Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Culture and Literature

The Denatured Wild

Edited by Pasquale Verdicchio - Contributions by Viola Ardeni; Massimo Lollini; Ilaria Tabusso Marcyan; Stefania Nedderman; Adele Sanna; Meriel Tulante and Marguerite Waller

The essays in this volume provide a theorization of what we might call the “denatured” wild, in other words a notion of environmental “restoration” or "reinhabitation" that recognizes and reconfigures the human factor as an interdependent entity. Acknowledging the contributions of Marco Armerio, Serenella Iovino, Giovanna Ricoveri, Patrick Barron and Anna Re among others, Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Culture and Literature: The Denatured Wild negotiates the ground within the historicizing, theoretical perspectives, and surveying spirit of these writers. Despite the central role that nature has played in Italian culture and literature, there has been an evident lack of critical approaches free of the bridles of the socio-political manipulations of nationalism. The authors in this collection, by recognizing the groundbreaking work of many non-Italian ecocritics, challenge the narrowly defined conventions of Italian Studies and illuminates complexities of an Italian ecocriticism that reveals a rich environmentally engaged literary and cultural tradition.

Lexington Books

Pages: 168 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-1887-1 • Hardback • August 2016 • $103.00 • (£79.00)

978-1-4985-1888-8 • eBook • August 2016 • $97.50 • (£75.00)

Series: Ecocritical Theory and Practice

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / Italian, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General, Literary Criticism / Critical Theory / Ecocritical Theory

Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Culture and Literature

The Denatured Wild

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The essays in this volume provide a theorization of what we might call the “denatured” wild, in other words a notion of environmental “restoration” or "reinhabitation" that recognizes and reconfigures the human factor as an interdependent entity. Acknowledging the contributions of Marco Armerio, Serenella Iovino, Giovanna Ricoveri, Patrick Barron and Anna Re among others, Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Culture and Literature: The Denatured Wild negotiates the ground within the historicizing, theoretical perspectives, and surveying spirit of these writers. Despite the central role that nature has played in Italian culture and literature, there has been an evident lack of critical approaches free of the bridles of the socio-political manipulations of nationalism. The authors in this collection, by recognizing the groundbreaking work of many non-Italian ecocritics, challenge the narrowly defined conventions of Italian Studies and illuminates complexities of an Italian ecocriticism that reveals a rich environmentally engaged literary and cultural tradition.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 168 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-1887-1 • Hardback • August 2016 • $103.00 • (£79.00)

978-1-4985-1888-8 • eBook • August 2016 • $97.50 • (£75.00)

Series: Ecocritical Theory and Practice

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / Italian, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General, Literary Criticism / Critical Theory / Ecocritical Theory

Author

Pasquale Verdicchio is director of the Italian Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Pasquale Verdicchio

Ch. 1 The Wisdom Of The Hand And The Memory Of A Mediterranean More Than
Human Humanism. Massimo Lollini
Ch. 2 The Hybrid “Biocitizen” In Italo Calvino’s Marcovaldo Or The Seasons In The
City. Adele Sanna
Ch. 3 Italian Woods Between Environmentalism And Children’s Literature
In Dino Buzzati’s Il Segreto Del Bosco Vecchio. Viola Ardeni
Ch. 4 The Cervi Family: A Peasant Story. Ilaria Tabusso Marcyan
Ch. 5 A House In Flames: Environmental Ethics In The Writing Of Sebastiano Vassalli.
Meriel Tulante
Ch. 6 Il Bosco Degli Urogalli. A Lieu De Mémoire. Stefania Nedderman
Ch. 7 The Environmental Aesthetics Of Sabina Guzzanti’s Le Ragione Dell’aragosta.
Marguerite Waller
Ch. 8 Toxic Disorder And Civic Possibility: Viewing The Land Of Fires From The
Phlegraean Fields. Pasquale Verdicchio

Reviews

This collection of eight essays is a welcome and important addition to the growing body of ecocritical scholarship on Italian land and literature.
— Patrick Barron, University of Massachusetts, Boston

From TV series to Italo Calvino, from children literature to toxic contamination Pasquale Verdicchio has gathered an astonishing collection of essays which contributes magisterially to both Italian ecocriticism and the discipline at large. Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Culture and Literature: The Denatured Wild is the essential companion to any exploration into the Italian material and intellectual landscape.
— Marco Armiero, Icrea Research Professor, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain

If ecocriticism is the attempt to shape new vocabularies for an age of environmental crises, this collection, masterfully conceived and edited by Pasquale Verdicchio, invites us to think Italy as a mobile reality beyond ecological clichés, whether of “Great Beauty” or irredeemable decadence. Encompassing a rich array of subjects, genres, and voices, Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Literature and Culture:The Denatured Wild tells us of a country that, in spite of its cultural ambivalences and political contradictions, teems with ecological creativity and visions of future. If there is a book with which anyone studying Italian ecocriticism should start, this is the one.
— Serenella Iovino, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Turin, Italy