Contrappunti / Counterpoints
Selected Prose of Giovanni Cecchetti
Will be published approx. on 1. October 1997
Book
Paperback/Softback
X, 325 pages
978-0-8204-3134-5 (ISBN)
Description
The bilingual title of this volume, Contrappunti / Counterpoints, addresses the culturally interrelated dynamic of its substance: the reflections and stories of Giovanni Cecchetti, exquisitely written in his native Italian, but from the psychocultural perspective of contemporary Americana, and with illuminating forays into the Greek and Latin classics. «To have grappled,» asserts Cecchetti, «with different languages and clashing cultures has enriched our lives, our awareness of the depth of humanity which runs through ourselves and others, whatever our nationality. It has also enriched our native tongue, bringing radically new meanings to every word that we utter.» The dynamic between environment(s) and language - so sensitively rendered in Raymond Petrillo's translation - is as essential to the life of this volume as it is to the lives of the many people who grapple with the same existential binomial on a daily basis, at various levels.
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Person
The Author: Giovanni Cecchetti is one of the most internationally visible Italian scholars in the United States today. Born in Tuscany and educated at the University of Florence, he has worked for almost 50 years to establish and develop Italian departments at major American universities: Berkeley, Tulane, Stanford, and UCLA. Among his many volumes of literary criticism, we should note at least Leopardi e Verga, Il Verga maggiore and Voci di poesia. He has published over 150 articles dealing with a considerable range of critical problems, as well as translations. The most intense area of his activity, however, is his own creative writing: his volumes of lyrical prose include Il villaggio degli inutili, Spuntature intermezzi and Danza nel deserto; and his books of poetry are Diario nomade, Impossibile scendere, Nel cammino dei monti and Favole spente.
The Editor and Translator: Raymond Petrillo is an associate professor of Italian at Texas A & M University. He received his Ph.D. in Italian literature from Rutgers University. In addition to a critical monograph, Itinerario del primo Verga, he has published numerous articles on Verga, Svevo and Cecchetti. He has also translated into English a number of Italian writers.
The Editor and Translator: Raymond Petrillo is an associate professor of Italian at Texas A & M University. He received his Ph.D. in Italian literature from Rutgers University. In addition to a critical monograph, Itinerario del primo Verga, he has published numerous articles on Verga, Svevo and Cecchetti. He has also translated into English a number of Italian writers.