Modern Italian Literature
1st Edition
Published on 26. October 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-0-7456-2800-4 (ISBN)
Description
This authoritative and vividly written book brings readers into the heart of Italian literary culture from the 1690s to the present. It probes the work of major authors in their broad cultural context, traces the history of audiences and publishers, explores the shifting relationship between public and private, assesses the impact of significant historical trends and events on creative processes, and establishes the continuities as well as the discontinuities of the Italian literary tradition. A synoptic overview at the beginning of the volume is designed to help the reader get her or his bearings in the detail of the nine chapters which follow. Using an essentially chronological framework, the book is divided into three major cultural time-spans: the long eighteenth century, the decades of national identity formation and the creation of modern', industrial Italy between 1816 and 1900, and the twentieth century with its constant renegotiation of national cultural identity. A final epilogue provides a snapshot of Italian literary culture in the near-present.
This is a book which will be readily accessible to students and all those interested in Italian culture, and at the same time is based on the most up-to-date scholarship. New readings of the canonical authors rub shoulders with a refreshing attention to standard and popular writing, gender issues, and the interaction between written and oral forms, producing a history of modern Italian literature which is new in its conception and its scope.
This is a book which will be readily accessible to students and all those interested in Italian culture, and at the same time is based on the most up-to-date scholarship. New readings of the canonical authors rub shoulders with a refreshing attention to standard and popular writing, gender issues, and the interaction between written and oral forms, producing a history of modern Italian literature which is new in its conception and its scope.
Reviews / Votes
"An intelligent and engaging blend of cultural and literary history, this volume provides a highly readable overview of modern Italian literature, which ranges from the eighteenth century to today. A most valuable study for both experts and students."Rebecca West, University of Chicago
"A brilliant book that moves with agility through the centuries, authors, and historical events. It is a cultural and literary guide that any student of Italian should rely on."
Graziella Parati, Dartmouth College
"This is a superb, stimulating and lucid work of synthesis, tracing the evolution of Italian literature from the late seventeenth century to the present day. As well as revisiting major figures and others lost in the archive, the book uses the literary field to explore a fascinating series of subterranean patterns in Italy's modern cultural history."
Robert Gordon, University of Cambridge
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7456-2800-4 (9780745628004)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Ann Hallamore Caesar | Michael Caesar
Modern Italian Literature
Book
10/2007
1st Edition
Polity Press
€67.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Ann Hallamore Caesar is Professor of Italian at the University of Warwick.
Michael Caesar is Serena Professor of Italian at the University of Birmingham.
Michael Caesar is Serena Professor of Italian at the University of Birmingham.
Content
Preface and Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION: An Overview of Modern Italian Literature
PART I: The Long Eighteenth Century (1690-1815)
Chapter One: Cross-currents of modernity
1.1. This is Arcadia
1.2. New states, new thinkers
Chapter Two: Enlightenment and the public arena
2.1. Journalism, theatre and the book trade in Venice
2.2. Enlightenment and reform from Naples to Milan
Chapter Three: Literature and revolution
3.1. Italy and France
3.2. Alfieri: life and drama
3.3. Foscolo: between classicism and romanticism
PART II: Literature and Unification (1816-1900)
Chapter Four: Romantic Italy
4.1. Milan 1816
4.2. Florence 1827
4.3. Leopardi: the challenge of poetry
Chapter Five: Inventing the nation
5.1. Manzoni: the responsibility of the writer
5.2. History and fiction
5.3. Literature and the people
5.4. Memory, monuments and the national past
Chapter Six: Making the nation
6.1. The literary culture of Unificaton
6.2. The artist as observer: verismo and the social
6.3. Looking in: domesticity and the literary market
PART III: From modernism to the market (1900 to the present)
Chapter Seven: Modernism and the crisis of the literary subject
7. 1. The search for identity
7.2. War, technology and the arts
7.3. Narratives of selfhood: the subjective turn in fiction
Chapter Eight: Literature, Fascism and Anti-Fascism
8.1. Writing and the regime
8.2. The social condition of intellectuals
8.3. Testing the limits of the novel
8.4. Resistance, Reconstruction and Neo-realism
Chapter Nine: From the avant-garde to the market-place
9.1. The last avant-garde?
9.2. The widening of culture
9.3. A minimalist postmodernism: the poetics of attention
9.4. Epilogue: a weekend in April
Primary References
Secondary References
General Bibliography
INTRODUCTION: An Overview of Modern Italian Literature
PART I: The Long Eighteenth Century (1690-1815)
Chapter One: Cross-currents of modernity
1.1. This is Arcadia
1.2. New states, new thinkers
Chapter Two: Enlightenment and the public arena
2.1. Journalism, theatre and the book trade in Venice
2.2. Enlightenment and reform from Naples to Milan
Chapter Three: Literature and revolution
3.1. Italy and France
3.2. Alfieri: life and drama
3.3. Foscolo: between classicism and romanticism
PART II: Literature and Unification (1816-1900)
Chapter Four: Romantic Italy
4.1. Milan 1816
4.2. Florence 1827
4.3. Leopardi: the challenge of poetry
Chapter Five: Inventing the nation
5.1. Manzoni: the responsibility of the writer
5.2. History and fiction
5.3. Literature and the people
5.4. Memory, monuments and the national past
Chapter Six: Making the nation
6.1. The literary culture of Unificaton
6.2. The artist as observer: verismo and the social
6.3. Looking in: domesticity and the literary market
PART III: From modernism to the market (1900 to the present)
Chapter Seven: Modernism and the crisis of the literary subject
7. 1. The search for identity
7.2. War, technology and the arts
7.3. Narratives of selfhood: the subjective turn in fiction
Chapter Eight: Literature, Fascism and Anti-Fascism
8.1. Writing and the regime
8.2. The social condition of intellectuals
8.3. Testing the limits of the novel
8.4. Resistance, Reconstruction and Neo-realism
Chapter Nine: From the avant-garde to the market-place
9.1. The last avant-garde?
9.2. The widening of culture
9.3. A minimalist postmodernism: the poetics of attention
9.4. Epilogue: a weekend in April
Primary References
Secondary References
General Bibliography