The Mobile Spectacle
Variable Perspective in Manzoni's "I Promessi Sposi</I>
Will be published approx. on 1. April 1998
Book
Hardback
XVI, 167 pages
978-0-8204-2134-6 (ISBN)
Description
The Mobile Spectacle treats Manzoni's use of variable perspective in I Promessi Sposi, the relationship between his technique and that of other European Romantic writers and his contribution to the Italian literary language. This study shows how Manzoni consistently represents what the eye sees (landscape, cityscape) and the mind conceives (characters' plans, history) under different and often paradoxical aspects. Its thesis is that the technique of variable perspective has a cognitive function, allowing the novel to «speak» in a timeless manner of reason and folly, goodness and wickedness, human reason and divine grace.
More details
Person
The Author: Clareece G. Godt received her Ph.D. in Italian literature from The Johns Hopkins University after an earlier career in the sciences. She has published articles on Italo Svevo and Alessandro Manzoni, and since 1981, she has taught at the University of Pittsburgh.