Ann Hallamore Caesar is Professor of Italian at the University of Warwick.Michael Caesar is Serena Professor of Italian at the University of Birmingham.

“An intelligent and engaging blend of cultural and literary history, this volume provides a highly readable overview of modern Italian literature, which ranges from the eighteenth century to today. A most valuable study for both experts and students.” Rebecca West, University of Chicago “A brilliant book that moves with agility through the centuries, authors, and historical events. It is a cultural and literary guide that any student of Italian should rely on.” Graziella Parati, Dartmouth College “This is a superb, stimulating and lucid work of synthesis, tracing the evolution of Italian literature from the late seventeenth century to the present day. As well as revisiting major figures and others lost in the archive, the book uses the literary field to explore a fascinating series of subterranean patterns in Italy’s modern cultural history.” Robert Gordon, University of Cambridge

• Preface and AcknowledgementsINTRODUCTION: An Overview of Modern Italian LiteraturePART I: The Long Eighteenth Century (1690-1815)Chapter One: Cross-currents of modernity1.1. This is Arcadia1.2. New states, new thinkersChapter Two: Enlightenment and the public arena2.1. Journalism, theatre and the book trade in Venice2.2. Enlightenment and reform from Naples to MilanChapter Three: Literature and revolution3.1. Italy and France3.2. Alfieri: life and drama3.3. Foscolo: between classicism and romanticismPART II: Literature and Unification (1816-1900)Chapter Four: Romantic Italy4.1. Milan 18164.2. Florence 18274.3. Leopardi: the challenge of poetryChapter Five: Inventing the nation5.1. Manzoni: the responsibility of the writer5.2. History and fiction5.3. Literature and the people5.4. Memory, monuments and the national pastChapter Six: Making the nation6.1. The literary culture of Unificaton6.2. The artist as observer: verismo and the social6.3. Looking in: domesticity and the literary marketPART III: From modernism to the market (1900 to the present)Chapter Seven: Modernism and the crisis of the literary subject7. 1. The search for identity7.2. War, technology and the arts7.3. Narratives of selfhood: the subjective turn in fictionChapter Eight: Literature, Fascism and Anti-Fascism8.1. Writing and the regime8.2. The social condition of intellectuals8.3. Testing the limits of the novel8.4. Resistance, Reconstruction and Neo-realismChapter Nine: From the avant-garde to the market-place9.1. The last avant-garde?9.2. The widening of culture9.3. A minimalist postmodernism: the poetics of attention9.4. Epilogue: a weekend in AprilPrimary ReferencesSecondary ReferencesGeneral Bibliography

Ann Hallamore Caesar is Professor of Italian at the University of Warwick.Michael Caesar is Serena Professor of Italian at the University of Birmingham.

“An intelligent and engaging blend of cultural and literary history, this volume provides a highly readable overview of modern Italian literature, which ranges from the eighteenth century to today. A most valuable study for both experts and students.” Rebecca West, University of Chicago “A brilliant book that moves with agility through the centuries, authors, and historical events. It is a cultural and literary guide that any student of Italian should rely on.” Graziella Parati, Dartmouth College “This is a superb, stimulating and lucid work of synthesis, tracing the evolution of Italian literature from the late seventeenth century to the present day. As well as revisiting major figures and others lost in the archive, the book uses the literary field to explore a fascinating series of subterranean patterns in Italy’s modern cultural history.” Robert Gordon, University of Cambridge

• Preface and AcknowledgementsINTRODUCTION: An Overview of Modern Italian LiteraturePART I: The Long Eighteenth Century (1690-1815)Chapter One: Cross-currents of modernity1.1. This is Arcadia1.2. New states, new thinkersChapter Two: Enlightenment and the public arena2.1. Journalism, theatre and the book trade in Venice2.2. Enlightenment and reform from Naples to MilanChapter Three: Literature and revolution3.1. Italy and France3.2. Alfieri: life and drama3.3. Foscolo: between classicism and romanticismPART II: Literature and Unification (1816-1900)Chapter Four: Romantic Italy4.1. Milan 18164.2. Florence 18274.3. Leopardi: the challenge of poetryChapter Five: Inventing the nation5.1. Manzoni: the responsibility of the writer5.2. History and fiction5.3. Literature and the people5.4. Memory, monuments and the national pastChapter Six: Making the nation6.1. The literary culture of Unificaton6.2. The artist as observer: verismo and the social6.3. Looking in: domesticity and the literary marketPART III: From modernism to the market (1900 to the present)Chapter Seven: Modernism and the crisis of the literary subject7. 1. The search for identity7.2. War, technology and the arts7.3. Narratives of selfhood: the subjective turn in fictionChapter Eight: Literature, Fascism and Anti-Fascism8.1. Writing and the regime8.2. The social condition of intellectuals8.3. Testing the limits of the novel8.4. Resistance, Reconstruction and Neo-realismChapter Nine: From the avant-garde to the market-place9.1. The last avant-garde?9.2. The widening of culture9.3. A minimalist postmodernism: the poetics of attention9.4. Epilogue: a weekend in AprilPrimary ReferencesSecondary ReferencesGeneral Bibliography

Ann Hallamore Caesar is Professor of Italian at the University of Warwick.Michael Caesar is Serena Professor of Italian at the University of Birmingham.

“An intelligent and engaging blend of cultural and literary history, this volume provides a highly readable overview of modern Italian literature, which ranges from the eighteenth century to today. A most valuable study for both experts and students.” Rebecca West, University of Chicago “A brilliant book that moves with agility through the centuries, authors, and historical events. It is a cultural and literary guide that any student of Italian should rely on.” Graziella Parati, Dartmouth College “This is a superb, stimulating and lucid work of synthesis, tracing the evolution of Italian literature from the late seventeenth century to the present day. As well as revisiting major figures and others lost in the archive, the book uses the literary field to explore a fascinating series of subterranean patterns in Italy’s modern cultural history.” Robert Gordon, University of Cambridge

• Preface and AcknowledgementsINTRODUCTION: An Overview of Modern Italian LiteraturePART I: The Long Eighteenth Century (1690-1815)Chapter One: Cross-currents of modernity1.1. This is Arcadia1.2. New states, new thinkersChapter Two: Enlightenment and the public arena2.1. Journalism, theatre and the book trade in Venice2.2. Enlightenment and reform from Naples to MilanChapter Three: Literature and revolution3.1. Italy and France3.2. Alfieri: life and drama3.3. Foscolo: between classicism and romanticismPART II: Literature and Unification (1816-1900)Chapter Four: Romantic Italy4.1. Milan 18164.2. Florence 18274.3. Leopardi: the challenge of poetryChapter Five: Inventing the nation5.1. Manzoni: the responsibility of the writer5.2. History and fiction5.3. Literature and the people5.4. Memory, monuments and the national pastChapter Six: Making the nation6.1. The literary culture of Unificaton6.2. The artist as observer: verismo and the social6.3. Looking in: domesticity and the literary marketPART III: From modernism to the market (1900 to the present)Chapter Seven: Modernism and the crisis of the literary subject7. 1. The search for identity7.2. War, technology and the arts7.3. Narratives of selfhood: the subjective turn in fictionChapter Eight: Literature, Fascism and Anti-Fascism8.1. Writing and the regime8.2. The social condition of intellectuals8.3. Testing the limits of the novel8.4. Resistance, Reconstruction and Neo-realismChapter Nine: From the avant-garde to the market-place9.1. The last avant-garde?9.2. The widening of culture9.3. A minimalist postmodernism: the poetics of attention9.4. Epilogue: a weekend in AprilPrimary ReferencesSecondary ReferencesGeneral Bibliography