Lexington Books
Pages: 220
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-7936-3841-0 • Hardback • November 2023 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
978-1-7936-3842-7 • eBook • November 2023 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Angelo Castagnino is associate professor of Italian at the University of Denver.
Introduction
Chapter 1: EcoGothic, Transhumanism and Ecofeminism: Nicola Lagioia and Simona Vinci
Chapter 2: Living Ghosts: Perturbing Presences in the Narratives of Simona Vinci
Chapter 3: Silencing Ghosts: Alessandro Perissinotto and the Return of the Past
Chapter 4: From Beast to Double: Understanding the Role of Fantastic Elements in the Works of Michele Mari
Chapter 5: “True Horror Lay in the Breaking Down of Boundaries.” The Rural Gothic of Pupi Avati, Eraldo Baldini, and Michela Murgia
Conclusion
Bibliography
About the Author
“Angelo Castagnino takes us on an adventurous journey through fantastic fiction and its legacy within contemporary Italian literature. This volume provides its readers with exciting research that is deeply rooted in national and transnational fantastic production and backed up by the most up-to-date literary studies. In his thorough examination, Castagnino skillfully demonstrates how the tropes of the fantastic mode pervade the works of selected Italian novelists and become effective tools to voice concerns about contemporary Italian society. A landmark contribution to the fantastic mode and its echoes within the Italian context, Castagnino’s compelling book will spur excitement among scholars engaged not only in the fantastic, but also in ecocriticism, transhumanism, post humanism and eco-feminism.”
— Anna Chiafele, Auburn University
“Castagnino offers a penetrating, compelling study of contemporary Italian writers of fantastic stories. Among them are Michele Mari, Simona Vinci, Nicola Lagioia, and Pupi Avati. The fantastic mode has obvious roots in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothic fiction. Critics have generally neglected it, relegating it to the category of paraliterature, perhaps because of its popular appeal. In this incisive analysis, Castagnino vindicates the centrality of these works to critical and scholarly discussion, pointing out their relevance to such modern literary concerns as ecocriticism, ecofeminism, and transhumanism. A must read for anyone concerned with modern Italian literary trends.”
— Ennio I. Rao