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Elsa Morante's Politics of Writing is a collected volume of
twenty-one essays written by Morante specialists and international
scholars. Essays gather attention on four broad critical topics,
namely the relationship Morante entertained with the arts, cinema,
theatre, and the visual arts; new critical approaches to her four
novels; treatment of body and sexual politics; and Morante's
prophetic voice as it emerges in both her literary works and her
essayistic writings. Essays focus on Elsa Morante's strategies to
address her wide disinterest (and contempt) for the Italian
intellectual status quo of her time, regardless of its political
side, while showing at once her own kind of ideological commitment.
Further, contributors tackle the ways in which Morante's writings
shape classical oppositions such as engagement and enchantment with
the world, sin and repentance, self-reflection, and corporality, as
well as how her engagement in the visual arts, theatre, and
cinematic adaptations of her works garner further perspectives to
her stories and characters. Her works-particularly the novels
Menzogna e sortilegio (House of Liars, 1948), La Storia: Romanzo
(History: A Novel, 1974) and, more explicitly, Aracoeli (Aracoeli,
1982)-foreshadowed and advanced tenets and structures later
affirmed by postmodernism, namely the fragmentation of narrative
cells, rhizomatic narratives, lack of a linear temporal
consistency, and meta- and self-reflective processes.
Elsa Morante's Politics of Writing is a collected volume of
twenty-one essays written by Morante specialists and international
scholars. Essays gather attention on four broad critical topics,
namely the relationship Morante entertained with the arts, cinema,
theatre, and the visual arts; new critical approaches to her four
novels; treatment of body and sexual politics; and Morante's
prophetic voice as it emerges in both her literary works and her
essayistic writings. Essays focus on Elsa Morante's strategies to
address her wide disinterest (and contempt) for the Italian
intellectual status quo of her time, regardless of its political
side, while showing at once her own kind of ideological commitment.
Further, contributors tackle the ways in which Morante's writings
shape classical oppositions such as engagement and enchantment with
the world, sin and repentance, self-reflection, and corporality, as
well as how her engagement in the visual arts, theatre, and
cinematic adaptations of her works garner further perspectives to
her stories and characters. Her works-particularly the novels
Menzogna e sortilegio (House of Liars, 1948), La Storia: Romanzo
(History: A Novel, 1974) and, more explicitly, Aracoeli (Aracoeli,
1982)-foreshadowed and advanced tenets and structures later
affirmed by postmodernism, namely the fragmentation of narrative
cells, rhizomatic narratives, lack of a linear temporal
consistency, and meta- and self-reflective processes.
Despite an outpouring in recent years of history and cultural
criticism related to the Holocaust, Italian women's literary
representations and testimonies have not received their proper due.
This project fills this gap by analyzing Italian women's writing
from a variety of genres, all set against a complex historical
backdrop.
Despite an outpouring in recent years of history and cultural
criticism related to the Holocaust, Italian women's literary
representations and testimonies have not received their proper due.
This project fills this gap by analyzing Italian women's writing
from a variety of genres, all set against a complex historical
backdrop.
A Multitude of Women looks at the ways in which both Italian
literary tradition and external influences have assisted Italian
women writers in rethinking the theoretical and aesthetic ties
between author, text, and readership in the construction of the
novel. Stefania Lucamante discusses the valuable contributions that
Italian women writers have made to the contemporary novel and
illustrates the relevance of the novelistic examples set by their
predecessors. She addresses various discursive communities, reading
works by Di Lascia, Ferrante, Vinci, and others with reference to
intertextuality and the theories of Elsa Morante and Simone de
Beauvoir. This study identifies a positive deviation from literary
and ideological orthodoxy, a deviation that helps give meaning to
the Italian novel and to transform the traditional notion of the
canon in Italian literature. Lucamante argues that this is partly
due to the merits of women writers and their ability to eschew
obsolete patterns in narrative while favouring forms that are more
attuned to the ever-changing needs of society. She shows that
contemporary novels by women authors mirror a shift from previous
trends in which the need for female emancipation interfered with
the actual literary and aesthetic significance of the novel. A
Multitude of Women offers a new epistemology of the novel and will
appeal to those interested in women's writing, readership, Italian
studies, and literary studies in general.
Righteous Anger in Contemporary Italian Literary and Cinematic
Narratives analyses the role of passion - particularly indignation
- and how it shapes intention and inspires the work of many
contemporary Italian writers and filmmakers. Noting how art often
holds the power to shed light on issues surrounding inequity,
inequality, and injustice, the book explores the ethical function
of art as a tool in resistance and sociopolitical protest, thereby
validating the axiom that ethics and aesthetics can still
collaborate in the creation of meaning. Drawing on a range of
Italian novels and films and examining the works of artists such as
Tiziano Scarpa, Simona Vinci, Paolo Sorrentino, and Monica
Stambrini, the author shows that anger can be used constructively
as a weapon of resistance against negative and oppressive forces.
Elsa Morante has long been recognized internationally as one of the
most significant, innovative, and important writers of the 20th
century Italy. Nonetheless, there has, to date, been no full-length
study in English dedicated to her work. Critical perspectives on
Morante's literary achievement have shifted dramatically in recent
years, and while this volume proposes to offer the first
comprehensive evaluation of Morante to appear outside Italy, it
also aims to take into account modern critical and theoretical
developments. The authors' aim is to underline Morante's centrality
in a broader context which goes beyond Italian national frontiers
and deserves critical attention across a range of transcultural
disciplines, departing from the traditional realm of philological
analysis to encompass approaches informed by cultural and
interdisciplinary studies. This volume gives a comprehensive
insight into current thinking on and understanding of Elsa
Morante's work. This book places her work in a much wider context
of European culture, and traces her influence on a younger
generation of writers.
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