This volume on Cesare Pavese is published on the 72nd anniversary of his death, and it aims to explore new perspectives to study this relevant intellectual. The multifaceted personality of Cesare Pavese took many different forms and allowed him to explore different aspects of literary production. He was a poet, a novelist, an essayist, a translator of some of the most important American writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. He also worked for 20 years at Einaudi Publishing House, where he became one of the most relevant figures of the company and the Italian literary and cultural scene between the 1930s and 1950s. This collection provides new perspectives of study by focusing on different aspects of his job and by analyzing the strong connections between his personal and professional life. It will appeal to graduate students and scholars in contemporary Italian literature.

In the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Italian poetry experienced an extraordinary heyday. In ten chapters, the present volume provides exemplary insights into this period. English adaptations of selected poems are followed by literary-historical classifications and interpretations against the background of the life and work of the poets concerned.

According to Greek legend, Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, secretly buried her brother in defiance of the order of Creon, king of Thebes. Sentenced to death by Creon, she forestalled him by committing suicide. The theme of the conflict between Antigone and Creon--between the state and the individual, between man and woman, between young and old--has captured the Western imagination for more than 2000 years. George Steiner here examines the far-reaching legacy of this great classical myth. He considers its treatment in Western art, literature, and thought--in drama, poetry, prose, philosophic discourse, political tracts, opera, ballet, film, and even the plastic arts. A study in poetics and in the philosophy of reading, Antigones leads us to look again at the influence the Greek myths exercise on twentieth-century culture. "A remarkable feat of intellectual agility."--Washington Post Book World "[An] intellectually demanding but rewarding book. . . consistently stimulating and sometimes disturbing."--The New Republic "An. . . account of the various treatments of the Antigone theme in European languages. . . Penetrating and novel."--The New York Times Book Review "A tradition of intelligence and style lives in this prolific man."--Los Angeles Times "Antigones triumphantly demonstrates that Antigone could fill several volumes of study without becoming tedious or exhausted."--The New York Review of Books

The cultural and material legacies of the Roman Republic and Empire in evidence throughout Rome have made it the "Eternal City." Too often, however, this patrimony has caused Rome to be seen as static and antique, insulated from the transformations of the modern world. In Excavating Modernity, Joshua Arthurs dramatically revises this perception, arguing that as both place and idea, Rome was strongly shaped by a radical vision of modernity imposed by Mussolini's regime between the two world wars. Italian Fascism's appropriation of the Roman past-the idea of Rome, or romanità- encapsulated the Fascist virtues of discipline, hierarchy, and order; the Fascist "new man" was modeled on the Roman legionary, the epitome of the virile citizen-soldier. This vision of modernity also transcended Italy's borders, with the Roman Empire providing a foundation for Fascism's own vision of Mediterranean domination and a European New Order. At the same time, romanità also served as a vocabulary of anxiety about modernity. Fears of population decline, racial degeneration and revolution were mapped onto the barbarian invasions and the fall of Rome. Offering a critical assessment of romanità and its effects, Arthurs explores the ways in which academics, officials, and ideologues approached Rome not as a site of distant glories but as a blueprint for contemporary life, a source of dynamic values to shape the present and future.

The vast empire that Alexander the Great left at his death in 323 BC has few parallels. For the next three hundred years the Greeks controlled a complex of monarchies and city-states that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to India. F. W. Walbank's lucid and authoritative history of that Hellenistic world examines political events, describes the different social systems and mores of the people under Greek rule, traces important developments in literature and science, and discusses the new religious movements.

Using logic, common sense, philosophy, ethics, history, and science, the author rebuts every argument that claims to “prove” the existence of God. IS THERE REALLY A GOD? OR DOES GOD EXIST ONLY IN OUR HEADS? IS THE BIBLE TRULY GOD’S WORD? OR IS IT A JUMBLE OF FANCIFUL MYTHS? Atheist Universe details why God is unnecessary to explain the universe’s diversity, organization and beauty. Using simple, straightforward logic, this book rebuts every argument that claims to “prove” God’s existence. A comprehensive primer for countering today’s religious dogma, Atheist Universe addresses all the historical and scientific questions, including: •What is atheism, and why is it so misunderstood? •If God is a myth, then how did the universe appear? •Without God, is there an objective “right” and “wrong”? •What is the meaning of life without God? •Is there evidence of Jesus’s miracles and resurrection? •Can atheists explain “near death” experiences and medical miracles? •Can science and the Bible realistically be reconciled? •What is the behind-the-scenes relationship between politics and religion? “An admirable work.” —Richard Dawkins “David’s work will be very useful for anyone combating harmful religious beliefs. Honest, frank, and right to the point!”—Albert Ellis, Ph.D., father of modern psychotherapy, author of A Guide to Rational Living

In this study I will present the intellectual development of Schelling, Holderlin and Hegel during their formative years. Because of their similar social origins, the early thought of these young Swabians, during the 1790's, should be treated as a unit. Their experience as roommates at the Stift in Tiibingen and their close intellectual fellowship throughout the nineties made each extremely responsive to the others ideas. As mem bers of the political elite in Wiirttemberg, their intellectual assumptions were profoundly affected by the crisis of Wiirttemberg and German political society and by the events of the French Revolution in a way ex plicable only in the light of their Swabian heritage. So, for example, seen in the context of HOlderlin's and Schelling's thinking, the genesis of Hegel's earliest mature philosophical assumptions appears to be not so much an event in the history of philosophy as a specific solution to the problems raised by the crisis of his society. The crucial role of Holderlin in the history of German Idealism should also become apparent as a result of this study. For reasons developed in the following, Holderlin's thinking bridged the gap not only between Kantianism and the new philosophy, which was to come to fruition in Hegel's mature thought, but also between the republican and the natio nalist phase in the history of German political thought.