Ann Hallamore Caesar – författare

Luigi Pirandello is best known in the English-speaking world for his radical challenge to traditional Western theatre with plays such as Six Characters in Search of an Author. But theatre is just one manifestation of his experiments with language which led to a remarkable collection of novels, short stories, and essays as well as his work for a film industry then in its infancy. This study, which is based on the view that Pirandello's writings are most fruitfully discussed in a European context, takes as its starting-point the author's belief in the primacy of the literary character in a creative process which is necessarily conflictual. The book argues that all Pirandello's characters are engaged in a continual performance which transcends the genre distinction between narrative and dramatic forms. In this performance it is the spoken word in which the characters invest most heavily as they struggle to sustain an identity of their own, tell their life-stories, and assert themselves before their most prominent antagonist, the author himself.

This authoritative and vividly written book brings readers into the heart of Italian literary culture from the 1690s to the present. It probes the work of major authors in their broad cultural context, traces the history of audiences and publishers, explores the shifting relationship between public and private, assesses the impact of significant historical trends and events on creative processes, and establishes the continuities as well as the discontinuities of the Italian literary tradition. A synoptic overview at the beginning of the volume is designed to help the reader get her or his bearings in the detail of the nine chapters which follow. Using an essentially chronological framework, the book is divided into three major cultural time-spans: the long eighteenth century, the decades of national identity formation and the creation of modern', industrial Italy between 1816 and 1900, and the twentieth century with its constant renegotiation of national cultural identity. A final epilogue provides a snapshot of Italian literary culture in the near-present.This is a book which will be readily accessible to students and all those interested in Italian culture, and at the same time is based on the most up-to-date scholarship. New readings of the canonical authors rub shoulders with a refreshing attention to standard and popular writing, gender issues, and the interaction between written and oral forms, producing a history of modern Italian literature which is new in its conception and its scope.

This authoritative and vividly written book brings readers into the heart of Italian literary culture from the 1690s to the present. It probes the work of major authors in their broad cultural context, traces the history of audiences and publishers, explores the shifting relationship between public and private, assesses the impact of significant historical trends and events on creative processes, and establishes the continuities as well as the discontinuities of the Italian literary tradition. A synoptic overview at the beginning of the volume is designed to help the reader get her or his bearings in the detail of the nine chapters which follow. Using an essentially chronological framework, the book is divided into three major cultural time-spans: the long eighteenth century, the decades of national identity formation and the creation of modern', industrial Italy between 1816 and 1900, and the twentieth century with its constant renegotiation of national cultural identity. A final epilogue provides a snapshot of Italian literary culture in the near-present.This is a book which will be readily accessible to students and all those interested in Italian culture, and at the same time is based on the most up-to-date scholarship. New readings of the canonical authors rub shoulders with a refreshing attention to standard and popular writing, gender issues, and the interaction between written and oral forms, producing a history of modern Italian literature which is new in its conception and its scope.

"The Unification of Italy in 1870 heralded a period of unprecedented change. While successive Liberal governments pursued imperial ventures and took Italy into World War One on the Allied side, on the domestic front technological advance, the creation of a national transport network, the expansion of state education, internal migration to cities and the rise of political associations all contributed to the rapid expansion of the print industry and the development of new and highly diversified reading publics. Drawing on publishers''archives, letters, diaries, and printed material, this book provide the most up-to-date research into the printed media - books, magazines and journals - in Italy between 1870 and 1914. With essays on publishers and reading communities, the professionalization of the role of journalist and writer, children''s literature, book illustrations, and printed media in colonial territories among others, this book is intended for those with interests in cultural production and consumption and questions of nation-formation and nationhood in and outside Italy. With the contributions: Ann Hallamore Caesar, Gabriella Romani- Introduction John Davis- Media, Markets and Modernity: The Italian Case, 1870-1915 Maria Grazia Lolla- Reader/Power: The Politics and Poetics of Reading in Post-Unification Italy Joseph Luzzi- Verga Economicus: Language, Money, and Identity in I Malavoglia and Mastro-don Gesualdo Olivia Santovetti- The Cliche of the Romantic Female Reader and the Paradox of Novelistic Illusion: Federico De Roberto''s L''Illusione (1891) Francesca Billiani- Intellettuali militanti, funzionari e tecnologici, etica ed estetica in tre riviste fiorentine d''inizio secolo: Il Regno, La Voce, e Lacerba (1903-1914) Luca Somigli- Towards a Literary Modernity all''italiana: A Note on F. T. Marinetti''s Poesia Silvia Valisa- Casa editrice Sonzogno. Mediazione culturale, circuiti del sapere ed innovazione tecnologica nell''Italia unificata (1861-1900) Matteo Salvadore- At the Borders of ''Dark Africa'': Italian Expeditions to Ethiopia and the Bollettino della Societa Geografica Italiana, 1867-1887 Ombretta Frau- L''editore delle signore: Licinio Cappelli e la narrativa femminile fra Otto e Novecento Cristina Gragnani- Il lettore in copertina. Flirt rivista di splendore e declino (Primo tempo: 1897-1902) Fiorenza Weinapple- Abbiamo fatto l''Italia. Adesso si tratta di fare gli Italiani. Il Programma di educazione nazionale del Secolo XX Fabio Gadducci, Mirko Tavosanis- Printers, Poets, Publishers and Painters: The First Years of the Giornale per i bambini John P. Welle- The Magic Lantern, the Illustrated Book, and the Beginnings of the Culture Industry: Intermediality in Carlo Collodi''s La lanterna magica di Giannettino"

"The Unification of Italy in 1870 heralded a period of unprecedented change. While successive Liberal governments pursued imperial ventures and took Italy into World War One on the Allied side, on the domestic front technological advance, the creation of a national transport network, the expansion of state education, internal migration to cities and the rise of political associations all contributed to the rapid expansion of the print industry and the development of new and highly diversified reading publics. Drawing on publishers''archives, letters, diaries, and printed material, this book provide the most up-to-date research into the printed media - books, magazines and journals - in Italy between 1870 and 1914. With essays on publishers and reading communities, the professionalization of the role of journalist and writer, children''s literature, book illustrations, and printed media in colonial territories among others, this book is intended for those with interests in cultural production and consumption and questions of nation-formation and nationhood in and outside Italy. With the contributions: Ann Hallamore Caesar, Gabriella Romani- Introduction John Davis- Media, Markets and Modernity: The Italian Case, 1870-1915 Maria Grazia Lolla- Reader/Power: The Politics and Poetics of Reading in Post-Unification Italy Joseph Luzzi- Verga Economicus: Language, Money, and Identity in I Malavoglia and Mastro-don Gesualdo Olivia Santovetti- The Cliche of the Romantic Female Reader and the Paradox of Novelistic Illusion: Federico De Roberto''s L''Illusione (1891) Francesca Billiani- Intellettuali militanti, funzionari e tecnologici, etica ed estetica in tre riviste fiorentine d''inizio secolo: Il Regno, La Voce, e Lacerba (1903-1914) Luca Somigli- Towards a Literary Modernity all''italiana: A Note on F. T. Marinetti''s Poesia Silvia Valisa- Casa editrice Sonzogno. Mediazione culturale, circuiti del sapere ed innovazione tecnologica nell''Italia unificata (1861-1900) Matteo Salvadore- At the Borders of ''Dark Africa'': Italian Expeditions to Ethiopia and the Bollettino della Societa Geografica Italiana, 1867-1887 Ombretta Frau- L''editore delle signore: Licinio Cappelli e la narrativa femminile fra Otto e Novecento Cristina Gragnani- Il lettore in copertina. Flirt rivista di splendore e declino (Primo tempo: 1897-1902) Fiorenza Weinapple- Abbiamo fatto l''Italia. Adesso si tratta di fare gli Italiani. Il Programma di educazione nazionale del Secolo XX Fabio Gadducci, Mirko Tavosanis- Printers, Poets, Publishers and Painters: The First Years of the Giornale per i bambini John P. Welle- The Magic Lantern, the Illustrated Book, and the Beginnings of the Culture Industry: Intermediality in Carlo Collodi''s La lanterna magica di Giannettino"