Plotting the Past: Metamorphoses of Historical Narrative in Modern Italian Fiction

by Cristina Della Cotta

Overview

Through an examination of nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical work and novels, Della Coletta presents an authoritatively original recasting of the notion of the historical novel. Della Coletta's analysis of these novels suggests that genres are ideological units molded by culture and history, and that current ideologies shape the literary representation of the historical past. This innovative case study thus illuminates not just the twentieth-century Italian historical novel but also the function of literary genres as a whole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557530912
Publisher:	Purdue University Press
Publication date:	11/01/1996
Series:	Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures , #12
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Cristina Della Coletta’s research focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth- century Italian literature, especially literary theory, fantastic fiction, and the historical novel. She is the author of articles on Sebastiano Vassalli, P. M. Pasinetti, Italo Calvino, Aldo Palazzeschi, Luigi Capuana, and Dante.

Editorial Reviews

"Plotting the Past stands out as a serious work marked by sharp analytical skills and an unusual breadth of subject matter encompassing questions of genre and ideology that are central to present-day critical discourses." —Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Italian

". . . Coletta has given us a book that is engaging, challenging, and astute. For its mature historical sense and theoretical refinement, Plotting the Past deserves high praise." —CLIO

"This book reveals a highly competent level of scholarship both in terms of the author’s intimate familiarity with the primary texts as well as in the assimilation of complex supporting theoretical material." —Mark Pietralunga

From the Publisher

Plotting the Past
stands out as a serious work marked by sharp analytical skills and an unusual
breadth of subject matter encompassing questions of genre and ideology that are
central to present-day critical discourses.

Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Italian

This book reveals a highly competent level of
scholarship both in terms of the author’s intimate familiarity with the primary
texts as well as in the assimilation of complex supporting theoretical
material.”

Mark Pietralunga

. . . Coletta has given us a book that is engaging,
challenging, and astute. For its mature historical sense and theoretical
refinement, Plotting the Past
deserves high praise.

CLIO

Della Coletta (Italian, U. of Virginia) examines the aesthetic and philosophical questions surrounding the genre of historical fiction through Alessandro Manzoni's classic essay "On the Historical Novel." She then demonstrates how three best-selling 20th century Italian novels took up Manzoni's legacies and reshaped the genre. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews