Narrative and History in the Works of Umberto Eco, Carlo Ginzburg, and Wu Ming

Using the works of prominent Italian authors of both fiction and nonfiction, this book challenges the established critical accounts of hybrid narratives and examines the shared influence in terms of style, content, and ambition.Focused on recent (1980s-present) historical novels by Umberto Eco and Wu Ming (a collective of Italian writers), as well as on the historiographic essays by Carlo Ginzburg, the book covers three globally influential cases that prove to be seminal for the transdisciplinary understanding of key words such as ‘fiction’, ‘history’, and ‘narrative’. However differently, these authors write extensively about history, and the methods of tracking and transcribing that history. Be it fiction or non-fiction, their works share a formal tendency to challenge the established boundaries of the genres they belong to, as well as influence fields and writings across borders. The main argument is that blurring the boundaries between fictional and historical writing raises problematic ethical and political questions, especially in a world where facts and reality are constantly manipulated. Amongst other topics, the book analyses how Eco’s novels provide an oblique commentary on his own theory, how Eco and Ginzburg’s works can be compared, how Ginzburg’s essays influence contemporary literature and fiction on a transnational scale, and how Wu Ming inherit their legacy while devising their own, deeply politicized way of writing about history.