbeck it was more of a (literary) tool to
call into question America's national faults and the plight of poor migrant laborers. As Vol-
lmann (2013) himself mentioned, Steinbeck was "a sincere thinker [...], a patriot who loved
the idea of freedom".

15 As Gore Vidal observed, “The truth is that Steinbeck was really a journalist at heart”
(quoted in Parini 1995, 274).
maybe I'd take my synopsis from Officer Dan Murray of the Border Patrol: *You should see these guys pickin' watermelon [...]. They do work most Americans wouldn't [...].* I could have come every day with my notebook to stand beneath the multitudinous, multipointed canopies of fan-palms [...], writing down their stories.

If a central characteristic of literary journalism is a writer's commitment to live beside their sources, Steinbeck had a personal connection with migrant workers. In Parini's words, the writer was "more like a reporter [...] than a novelist" as he "prowled the region with a notebook in hand" (Parini 1995, 151). While Steinbeck's so-called "moral trilogy"<fnref n="16" /> makes this point clearer, in *Travels with Charley*, he associates himself with literary journalism through the stylistic device of point of view. He argues that reporters usually connect the dots to come up with a mirror of reality, but, to him, "there are too many realities [...] and yet each [...] honest" (Steinbeck 1997, 59-60). Speaking to the significance of sincerity in the novelist's writing, Steinbeck's comment is reminiscent of a Shakespearean motto: "This above all – to thine own self be true" (Shakespeare 2016, 1.3.78).

In a Steinbeckesque fashion, Vollmann (2009, 262) concludes, “This is how to write a novel: Gather details and plant them in the pale tan soil of narrative [...] so that they can be potted in the lobby of my *Grapes of Wrath*”.

### 3. “Something like Participation”: Stylistic and Linguistic Mechanisms

Vollmann has oftentimes expressed his devotion to writing “beautiful sentences” (Laurence 2020, 117). In a 2010 interview, he said, “I long for my sentences to be beautiful” (Carson and Evans 2011) – an idea that he had already expressed elsewhere in 2004: “to me style is very important, and I try to make my sentences as beautiful as I can” (Boratav 2020, 159). While this small number of quotations can be expanded, Vollmann’s remark in the interview with David Boratav is suggestive of his concern with stylistic choices. Keeping that in mind, he also mentioned that “When I write my fiction, [...] I try to create something that I think is still true. And so it’s very rare that I try to create something that is just beautiful” (Ibid.). In other words, not only are stylistic matters central to his fiction, but they also reflect his ideas about the importance of truth.

<footnote n="16">16 See Benson 1984, 968.</footnote>
As such, it is worth scrutinizing the strategies that he employs to highlight the moral qualities in his works, which in turn indicate resonances between Vollmann’s oeuvre and the “New Sincerity”.<fnref n="17" /> In this section, my goal is to analyze Vollmann’s linguistic and stylistic decisions, promoting empathy, truth, and resistance to abusive power, in his novel *The Lucky Star* in relation to Steinbeck’s *The Grapes of Wrath*. Such an analysis helps better understand the affinities between his writing and Steinbeck’s sincerity.<fnref n="18" />

In *The Grapes of Wrath*, Steinbeck depicts the alliance of the Dust Bowl and corporate agricultural industry to show the displacement of Oklahoma share-croppers, or the Okies, from their land to California in the hope of a better life. Yet, on arrival they realize that the Golden State is overrun with other migrant farmers. Significantly, in representing the misfortunes of the Joad family and the reversal of their expectations in California, Steinbeck’s text does not lend itself to a teleological narrative stance. Indeed, no single voice in *The Grapes of Wrath* speaks with concluding authority insofar as Steinbeck employs stylistic mechanisms that favor narrative openness and critique. Put otherwise, when considering the alternation of the story of the migrants as part of the Dust Bowl exodus (the intercalary chapters) with that of the Joads’ (Joad chapters), neither set of chapters can be considered as ultimate narrative closures.

To show this non-teleological representation, he uses certain stylistic tools. In chapter five, for instance, repetition of specific words is used as a way of emphasizing the widening of the already existing chasm between the tenant farmers and the landowners. The proprietors have the sharecroppers leave the

<footnote n="17">17 Some insights have been already provided by Christopher K. Coffman in his 2019 essay “The Sentence Is Most Important” (Coffman 2019).</footnote>

<footnote n="18">18 While other works by these writers might be considered for such an examination, it is useful to briefly understand why *The Lucky Star* is a suitable choice to be read in connection with *The Grapes of Wrath*. First, it is inevitable not to think about Vollmann’s return to San Francisco’s Tenderloin District as a source of inspiration in writing his so-called “prostitute trilogy” (Hemmingson 2009, 105) to depict the problems of anti-heroes seeking love under the guise of prostitutes. As Vollmann (2020, 911) tells us in the afterword to *The Lucky Star*, “The novel completes my ‘transgender trilogy’”. With that in mind, not only does the scope of *The Lucky Star* encompass the main concerns previously depicted in his oeuvre, but it further resonates with topics that lend themselves to a comparative investigation with *The Grapes of Wrath*. In effect, Vollmann’s nonfiction books such as *Poor People* and *Imperial* engage with the troubles of the underprivileged, reminding us of sufferings surrounding prostitution in his de facto trilogy.</footnote>
land by deflecting blame on “The bank-the monster” (Steinbeck 1939, 86). The sentence “It’s the monster” (Ibid.: 88), or some variation of it, keeps repeating throughout this chapter to underscore the desperate situation of the farmers in the wake of a ruthless financial system that has deprived them of their relation to the land. “It’s our land. [...] We were born on it, and [...] died on it. [...] That makes ownership, not a paper with numbers on it” (Ibid.), say the tenant men. Once again, the owners respond, “It’s the monster. The bank isn’t like a man” (Ibid.), recalling Bartleby’s famous words “I would prefer not to” in Herman Melville’s eponymous short story, in which the scrivener turns into a dehumanized human being, a “ghost” (Melville 2010, 36). The personification of the bank as a capitalist monster running on the lives of the farmworkers contributes to the cold-hearted quality of the landowners’ mechanical answer.

Nevertheless, though this pattern of repetition and personification serves the author to point up the troubles of the sharecroppers, he does not altogether demonize the landlords. The narrator relates that some of the owners were “proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters” (Steinbeck 1939, 85). At the same time,

Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold [...], and some were afraid (Ibid.).

Here Steinbeck’s narrator offers an objective description of the proprietors by portraying them as quasi victims of the bank’s overreaching power “which had ensnared them” (Ibid.). In effect, we learn that “These last would take no responsibility” because they themselves were “slaves” to the banks, which were “a monster [...] and masters all at the same time” (Ibid.).

Moreover, this objectivity comes at a moment when the reader is feeling deeply for the tenant men’s pain. At the height of such empathetic renditions, Steinbeck’s narrative remains non-teleological by criticizing the cultivators’ ancestors for having ravaged Indians and their lands: “Grampa killed Indians [...] for the land. Maybe we can kill banks – they’re worse than Indians [...]. We’ll get our guns, like Grampa when the Indians came” (Ibid.: 88). The owners’ automatic reply to such objections about the land is that “The bank, the monster owns it” (Ibid.). In such a karmic loop, so to speak, the word “monster” becomes a metaphor for whoever appropriates others’ possessions. Heralding
Steinbeck's sincerity, the criticism of the sharecroppers' forefathers, therefore, functions as an ironical interrogation that assures us of the text's balanced de-lineation of its subjects.

Shifting the focus of attention to *The Lucky Star*, one can describe the nov-el as the account of the life of a mysterious woman, named Karen Strand, and her unconditional, yet tragic, love for everybody she runs into. Referred to as “the lesbian” (Vollmann 2020, 17) throughout the book, she is the connect-ing thread that ties together the various storylines of a fictional cast of most-ly LGBTQ characters as well as their sufferings and hopes. In the afterword, Vollmann remarks that “The real title of the novel is *The Lesbian*” (Ibid.: 914). Indeed, the rising action of the book is Karen’s realization of her love for the character E-beth (Elizabeth Jackson). Karen’s childhood up to the teenage years is described as a troublesome period in which she never felt appreciated by her mother. In an atmosphere of familial problems, when Karen as a high schooler met E-beth, “she [Karen] was ecstatic, because she would be loved forever” (Ibid.: 74) and “the girl became a lesbian” (Ibid.: 68).

Yet, when she realizes that E-beth is going out with another girl, her ob-sessive reaction leads to being dumped, at which point Karen's "experience consisted of *shock without emotion*" (Ibid.: 93). Disappointed, she craves a place where there could be only women who truly love each other. Curiously, the text allows such a possibility through E-beth: "the other woman [...] sent her the address, which referred to an island" (Ibid.: 102). In fact, the section "The Island" can be considered the heart of the text in which Vollmann engages with familiar concerns in his work such as the relation between love and violence.

Through an almost sadistic rite of passage, by an enigmatic “old lesbian” (Ibid.: 109), Karen becomes “a goddess” (Ibid.: 110) labeled Neva. However, in order “to be loved” (Ibid.: 112), she must willingly “suffer as much as possible” (Ibid.: 108). Oddly, the old lady’s violent practices are a means for Neva not only to cope with her romantic failure but more importantly to acquire an all-encompassing “bond of empathy” (Ibid.: 101).

Having gone through this mysterious transition, Neva develops the ca-pacity to love everyone “without shame or limit” (Ibid.: 35). The narrator re-counts that “playing with her sweet soft breasts” created a pleasure that “did not originate in my fingers [...]; rather, it came out of her [...] like a tingling warmth” (Ibid.: 474). Such empathetic representations of Neva, as a source of solace, abound in the novel and are heightened by the stylistic mechanism of
repetition: Neva frequently uses the sentence “I love everyone” insomuch as it becomes a sort of catchphrase for all the characters. Nonetheless, albeit Neva “became perfectly herself”, we are also told that “she lost her freedom forever” (Ibid.: 115). This depiction brings to mind Howard Pickett’s revision of Trilling’s notion of sincerity as a species of self-congruence. He maintains that the faithful articulation of one’s personal thoughts may sometimes be “negative, if not downright vicious” (Pickett 2017, 3).

On that score, contrary to the myriad of selfless love declarations by Neva and those around her, in the end she succumbs to the pressures of her past, dominating her present, and commits suicide. An important factor in her emotional collapse, and relapsing to the initial mental state before the island ritual, is a retired policeman (John Daniel or J.D.) who, described as “a regular private detective” (Vollmann 2020, 455), is morbidly obsessed with her past life. J.D. wants to unravel the mystery around Neva because his girlfriend Judy “the transwoman” (Ibid.: 17) finds comfort in loving Neva, who tells him that “Judy’s in trouble” (Ibid.: 460). “Leave her the fuck alone” (Ibid.: 456), answers the retired policeman, who “could compassionate pathetic crimes” (Ibid.: 232) but has no empathy for those in Neva’s circle. It is no accident that he is depicted as “a sick old man” (Ibid.: 266) or “a pervert” (Ibid.: 358).

Though Vollmann uses certain linguistic and stylistic devices, such as repetition and the noir-like storyline, or a parody of that genre, to arouse the reader's empathy, he also provides other tools indicating the text's attention to the notion that narrative authority should not block from view its own moral responsibilities. In this regard, the careful choice of Richard as the narrator is very much telling. He is a lonely, alcoholic man who tells us that he “existed [...] for no good reason” with “passivity” as one of his “most distinguishing characteristics” (Ibid.: 151-52). We learn that he miserably failed in his married life due to drug consumption and relationships with other women. Eventually, he is left by his wife at the end of his “glowing career” (Ibid.: 153), as he mockingly mentions. At the same time, he grows to develop a deep emotional and sexual dependence on Neva, so much so that he says, “I think Neva is Jesus” (Ibid.: 639) and “we called the lesbian the bodhisattva” (Ibid.: 213). Choosing Richard as the narrator of the book, therefore, casts doubt on the reliability of the narrative point of view. Elevating the voice of “a nothing” (Ibid.: 151) and “a monster” (Ibid.: 153) to the status of the narrator creates certain uncertainties leading to a sort of narrative openness that turns the text's scrutiny on its own head.
Furthermore, Vollmann’s novel provides details that allow for the possi-
bility of resituating the text within the framework of narrative inconclusion.
Even though the transition from Karen to Neva on the island endows her with
the ability to love everyone and “make almost anybody love her” (Ibid.: 115),
the choice of certain temporal indicators runs counter to such a possibility,
evinced by the protagonist’s fate in the end. “The Island” opens with the fol-
lowing line: “When someone longs for ‘the past’, what she truly pines for is
*return into her vanished self*” (Ibid.: 98). In effect, Neva’s trouble before con-
version is her relentless longing to go back to her ex-lover, wishing that “the
past could be present, forever” (Ibid.: 99). Whether the vanished self is Ka-
ren, who has been bestowed “the jewel of happiness now”, or a reflection of
E-beth, “That treacherous face she still adores” (Ibid.: 98), it clearly belongs to
the past. But “she also wishes to be spared this selfsame loss” (Ibid.) as though
she craved a bygone self that no longer exists in the present. The function of
these beginning lines is, therefore, to show the impossibility of Neva’s desire
“to unify a contradiction”, described as “nostalgia” (Ibid.).

The simultaneous representation and interaction of Neva's past and pres-
ent appeals to our sense of empathy. During the island ritual, she must "get
hurt without knowing why" (Ibid.: 106). Despite its esotericism, the old wom-
an's mysterious rite seems, all the same, to be the only temporary solution for
Neva to get over her nostalgia. The narrator surmises that the goal of making
her physically suffer must have been to set her free from "two memories [...]:
of E-beth and [...] her mother" by "exercising her in acts of love" (Ibid.: 109).
With that in mind, we are told that "what had been done to her on the island
remained unknown" (Ibid.: 146), and thereafter "occasionally she believed her-
self to be unlovable" (Ibid.: 127). These doubts about the violent actions by
"the old lesbian" (Ibid.: 109) and Karen's adopted notion of love herald the
text's resistance to a determinate conclusion and its interest in an unbiased
depiction of all the subjects that it represents.

Such a dynamic is depicted elsewhere in a chapter entitled “The Stream of
Pleasure” (Ibid.: 177), which already suggests the idea of openness. Although
in the end Neva commits suicide, it is never explicitly mentioned except in rare
comments, such as “That Strand bitch offed herself” (Ibid.: 873), as if the narra-
tor wanted to disbelieve it. He relates that Neva’s “act was immediately imper-
iled by her hope of managing us without needing to explain” (Ibid.). Yet, he says
that “as long as we felt loved”, there was no need for explanations insofar as they
"would commence an unraveling without end" (Ibid.). Thus, Neva remains a mystery, even to J.D. whose best guess is that her real name is Karen. Near the end, the narrator admits that "Offering perfection imperfectly, she inflicted despair", but he also states that "I reject this because I still love [...] Neva" (Ibid.: 816). As Vollmann remarks in the afterword, "*The Lucky Star* may be my most cynical book" but "we can all aspire to love others and ourselves" (Ibid.: 912).

Albeit these may seem idiosyncratic and paradoxical delineations regarding the notion of (self)love in the novel, they indicate Neva's sincerity, not so much in terms of self-congruence but rather as a reappraisal of it. To use Pickett's words, though simulation, as opposed to authenticity, is usually vicious, it may sometimes be "positive, even virtuous" (Pickett 2017, 3). The novel's ending and Vollmann's afore-mentioned comment hint at the sort of sincerity that he appreciates about Steinbeck's oeuvre, where the writer of *The Grapes of Wrath* conveyed his concern about "American [...] hypocrisy" (Vollmann 2009, 259). In light of Steinbeck's statement in a letter that his purpose in writing the novel was to "do some good" (quoted in Parini 1995, 181) and "lead them [people] to action" (Whitt 2006, 43), Vollmann (2009, 913) encourages us to "pursue the life-affirming question *how does one go forward?*".

A brief analysis of temporal relations in certain sections of *The Lucky Star* has bespoken the hardships of Neva's life. More importantly, it has challenged the notion of narrative conclusion by undermining narrative authority. Significantly, *The Grapes of Wrath* offers episodes in which the examination of temporal indicators may lead to a similar two-fold function, aspiring to what Steinbeck (1941) called "something like participation". In chapter twenty-five, we come across sentences like "The little farmers [...] sprayed the trees and sold no crop, they [...] could not pick the crop" (Steinbeck 1939, 457). Employing the past tense, the narrator speaks about that which he has heard about the cultivators' impossible harvest. Shifting to present tense, nevertheless, he tells his interlocutor more authentically about what he can attest to firsthand: "taste the wine – no grape flavor at all, just sulphur and tannic acid" (Ibid.). Then he makes the prediction that "This vineyard will belong to the bank. Only the great owners can survive" (Ibid.). The passage from the past to the present, and eventually to the future, in the narrative voice helps the reader empathize with, and invites them to "participate" in, the plight of the farmers as well as those who cannot afford the grapes from their vineyards.

Interestingly, this narrator, like other voices, is given partial access to the events, implying Steinbeck's lack of intention to write a book that conveys ab-
solute authority. In the penultimate, and the novel's final intercalary, chapter,
the use of multiple voices is meant as a way for the migrants to express their
misery and highlight the oppressing forces. Keeping that in mind, it is also a
stylistic instrument that sheds light on the philosophical attitude that helps
them get through various moments of suffering. When heavy rain strikes the
migrants' tents, as they're waiting for government bureaucracy to finish, one
narrative voice says, "It'll soon be over" (Ibid.: 559). On the contrary, however,
all their belongings get wet, realizing that they cannot "git relief" nor any "kin-
da work" (Ibid.: 560) anytime soon.

Reflecting on the situation of these destitute people, when the rain finally
stops, a new voice says, “Fella had a team of horses, had to use ’em to plow [...],
wouldn’t think a turnin’ ’em out to starve when they wasn’t workin’”, to which
another nameless character responds, “Them’s horses – we’re men” (Ibid.:
562). Through these voices, we run across the otherwise impossible persistence
of the dispossessed Okies against all odds, as well as their humanity. Resisting
narrative closure, thus, Steinbeck’s novel appeals to our “participation” (Stein-
beck 1941) in the unfolding of a text with no absolute voice of authority.

When it comes to such renditions, bespeaking the absence of ultimate tel-
eology and an interest in sincerity, Steinbeck further employs spatial relations
between the voices of the narrator and the characters. Near the end of chapter
one, the narrative eye is positioned at a distance from the men, women, and
children it observes: “Men stood by their fences and looked at the ruined corn,
[...] The women studied the men’s faces secretly [...]. The children stood near
by” (Ibid.: 1). That the narrative voice talks at a distance situates the characters
within an almost macroscopic spatial frame, within which its observations of-
fer an objective account of collective human suffering.

At the same time, the reader comes across a close-up view of the exchange
between the characters and the narrative voice in the final paragraph of chapter
one. In this regard, the adverb “secretly” suggests that the invisible narrator is
covertly noticing women’s observation of men. In other words, the narrator
seems to be engaged in a dialogic interaction with the women, insofar as he
takes part in their act of observing the men secretly. Further demonstrating
this spatial dynamic between various voices in the same passage is an inter-
nal dialogism as women ask, “What’ll we do?” to which men answer, “I don’t
know” (Ibid.: 2). Crucially, this exchange equips the narrator with a chance to
address the characters directly: “But it was all right” (Ibid.).
However we interpret the distant and close views of the characters by the
narrative eye, it is noticeable that Steinbeck is not inclined toward an omnisci-
ent narrator but rather constructing a dialogic communication with it as well
as the characters. On that note, he chooses not to use quotation marks for the
sentence "But it was all right", heralding the importance of dialogue between
his narrator and the anonymous voices.

Concerning *The Lucky Star*, the narrator holds a peculiar position. Richard
is shown to interact with characters like J.D. in the novel's present. At times,
he is merely an observer from a distance and a chronicler of a community's
hardships. Such a distance is both temporal, as when he relates his conversa-
tions with Neva in the narrative's past, and spatial, in cases when he watches
the events taking place from a remote standpoint. Similar to the narrator in
*The Grapes of Warth*, Richard is a kind of participant-observer, who, like other
characters, is involved in the unfolding of the text's events.

While this similarity does not equate Vollmann's and Steinbeck's styles of
representation, it hints at their calculated stylizations of dialogic voices, sig-
naled by temporal and spatial indicators within the novels. If Bakhtin (1981,
300) described the development of the novel as a function of "the deepening
of dialogic essence", with increasingly more hard and fast truths drawn into
dialogue, here it helps the novelists recount stories through voices that forth-
rightly point out human tragedy without any authoritative truths. As one
might surmise, such a stylistic mechanism, connoting narrative openness and
convolution simultaneously, is a way to suggest the pursuit of truth and the
importance of "sincerity" to these writers.

This article has endeavored to offer a brief glimpse of the insights that might
be achieved by reading the works of Vollmann and Steinbeck in tandem. A
close analysis of the conceptual and stylistic mechanisms highlights the nov-
elists' concern with sincerity as they produce a kind of empathetic knowledge
that strives for truth. Whether understood as "congruence between feeling and
avowal" (Trilling 1971, 7) or "a reappraisal of self-congruence" (Pickett 2017,
2), Vollmann seems to have benefited from Steinbeck's work both in terms of
theme and concept and at the level of narrative and style. Furthermore, this
investigation casts light on Vollmann's declarations about empathy and truth,
allowing for association of his work with the "New Sincerity" and commonly
attributed characteristics of post-postmodernist writing in U.S. literature.
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Ali Dehdarirad is the author of “*From Faraway California: Thomas Pynchon’s Aesthetics of Space in the California Trilogy* (Sapienza UP 2023). Since 2021, he has been teaching American literature and culture at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he obtained his Ph.D. with a focus on American literature. He has published several essays on Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, William T. Vollmann, Cormac McCarthy, Paul Auster, Stephen Markley, John Edward Williams, and John Steinbeck. His forthcoming essay “We’d Tell Her to Embrace Her Inner Disgustingness” has been accepted for publication in the *Oxford University Handbook of American Street Literature*. Together with Sascha Pöhlmann and Giorgio Mariani, he is currently co-editing special issue of *RSA Journal*, titled “(Re)Reading Encyclopedic Narratives in the Digital Age.”
Patrizia Giampieri
Università degli Studi di Perugia

# Are NMT and LLMs effective in the translation of dialogues?

## Abstract

AI has made huge strides forward and is increasingly applied in language learning and audio-visual translation. This paper explores the quality of the machine- and LLMs-driven translation of excerpts of naturally occurring conversations scrutinised by scholars. The dialogues are sourced from literature analyses and examples. After outlining the traits of spoken language, this paper delves into an examination of the renderings of the transcripts of spoken interactions from Italian into American English. To do so, the DeepL NMT platform and the ChatGPT and Gemini chatbots are taken into account. The paper findings bring to the fore three main aspects: 1) NMT is qualitatively less accurate and reliable than LLMs-generated translations; 2) human intervention in LLMS-driven output is necessary because of sporadic inconsistencies and mistranslations, and 3) LLMs prompts must be written carefully and mindfully in order to obtain consistent and accurate results, as unspecific prompts may give rise to a less satisfactory output.

*Keywords:* spoken interactions; LLMs-driven translations; NMT; LLMs; the grammar of spoken language

## 1. Introduction

### 1.1 *Aim of the study*

The aim of this paper is to explore and assess the quality of automated translations (from Italian into English) of extracts of spoken conversations. It examines the machine-driven rendering of dialogue excerpts retrieved from naturally occurring interactions. The conversations are sourced from literature studies and investigations on spoken Italian. In other words, this paper scru-
tinises excerpts of authentic dialogues carried out by Italians which were re-
ported and analysed by scholars in academic works. By doing so, it compares
machine-powered translations with the renditions into English proposed by
researchers. In this way, it is possible to assess the quality and reliability of
LLMs- and NMT-driven outputs.

1.2 *The grammar of spoken English*

Spoken language is unstructured, or loose, and it does not follow the same grammatical rules of the written mode (Thornbury 2005; Carter and McCarthy 2015). Conversations, in fact, are real-time, face-to-face and context-related (Carter and McCarthy 2015).

Spoken interactions are characterised by a context-dependant shared visual element (Conrad 2022), where some components are taken or given for granted by the conversation participants. There are many features which characterise the grammar of speaking. Some of them are discourse markers, turn takers, sharedness markers, face-savers, response tokens, approximators, reformulation devices, deixis, and non-words.

Discourse markers shape the conversation experience and are topic-man-
aging devices (De Cristofaro et al. 2022: 125-126). They can be multi-words of
various length (such as “you know” and “and that sort of things”) (McCarthy
and McCarten 2019: 5), single words (such as “well” or “so”) (O’Keeffe et al.
2007: 39), and non-words (such as “mm” or “erm”) (O’Keeffe et al. 2007: 142;
McCarthy 2010: 7). They serve different purposes. For example, the two-word
unit “you know” is very frequent in spoken conversations (McCarthy and Mc-
Carten 2019: 5) and, amongst others, it expresses shared knowledge. It can also
function as a topic launcher (McCarthy and Carter 2019: 43-44). The phrase
“I guess” is a face-saver and a hedging device (Erman 2001: 1341) as it softens
the impact of an utterance. Single words such as “well” and “so” can be topic
launchers and opening markers, given that they signal the beginning of a shift
in the discussion (O’Keeffe et al. 2007: 34).

The single word “so” signals the conclusion of a previous statement or
discourse (Carter et al. 2011: 616). Therefore, it serves summarising purposes. Some
discourse markers are also response tokens, as they are used as flow-sustaining
devices and instances of listenership (O’Keeffe et al. 2007: 141-145; McCarthy
2010). Examples in this regard can be single words such as “yeah”, “right”, phrases
such as “is that right?”, or even non-words like “mm” (O’Keeffe et al. 2007: 141-145). Spoken interactions also rely on approximation via face-saving strategies. Examples are the expressions “kind of” (and the more colloquial “kinda”), “sort of” (or “sorta”), and “things like that” (Erman 2001; O’Keeffe et al. 2007). In addition, O’Keeffe et al. (2007: 210) refer to the chunk “a lot of” as a vagueness token, given that it does not precisely quantify amounts. Approximators and vague language are used not only to reduce the speaking processing time, but also to take and give things for granted. In this way, they rely on shared knowledge (McCarthy 2010). For instance, the word “like” can be both a vague category marker and a hesitation device (Andersen 2001: 210). Reformulation tools are also used in spoken conversations. They occur when interactants try to refine a previous statement in a more apt way (O’Keeffe et al. 2007: 172), so that their reformulated words or statements function as discourse monitors. Examples are phrases such as “if you like”, “so to speak”, “I mean”, etc. As mentioned, conversations are context-related. For this reason, deictic elements often come to the fore, such as “here”, “there”, “this”, or “that”. Finally, non-word vocalisations may have different functions; for example, “er” is a pause filler (Rayson et al. 1997) and is uttered to give thinking time to the speaker; “hmm” and “oh, mm” are pondering devices, and “uh uh” is a response token (Fadden 2008: 124).

## 1.3 Neostandard Italian

Neostandard Italian is a variety of the Italian language defined as *italiano dell'uso medio parlato e scritto* (Sabatini 1985: 171, “average spoken and written Italian”). Scholars posit that it is closer to oral than written language (Ballarè 2020: 476). Be it written or oral, they agree on the fact that it is commonly used by educated people in both formal and informal contexts (Sabatini 1985; see also Berruto 2017: 33). There are many traits characterising neostandard Italian, such as the actualising *ci*, suspended conditionals, the overextension of male object pronouns, left and right dislocations, etc. (Sabatini 1985; Lombardi Vallauri 2016; Giampieri 2025).

The actualising *ci* (Berruto 2017; Miola 2023) is a redundant, clitic pronoun. It is redundant because it does not serve any locative or semantic purpose, as in *c'è* (“there is”) or *crederci* (“believe in it”) (Sabatini 1985). Also, it should not be interpreted as referring to the plural first-person pronoun (as in *dacci*, “give us”). It often pairs with verbs such as *avere* (“have”) and *essere* (“be”) to form verbal expressions such as *averci* or *esserci* (Sabatini 1985: 160; Berruto 2017:
46). Another example of the actualising *ci* is in the following question: *ce l'hai le carote?* ("have you got them, the carrots?") (Berruto 2017: 46).

Suspended conditionals are subordinate clauses which do not appear with a main clause (Lombardi Vallauri 2016: 151). This is possible because in spontaneous conversations, interactants infer meanings from contexts. For instance, the following statement features a suspended conditional clause: *d'altra parte va be', se ti sei scordato* ("anyway, all right, if you forgot") (ibid., 147-148). As can be seen, the subordinate clause *se ti sei scordato* is not accompanied by a main clause.

In the overextension of *gli* (Berruto 2017: 45; Miola 2023: 98), the *gli* male object pronoun (literally "to him") can refer to males, females, and multiple persons. Therefore, expressions such as *gli parlo* ("I talk to him") may actually regard a male or female figure, as well as a group of people.

Left and right dislocations divide a sentence into two parts: left dislocations feature a theme/rheme preference, whereas right dislocations show a rheme/theme order (D'Achille 2019). Left and right dislocations contain a clitic pronoun which functions as an anaphoric or cataphoric element. The clitic pronoun re-states (or retains) a following or preceding object. An example of a right dislocated element appears in the statement *li leggo i giornali* (Berruto 2017: 40) ("I read them, newspapers"). In this case, *li* is a clitic pronoun anticipating the following object (*i giornali*). In left dislocations, the above utterance would be changed into *i giornali li leggo* ("the newspapers, I read them"), where the clitic *li* follows the object.

Finally, it is worthwhile mentioning that spoken Italian, be it standard or neostandard, is hallmarked by truncations and abbreviations (Berretta 1994: 243). They mainly arise from the spontaneity of the speech event and are due to the fact that conversation participants can infer (and fill in) pieces of information from the context.

Discussing the traits of spoken English and spoken (neo)standard Italian is relevant in the present study given that, as stated, it compares NMT- with LLMs-driven translations of dialogue extracts while highlighting whether and to what extent the above elements emerge.

## 1.4 LLMs and MT

In light of the huge strides forward made by LLMs in the last few years, there are numerous applications of LLMs-driven software in language learning and
translation. Scholars have investigated how LLMs-based agents and chatbots
can improve language learning (Belda-Medina and Cavol-Ferrer 2022; Ericsson
son and Johansson 2023). Belda-Medina and Cavol-Ferrer (2022) explored
how conversational LLMs can be integrated by future educators in language
learning classes. The authors posit that the participants' perception on LLMs
performances is overall positive, especially with regard to their usefulness and
user-friendliness. Nonetheless, the respondents seem somehow reluctant as
concerns immediate usages of LLMs as language learning tools. As a matter of
fact, they are generally keen to develop interactions and conversations with hu-
mans, rather than with LLMs agents (ibid.). Human interactants, in fact, can
give supplementary information or advice when needed. Ericsson and Johans-
son (2023) study the ways LLMs-driven conversational agents can help lower
secondary school students improve second language (L2) skills. The students
conversed with LLMs interactants to perform day-to-day tasks. At the end of
the LLMs-driven experience, they felt emotionally and socially involved and
showed overall improvements in their language knowledge.

LLMs-powered solutions have also been applied to improve L2 speaking skills. Vančová (2023) explores the effectiveness of mobile and web applications, chatbots, and intelligent virtual assistants in L2 pronunciation practice. The findings point to a relevant increase in the quality of L2 proficiency. In addition, LLMs-driven solutions can both raise L2 learners' motivation and reduce their oral production anxiety. Other scholars have focused on the use of LLMs in translation. Baños (2023) and Moorkens and Guerberof Arenas (2024), for example, have addressed the audiovisual translation (AVT) field.

Several scholars have scrutinised the translation performances of NMT-
and LLMs-powered tools. Jiao et al. (2023) compare target texts produced by
ChatGPT and Google Translate. They posit that the chatbot provides satisfac-
tory outputs with recurrent language pairs, whereas it lacks consistency with
less frequent language combinations. They also argue that ChatGPT is more
effective in the translation of spoken language. Grimm et al. (2024) explore how
GPT-4 LLMs help foster medical communication. To this aim, the authors ex-
amine the translation performance of GPT-4 systems into English, Spanish and
Mandarin. They find that such tools provide accurate medical information in
different languages, thereby improving access to medical services. In the same
way, Keles et al. (2024) focus on the medical sector and develop an LLM mo-
del which delivers satisfactory target texts. As far as the legal field is concerned,
Moneus and Sahari (2024) investigate the reliability of translations generated by chatbots such as ChatGPT, ChatSonic and Microsoft Copilot. They postulate that the LLMs do not grasp legal subtleties. For this reason, their outputs are inaccurate. Similarly, Giampieri (2024) discusses the advantages and drawbacks of relying on intelligent machines in the legal domain. More precisely, Giampieri (2024) scrutinises the automated rendition (from English into Italian) of an arbitration clause performed by ChatGPT. The findings point to the fact that LLMs cannot be entirely relied upon as they produce shortcomings at both word and phrase level. This is mostly due to the fact that legal discourse is formulaic and it contains polysemous terms whose disambiguation in context may be challenging. Additionally, it is grounded in legal-system specificities.

Therefore, despite some apparent advantages of LLMs- and NMT-based solutions, there are many instances where they prove to be ineffective and/or unreliable. In this respect, Federici et al. (2023: 151) warn against the pitfalls and allure of NMT- and LLMs-driven systems and claim that “volunteerism and technology lull users into a false security of the translation quality achieved through automated processes”. Also, as mentioned, there are instances of inaccuracies and lexical issues (Giampieri 2023 and 2024), as well as social inequalities and potential discrimination favoured by (biasedly trained) automated systems. For example, AI solutions may not address less widespread languages (Nunes Vieira et al. 2021).

To reduce AI-generated risks of inequality, Federici et al. (2023: 151-152) suggest embedding access and usages in platforms, where applications would be constrained or limited to a certain degree. In addition, NMT and LLMs systems may give rise to “hallucinations” (Escribe and Mitkov 2023; Guerreiro et al. 2023), i.e., outright nonsensical output.

## 1.5 *Research questions*

The research questions that this paper wishes to address are the following ones: 1) Can LLMs- and NMT-driven solutions translate colloquial language in such a manner as to reproduce traits of spontaneous conversations?; 2) What are the differences in the two types of output?, and 3) Which are the most common shortcomings?

To answer these questions, dialogue extracts sourced from literature analyses on spoken Italian are focused on, together with the related suggested (or of-
ficial) translations into English performed by scholars. For the purpose of this
investigation, such dialogues are also rendered automatically by using LLMs
and NMT platforms. Therefore, the LLMs- and NMT-generated target texts
are compared with the translations proposed by researchers. In this way, traits
of spoken Italian are scrutinised in both human-made and automatically gene-
rated renditions.

## 2. Methodology

As mentioned, four dialogue extracts (and the related human-made transla-
tions into English) are sourced from literature investigations on spoken Ital-
ian (Lombardi Vallauri 2016; Voghera and Borges 2017; Miola 2023). The dia-
logues have been chosen for their richness in spoken language features; hence,
for their representativeness of spontaneous interactions and spoken neostan-
dard Italian, according to literature-based studies.

The conversations are translated automatically by using an NMT-driven
platform (such as DeepL) and two chatbots (i.e., ChatGPT and Gemini). The
language pairs in DeepL are Italian and American English. The prompt in-
putted in the chatbots is as follows:

> Prompt: *Translate into colloquial American English the following dialogue: "[Dialogue]".*

To test the soundness and consistency of the LLMs-generated outputs, at
the end of the analysis another prompt is inputted in the chatbots. For this
purpose, one of the four source texts is copied in the chatbots dialogue box.
The following different prompt is formulated:

> Prompt 2: *Translate the following text into English: "[Dialogue]".*

In this way, it is possible to verify the level of consistency of the results ob-
tained when the prompt does not refer to colloquial language.

In the sections that follow, the source dialogue, the official translation (car-
ried out by scholars) and the automated translations into English (i.e., the one
by DeepL, ChatGPT, and Gemini) are reported into tables. As mentioned, the
official translations are those appearing in scholarly works. Researchers may
have chosen to render dialogues rather literally to emphasise spoken features.

Traits of spoken language in the source and target texts are discussed. The
quality of the translated output is examined on the basis of lexical, syntactical