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In Italy, as in most Western cultures, the 1960s was a dynamic and turbulent decade of social change. Dacia Maraini, in this short story collection, explores the vexing, tragic, and often humorous experiences of women living in modern urban Italy. With a style as lean as Samuel Beckett’s, and a love of the absurd that rivals Eugène Ionesco, Maraini’s stories are both poignant and wickedly funny. The writer’s ironic lens zooms in to examining sexual relations, working conditions, women’s issues, and family dynamics, illuminating the lives of an entire generation. With classic existential angst, Maraini’s characters are often profoundly dissatisfied with their situations, but also ill-equipped to initiate any real change. This feminist version of the absurd is deliciously wry and terrible. The stories have a real bite. Originally published as Mio marito in 1968, this is the first English translation of My Husband.
Trying to Get It Back: Indigenous Women, Education and Culture examines aspects of the lives of six women from three generations of two indigenous families. Their combined memories, experiences and aspirations cover the entire twentieth century. The first family, Pearl McKenzie, Pauline Coulthard and Charlene Tree are a mother, daughter and granddaughter of the Adnyamathanha people of the Flinders Range in South Australia. The second family consists of Bernie Sound, her neice Valerie Bourne and Valerie's daughter, Brandi McLeod - Sechelt women from British Columbia, Canada. They talk to G.
Situating First World War poetry in a truly global context, this book reaches beyond the British soldier-poet canon. A History of World War One Poetry examines popular and literary, ephemeral and enduring poems that the cataclysm of 1914-1918 inspired. Across Europe, poets wrestled with the same problem: how to represent a global conflict, dominated by modern technology, involving millions of combatants and countless civilians. For literary scholars this has meant discovering and engaging with the work of men and women writing in other languages, on other fronts, and from different national perspectives. Poems are presented in their original languages and in English translations, some for the very first time, while a Coda reflects on the study and significance of First World War poetry in the wake of the Centenary. A History of World War One Poetry offers a new perspective on the literary and human experience of 1914-1918.
When Pier Giorgio Di Cicco first appeared on the Canadian literary scene in the early 1980s, he was immediately recognized as one of the most compelling voices of his generation. The Last Effort of Dreams is the first critical collection on Pier Giorgio Di Cicco and traces the steps of his career from different perspectives. The contributors, fellow poets and academics alike, ponder Di Cicco’s poetry in diverse ways: through reminiscence, by taking stock, and by focusing on individual texts and specific themes. What emerges is an intriguing composite picture of Di Cicco’s complex and unique identikit. The volume includes both scholarly analysis and testimonials by individuals who lived the literary history of which Di Cicco is a part. The inclusion of a bibliography of Di Cicco’s publications and of those about him makes this book a valuable tool for anyone approaching his works for the first time and anyone interested in contemporary North American minority literatures or contemporary Canadian literature.
The Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies is a two-volume reference book containing some 600 entries on all aspects of Italian literary culture. It includes analytical essays on authors and works, from the most important figures of Italian literature to little known authors and works that are influential to the field. The Encyclopedia is distinguished by substantial articles on critics, themes, genres, schools, historical surveys, and other topics related to the overall subject of Italian literary studies. The Encyclopedia also includes writers and subjects of contemporary interest, such as those relating to journalism, film, media, children's literature, food and vernacular literatures. Entries consist of an essay on the topic and a bibliographic portion listing works for further reading, and, in the case of entries on individuals, a brief biographical paragraph and list of works by the person. It will be useful to people without specialized knowledge of Italian literature as well as to scholars.
Publisher description
Focusing on the prevailing ideas connected to cultural and social diversity, this collection of essays deploys a variety of critical methods originating from social, cultural, and literary theory to analyze the relationship between historical and social forces and recurrent cultural beliefs and values.
Matilde Serao's richly detailed narratives created a metamorphical city of women negotiating the social and cultural byways of turn-of-the-century Italy. With each text, Serao (1856-1927) added another stratum to her imaginary metropolis, grounding her works in realistic detail and acute social observation. Over the course of almost thirty novels, more than one hundred short stories, and innumerable newspaper articles, Serao articulated her own vision of female destiny in a society governed by traditional, often restrictive, paradigms of female behavior. This study examines how Serao refashioned traditional genres throughout her long literary career, a narrative strategy that allowed her to focus specifically on the depiction of female experiences.