Italian literature is among the most ancient and influential Western literatures. With its classics spanning from the Middle Ages to our contemporaneity, the impact of Italian literature worldwide has been and still is enormous - think of the influence of Dante in shaping Holocaust narratives and that of Italo Calvino on postmodern fiction. Italian literature remains a subject of enduring interest for academics, students, and general audiences. After the long and still resisting season of nationalisms, the time is ripe to rethink Italian literature against the background of a more and more globalized world. The Oxford Handbook of Italian Literature considers the development, status, and significance of Italian Literature in this globalized context. Organized into four parts (Institutions; Production; Controversies; and Icons), this Handbook approaches Italian literature across its historical span through a variety of perspectives and methodologies, including nationalism, internationalism, and transnationalism, culture, gender and ethnic studies, and ecocriticism, with constant and careful attention to the forms and contents of literary practices and discourses. This Handbook offers the most comprehensive survey of Italian literature to date, ranging broadly from Dante's times to the contemporary world bestselling phenomenon of Elena Ferrante. Italian literature emerges as a case in point for reorientating literary studies towards the experimentation of difference, permeability, and integration. Bringing together distinguished scholars of Italian literature from major world universities, including the US, UK, Italy, France, Ireland, Canada, and Germany, these 54 chapters unsettle and reshape the field of Italian literature. This Handbook aims to inspire scholars and writers in Italian Studies to explore innovative conceptual frameworks and facilitate a comparative dialogue with scholars of other literary traditions around the world: an especially vital goal in our increasingly interconnected world.
