This book investigates Anna Banti’s contribution to the creation of a female literary canon, as well as the renewal of Italian literature, from stylistic and thematic points of view. The book examines Banti’s contribution from a two-pronged perspective: as a promoter of female individuality and independence, in contrast to the existent paternal order; and as an innovator of the Italian novel, in particular, the Italian historical novel. This study mainly concentrates on the historical novel, La camicia bruciata, published in 1973. The analysis of the Camicia bruciata examines the structure of the historical novel – Anna Banti’s representations of her male and female characters and their capacity for relationships – and the difference between the fictional story created by Anna Banti, and the historical facts narrated in The House of Medici by Sir Christopher Hibbert and The Last Medici by Harold Acton. The purpose of this analysis is to show how Banti’s personal experience, mainly her idea of married life and motherhood, influenced her narrative and her characters.

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.

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This book is a complete reworking and update of Marga Cottino-Jones' popular A Student's Guide to Italian Film (1983, 1993) . This guide retains earlier editions' interest in renowned films and directors but is also attentive to the popular films which achieved box office success among the public.

Women's writing in Italy from Unification to the present day, examining the lives and works of women writers within the context of Italian history, culture and politics. The changing face of Italian social and political life since Unification has greatly affected the position of women in Italy. This work explores the relation between the changing role of women over this period, then struggle for social and political emancipation and equality, and the search by women writers to a personal and authentic literary voice.

By theorizing subjectivity according to the dialogic model of Mikhail Bakhtin, author Roxanne J. Fand posits a moderating self-narrator who, rather than imposing a single authoritarian voice of fixed ideology and identity, negotiates among diverse internalized voices of one's social-ecological milieu.

With increasing frequency, composers of instrumental music claim to be specifically inspired by a poem or painting, a drama or sculpture, transforming the essence of this art work's features and message into their own medium, the musical language. How does the knowledge of such a transformation from one medium into the other inform our understanding of the musical work? In this round-breaking study, Siglind Bruhn makes a case for a musical genre hitherto hidden under the term program music. She defines her subject matter in relation to the term, ekphrasis, which is used by literary scholars for poems responding to works of visual art. Bruhn develops a clear methodology and a precise set of criteria, which she employs to situate musical ekphrasis within the aesthetics discourse.

'Young is a sharp and funny writer with a brilliant eye for moral fudging and verbal hypocrisy, and she has a splendid foil in Miss Mole' Sally Beauman WINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE 'Who would suspect her sense of fun and irony, of a passionate love for beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who would imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and delicate garments?' Miss Hannah Mole has for twenty years earned her living precariously as a governess or companion to a succession of difficult old women.Now, aged forty, a thin and shabby figure, she returns to Radstowe, the lovely city of her youth. Here she is, if not exactly welcomed, at least employed as housekeeper by the pompous Reverend Robert Corder, whose daughters are sorely in need of guidance. But even the dreariest situation can be transformed into an adventure by the indomitable Miss Mole. Blessed with imagination, wit and intelligence, she wins the affection of Ethel and her nervous sister Ruth. But her past holds a secret that, if brought to life, would jeopardise everything.

This book opens a door long closed on an important era in the history of Venice. It presents, for the first time, an introductory, contextual study of three centuries of musical activity at the four major eleemosynary foundations of the former Republic of Venice: the ospedali grandi. It provides a comprehensive account of the institutional, social, religious, and civic dimensions of these welfare complexes, with particular reference to their musical subsidiaries, or cori. Involvingover 300 external professional male composers and music teachers and over 800 internal professional women musicians, the history of the cori also incorporates a vast repertory of over 4,000 original works - sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental, solo and choral - little know today but recognized as key elements in the historical evolution of musical genres. Responsible for this phenomenon through their association with the ospedali and the figlie del coro were such figures as Lotti, Legrenzi, Vivaldi, Hasse, Galuppi, and Cimarosa, to name but six. It is their relationship to the ospedali and the concert series in the churches and music salons annexed to them that Dr Berdes explores. In the process she proves the significance of the cori as reflectors of a range of cross-disciplinary scholarship from the history of art and architecture to the history of culture and social policy, as well as medical care and aspects of women's, children's, and Venetian studies. Amassing awealth of information from primary sources, this book constitutes a repository of information and references for a multitude of new investigations. Above all, it will facilitate rediscovery, performance, and analysis of the repertoire commissioned for, and first performed by, the women musicians of the cori, a repertoire of unique richness which may be seen as the mirror of a lost Venetian civilization.