A Test of Powers
Writings on Criticism and Literary Institutions
Published on 5. November 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
468 pages
978-1-80309-595-0 (ISBN)
Description
A foundational work of Italian intellectual life that blends political essays and literary criticism, anticipating key debates of the New Left and exploring the intersection of ideology and literature.
Originally published in Italian in 1965, A Test of Powers was immediately seen as one of the central texts of Italian intellectual life. By the time of the 1968 student revolts, it was clear that Franco Fortini had anticipated many of the themes and concerns of the New Left, which was no surprise, given that Fortini had spent more than two decades immersed in fierce ideological debates over anti-Fascism, organizing the alliance between progressivism and literature and other topics that found their way into A Test of Powers. In addition to politically focused essays, the book also features writings on a range of authors who influenced Fortini, including Franz Kafka, Boris Pasternak, Eric Auerbach, Marcel Proust, and Bertolt Brecht.
Originally published in Italian in 1965, A Test of Powers was immediately seen as one of the central texts of Italian intellectual life. By the time of the 1968 student revolts, it was clear that Franco Fortini had anticipated many of the themes and concerns of the New Left, which was no surprise, given that Fortini had spent more than two decades immersed in fierce ideological debates over anti-Fascism, organizing the alliance between progressivism and literature and other topics that found their way into A Test of Powers. In addition to politically focused essays, the book also features writings on a range of authors who influenced Fortini, including Franz Kafka, Boris Pasternak, Eric Auerbach, Marcel Proust, and Bertolt Brecht.
Reviews / Votes
"An elegant and provocative project-the first book of Fortini's prose to appear in English translation-that challenges one's political assumptions about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, not only at the time of the Six-Day War but also today . . . Toscano has done a masterful job of rendering Fortini's often difficult prose into a fluid and concise English." -- Praise for "The Dogs of the Sinai" * Los Angeles Review of Books * "Forensic and devastating." -- Praise for "The Dogs of the Sinai" * Times Literary Supplement * "Fortini's poetic production, literary criticism, political writings, translations, and journalism have assured him a position of the first rank among intellectuals of the Italian postwar period." -- Praise for "The Dogs of the Sinai" * Italica *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Greenford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 43 mm
Weight
680 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80309-595-0 (9781803095950)
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
Persons
Franco Fortini (1917-94) was a poet, essayist, literary critic, Marxist intellectual, and translator of Brecht, Goethe, and Kafka, among others. He is the author of The Dogs of Sinai, also published by Seagull Books. Alberto Toscano teaches at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. He is the author of Fanaticism and Late Fascism and coeditor of The SAGE Handbook of Marxism.
Content
Translator's Introduction: The Labour of Division
Translator's Acknowledgements
Preface to the First Edition (1965)
Preface to the Second Edition (1969)
PART I: The Literary Institution
I. Eroticism and Literature
II. A Test of Powers
III. Clarifications
IV. Cunning as Doves
V. Literary Institutions and the Progress of the Regime
VI. Two Avant-gardes
VII. Avant-garde and Mediation
VIII. Written and Spoken
PART II: The Condition of the Guest
I. Radek's Hands
II. The Writers' Mandate and the End of Anti-Fascism
III. In Defence of the Idiot
PART III: Of Some Critics
I. Reading Spitzer
II. Mimesis
III. Deus Absconditus
IV. Lukacs in Italy
V. The Young Lukacs
VI. The Passage of Joy
PART IV: For Some Books
I. For Herzen
II. Rereading Pasternak
III. Notes on Proust
IV. Tolstoy, the Master and the Man
V. Kafka's Men and the Criticism of Things
VI. Two Returns
VII. Brecht or the Talking Horse
VIII. The Chinese Spectre
Translator's Acknowledgements
Preface to the First Edition (1965)
Preface to the Second Edition (1969)
PART I: The Literary Institution
I. Eroticism and Literature
II. A Test of Powers
III. Clarifications
IV. Cunning as Doves
V. Literary Institutions and the Progress of the Regime
VI. Two Avant-gardes
VII. Avant-garde and Mediation
VIII. Written and Spoken
PART II: The Condition of the Guest
I. Radek's Hands
II. The Writers' Mandate and the End of Anti-Fascism
III. In Defence of the Idiot
PART III: Of Some Critics
I. Reading Spitzer
II. Mimesis
III. Deus Absconditus
IV. Lukacs in Italy
V. The Young Lukacs
VI. The Passage of Joy
PART IV: For Some Books
I. For Herzen
II. Rereading Pasternak
III. Notes on Proust
IV. Tolstoy, the Master and the Man
V. Kafka's Men and the Criticism of Things
VI. Two Returns
VII. Brecht or the Talking Horse
VIII. The Chinese Spectre