An analysis of the relationship between detective fiction and its setting, this book is the most wide-ranging examination of the way in which Italian detective fiction in the last 20 years has become ...a means to articulate the changes in the social landscape of the country.
Disease—real or imagined, physical or mental—is a common theme in Western literature and is often a symbol of modern alienation. In Literary Diseases, a comprehensive analysis of the metaphorical and ...symbolic force of disease in modern Italian literature, Gian-Paolo Biasin expands the geography of the discussion of this important theme. Using as a backdrop the perspective of European experiences of the previous hundred years, Biasin analyzes the theme of disease as a reflection of certain sociological and historical phenomena in modern European novels, as a metaphor for the world visions of selected Italian novelists, and especially as a vehicle for understanding the nature and function of fiction itself. The core of Biasin’s study is found in his discussion of the works of four major Italian writers. In his criticism of the novels of Giovanni Verga, who stood at the center of many complex developments in the nineteenth century, he examines the antecedents of modern Italian prose. He then scrutinizes the works of Italo Svevo and Luigi Pirandello, who together inaugurated the modern novel in Italy. Of particular interest is his exploration of their critical use of psychoanalysis and madness climaxed by apocalyptic visions. He then discusses the prose of Carlo Emilio Gadda, which epitomizes the problems of the avant-garde in its experimentalism and expressionism. Biasin utilizes a broad spectrum of critical approaches—from sociology, psychoanalysis, and different trends in modern French, American, and Italian literary criticism—in shaping his own methodology, which is a thematic and structural symbolism. He concludes that disease in literature should be considered as a metaphor for writing (écriture) and as a cognitive instrument that calls into question the anthropocentric values of Western culture. The book, with its textual comparisons and unusual supporting examples, constitutes a significant methodological contribution as well as a major survey of modern Italian prose, and will allow the reader to see traditional landmarks in European fiction in a new light.
Les années 1910 ont été lues tour à tour comme celles des avant-gardes, de la « crise du roman », de la « crise des intellectuels », de la « Belle Époque », de la « conscience malheureuse ». La ...notion de « laboratoire » semble bien faite pour contenir cette multiplicité. Qu’il s’agisse d’une crise ou d’un foisonnement de nouvelles beautés, le trait commun de ces différentes interprétations de la période semble être la réinvention de l’appréhension du mouvement. De quelle manière les œuvres emploient-elles l’aventure comme moyen de refondation de la péripétie romanesque ? Quels sont les types de mouvements narrés et comment dialoguent-ils avec ceux des narrations de la fin-de-siècle ? À la veille du premier conflit mondial, les champs littéraires français et italien sont proches. La plume d’Aldo Palazzeschi en a donné peut être la meilleure illustration, lorsqu’il considère qu’en 1914 « L’Italie déménage à Paris ». Quel est l’apport spécifique de chacun de ces univers littéraires à la réinvention de l’aventure dans le roman ? De quelle manière l’analyse des échanges entre les deux pays contribue-t-elle à éclairer les poétiques romanesques du mouvement et à dessiner leurs formes ? Peut-on parler d’un axe franco-italien de renouvellement narratif ? À travers le rapprochement d’œuvres habituellement dissociées ou même oubliées, notre étude se propose de forger des notions pouvant mettre en lumière les spécificités de cette saison du roman, qui ne peut être lue comme un « paléomodernisme » ou comme un simple prolongement du XIXe siècle.
The 1910s were read like those of the avant-gardes, of the "crisis of the novel", of the "intellectual crisis", of the "Belle Epoque",of the "unhappy conscience". The notion of "laboratory" seems well suited to contain this multiplicity. Whether it is a crisis or an explosion of new aesthetics, the common feature of these different interpretations of the period seems to be the reinvention of the conception of the movement. How do narrative works use adventure as a way to reimagine the plot? What are the types of movements narrated and how do they interact with those of the end-of-the-century? On the eve of the First World War, the French and Italian literary fields are close to each other that they almost overlap. Aldo Palazzeschi gave perhaps the best illustration, when he points out that in 1914 "Italy moves to Paris". What is the specific contribution of each of these literary worlds to the reinvention of adventure in the novel? How does the analysis of the exchanges between the two countries help to shed light on the poetics of the movement and to draw its forms? Is it possible to talk about a Franco-Italian axis of narrative renewal? Our thesis aims to use concepts that may be useful to distinguish the features of a certain novel’s era (which cannot be read only as a "paleomodernism" or as a simple extension of the nineteenth century) through the reconciliation of works that are usually dissociated or even forgotten.
Gli anni ’10 sono stati letti di volta in volta come gli anni delle avanguardie, della «crisi del romanzo», della «crisi degli intellettuali», della «Belle Époque», della «conscience malheureuse». La nozione di «laboratorio» appare utile per contenere questa molteplicità. Che si tratti di crisi o di effervescenza di nuove strade, il tratto comune delle diverse interpretazioni del periodo sembra essere la riconfigurazione della concezione di movimento. In che maniera le opere narrative utilizzano l’avventura come modo di rigenerazione della parola romanzesca? Quali sono i tipi di movimento narrati e come dialogano con quelli della fin-de-siècle? Alla vigilia della prima guerra mondiale, i mondi letterari francese e italiano sono vicini fin quasi a sovrapporsi. La penna di A. Palazzeschi ne ha dato forse la migliore illustrazione scrivendo, a proposito dell’anno 1914, che “L’Italia ha traslocato a Parigi”. Qual è l’apporto specifico di ciascuno dei due universi letterari alla rinascita dell’avventura nel romanzo? In che maniera l’analisi degli scambi tra i due paesi contribuisce a fare luce sulle poetiche romanzesche del movimento e a disegnarne le forme? È possibile parlare di un asse italo-francese di rinnovamento narrativo? Attraverso uno studio comparativo di opere abitualmente dissociate o cadute nell’oblio, la tesi propone delle nozioni che possano distinguere le specificità di una stagione del romanzo che non può essere letta come un “paleo-modernismo” o come un semplice prolungamento dell’Ottocento.
À chaque minute qui passe, de chaînes en trames, la petite et la grande histoire s’entrelacent pour constituer l’étoffe de notre monde. Ce rapport entre les sphères privées et publiques, la ...littérature en offre un reflet révélateur, particulièrement dans les romans naturistes et véristes de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle et du début du XXe siècle.Marie-Ève Laurin montre comment le microcosme domestique et organique exprime les bouleversements politiques et les mutations sociales de l’époque dans les œuvres d’Émile Zola, de Giovanni Verga, de Federico de Roberto et de Luigi Pirandello. Elle étudie la manière dont les transformations relationnelles et, même, physiologiques des personnages, tout comme celles des lieux, dévoilent l’évolution historique de la société. Dans son ouvrage, corps et décors s’affichent essentiellement comme le prolongement de l’environnement dans lequel ils se meuvent.
Mafia and Outlaw Stories from Italian Life and
Literature takes a unique and intriguing approach to the
subject of the Mafia, and offers informed judgements about its
historical impact on Italian ...society and culture.
A landmark bestseller in Italy, I Was an Elephant Salesman gives a name and a face to the thousands of anonymous African street vendors in cities across Europe. Through the voice of a thinly veiled ...first-person narrator, Pap Khouma offers us a chilling, intimate, and often ironic glimpse into the life of an illegal immigrant. Khouma invents a life for himself as an itinerant trader of carved elephants, small ivories, and other African trinkets, struggling to maintain courage and dignity in the face of despair and humiliation. Constantly on the run from the authorities, he finds insight into the vicissitudes of law and politics, the constraints of citizenship, national borders, skin color, and the often paralyzing difficulties of obtaining basic human needs. His story reveals a contemporary Europe struggling to come to terms with its multiracial, multireligious, and multicultural identity.
The 'new Italian narrative' that began to be spoken about in the 1980s was not associated with a single writer or movement but with an eclectic and varied production. The eight essays that make up ...this volume set out to give a flavour of the breadth and range of recent trends and developments. The collection opens with two essays on crime fiction. In the first, Luca Somigli examines novels dealing with topical issues or recent history and which reveal a strong indigenous and regional tradition, while in the second, Nicoletta McGowan discusses the particular case of a noir by Claudia Salvatori. They are followed by essays on two of Italy's best-known contemporary writers: Marina Spunta's essay explores the representation of space, place and landscape in the work of Gianni Celati and photographer Luigi Ghirri, while Darrell O'Connell analyses the fiction of Vincenzo Consolo, and his struggle to find a means of representing an ethical stance within fiction.Two essays then examine the role of the anthology for young writers: Charlotte Ross and Derek Duncan in the context of lesbian and gay writing, looking at identity politics and the problematics of categorization; Monica Jansen and Inge Lanslots in that of the "Young Cannibals", and their often unsettling non-literary language and orientation towards cinema, pop music and slang. The penultimate essay, by Jennifer Burns, discusses the literature of migrants to Italy, focusing on questions of identity, memory, mobility and language, while the final contribution, by Gillian Ania, is a study of apocalypse and dystopia in contemporary writing, looking at novels by Vassalli, Capriolo, Avoledo and Pispisa."This volume examines Italian narrative from the 1980s to the present, from the original viewpoint of genres, categories, trends, rather than author-based analyses. It highlights the innovations of the
last twenty years, incorporating into the various themes well known writers like Consolo, Celati and Vassalli, with relative newcomers like Avoledo and Pispisa. The contributors to the volume, academics from the UK, Ireland, Canada, Belgium, cover a wide range of themes which have come to the fore during this period, ranging from detective stories (both the giallo and the noir) to lesbian and gay writing, to immigration literature in Italian, to the study of apocalypse and dystopia. The themes are contextualized in the socio-political and cultural changes taking place in Italy, and parallel to this the temporal moments of the narratives are in turn related to their historical realities. This is a richly woven account which presents post '80s Italian narrative from a new and stimulating angle, in eight lucid and informative essays which will be welcomed by all those interested in contemporary fiction in its cultural context."--Professor Anna Laura Lepschy, Department of Italian, University College London.
Writing to delight Arslan, Antonia; Romani, Gabriella
Writing to delight,
c2006, 20060616, 2006, 2000, 2006-01-01
eBook
The nineteenth century represents a crucial historical and cultural phase in the development of modern Italy.Writing to Delightprovides a selection of short stories written by some of the most ...accomplished and acclaimed female authors of nineteenth-century Italy, made available to an English-speaking audience for the first time through this translation. The stories that make up this anthology are written in a realistic vein and describe the life and concerns of women at a time when Italy was going through major social and economic changes. Imbued with didactic aims, the authors of these stories strove to inspire and at the same time educate their public.
In this regard,Writing to Delightalso serves as an instrument for a critical investigation of both the cultural productions of nineteenth-century Italy and the process of formation of modern Italian identities. With the growth of the middle-classes and a more diffuse literacy among the population, women became a visible and conspicuous social force as consumers of cultural goods, such as books and newspapers. Many of the writers included in this anthology - Matilde Serao, Marchesa Colombi, Neera, Contessa Lara - were not only very successful writers of fiction but also worked as journalists for some of the main national newspapers of the time. They were well acquainted with their readers' tastes and expectations and made such awareness an integral part of their creative process. Their fiction thus reflects the many topics and concerns that informed the social and cultural debates of nineteenth-century Italy.
