Reading English literature in Italy: intellectual and critical history

Abstract

Abstract Some time ago I accepted an invitation to survey the fortune of English literature in Italy. The idea was attractive. What bearing, I wondered, did Italian intellectual life have upon the interpretation of English literary works? I decided the survey should begin in 1896 and end in 1996. Between those two dates, while unsuccessfully striving to redefine its own cultural identity, Italy saw an unprecedented growth in the study of English literature. It was partly my hope that my survey would illustrate the transience of the literary methods and theories, let alone ideologies, that have successively dominated English studies in Italy. Little did I imagine how ambitious this seemingly modest task would be. I quickly realized that it would be impossible to condense a survey of twentieth-century English studies in Italy into a few pages. I was tempted to give the project up, but I had become intrigued by the way in which the reception of English literature in Italy illustrated the wider interplay betw...