Norma Bouchard

Negotiating Italian Identities

Veronica Pravadelli

Comprises 13 contributions reflecting the wide range of Eco's interests and influence, arranged in sections on semiotics, philosophy of language, and theory of interpretation; writing (post)modern fictions--the ambivalent status of knowledge; popular culture--ideology, consumption, resistance. Some examples of specific topics: individual and communal encyclopedias; the limitations of openness--Foucault's pendulum and Kabbalah; popularizing culture in Eco's Superfictions; and cinema and the question of reception. An afterword by Eco himself discusses how and why he writes. Lacks an index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Politics of Culture and the Ambiguities of Interpretation

Umberto Eco's Alternative

Massimo Lollini

Vincenzo Consolo

Vincenzo Consolo is counted by many critics among the most significant voices in contemporary world literature. This volume makes available for the first in English an edited and annotated volume of Consolo's short stories, essays, and other writings pertaining to the diverse cultures and histories of Sicily and the Mediterranean basin. The Mediterranean region holds a particular fascination for Consolo, who seeks through his writing to recover the memory of a Sicilian and Mediterranean history, which he feels is presently being threatened by the forces of late-capitalist Western culture. His writings about the region also voice a commitment to questions of ethics and human rights, which have been brought to the fore by recent tensions dividing this area and forcing a mass exodus of its people. At a time when this part of the world is under threat from unbridled globalization as well as dangerous forms of ethnic and religious fundamentalism, Consolo's words offer an insightful rethinking of regionalism within a global hierarchy of values. They remind us of the necessity of moderation and contingency, and in so doing, attempt to recover a moral and ethical dimension for our collective life.

Reading and Writing the Mediterranean

The renewed attention to the origin and shape of nationalist discourses has promoted many excellent studies devoted to examining the rich storehouse of cultural responses produced during and after Risorgimento, the political events that, from 1859 to 1870, led Italy from being a fragmented peninsual to an independent and unified nation-state. However, the assessment of Risorgimento and its myths from the post-World War II era to the present remains, for the most part, unexplored. While it is undeniable that the dramatic economic, social, and political transformations that have characterized Italy from the second half of the twentieth century to the present have altered the role and function of nationalist narratives, it remains equally true that interest in the Risorgimento in modern Italian culture has not diminished.

Norma Bouchard

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