Italian Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion

by Marco Malvestio (Editor), Stefano Serafini (Editor)

Overview

This companion constitutes the first, systematic theorisation of the Italian Gothic. Through an interdisciplinary, trans-medial approach that encompasses prose fiction, poetry, journalism, film, music, and comics, it explores the varied and complex metamorphoses of the Gothic in Italy from the late eighteenth century to the present day. Although the last thirty years have seen a burgeoning in the academic study of the Gothic at college and university levels and in related publications, scholars have long struggled to even acknowledge the very existence of this mode in the Italian context. This companion does not only fill in a historical and critical gap in the scholarship, but it also contributes to revitalising the field of Gothic Studies, opening new channels of communication, and paving the way to the exploration of the fruitful interchanges between Italian and other European and American configurations of the Gothic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474490177
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2024
Series:	Edinburgh Companions to the Gothic
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Marco Malvestio is EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Padua. His project, “EcoSF – The Ecology of Italian Science Fiction”, conducted in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explores the presence of ecological issues in Italian science fiction. He published The Conflict Revisited: The Second World War in Post-Postmodern Fiction (Peter Lang, 2021) and Raccontare la fine del mondo. Fantascienza e Antropocene (nottetempo, 2021).

Stefano Serafini holds a PhD in comparative literature and cultures from Royal Holloway, University of London. He was postdoctoral fellow in Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. He is Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. His contributions have appeared in journals such as Italian Studies, The Italianist, Quaderni del 900, Transalpina, Clues: A Journal of Detection and the Revue des littératures européennes.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements‘Introduction. “A systemic disorder, an extravagant research, and an abjuration of common sense”: Defining the Italian Gothic’, Marco Malvestio and Stefano Serafini

Part I: History1. ‘Gothic Beginnings: 1764–1827’, Fabio Camilletti2. ‘The Gothic and the Historical Novel: 1828–1860’, Morena Corradi3. ‘Early Developments: 1861–1914’, Stefano Serafini4. ‘The Age of Permutations: 1915–1956’, Fabrizio Foni5. ‘The Golden Age of the Gothic: 1957–1979’, Roberto Curti6. ‘The Decline of the Gothic: 1980–2020’, Marco Malvestio

Part II: Media7. ‘Gothic Poetry’, Simona Di Martino8. ‘The Gothic in Periodicals and Magazines’, Fabrizio Foni9. ‘Gothic Cinema’, Giulio Giusti10. ‘Comics and the Gothic’, Fabio Camilletti11. ‘Gothic Music’, Eduardo Vitolo

Part III: Themes12. ‘The Gothic Body’, Catherine Ramsey-Portolano13. ‘The Female Gothic’, Francesca Billiani14. ‘Gothic Criminology’, Stefano Serafini15. ‘Ecogothic and Folk Horror’, Marco Malvestio.

Editorial Reviews

This imaginatively conceived volume is impeccable in its scholarship, and opens up new ways of thinking about Italian culture in the past two centuries. It does so with great critical insight and panache, dispelling long-held critical prejudices against the Gothic as genre and mode, and unsettling canonical views and critical frameworks. The volume makes for rich and compelling reading.

Giuliana Pieri