Eugenio Montale (1896-1981) is best known for the intense lyrical vision of his first three collections of poetry, written between the 1920s and the early 1950s. With the publication of Satura in 1971, the profile of his work changes irrevocably as a new disillusioned voice emerges, commenting ironically on post-war Italian society and debunking his own previous poetic myths. Ó Ceallacháin, while placing this body of work firmly in its historical and ideological context, explores the poetic texts in detail, approaching the work from a variety of interpretative and angles, and constructing a comprehensive new reading of Montale's later work.
Éanna Ó Ceallacháin is a Lecturer in Italian at the University of Glasgow.
Reviews:
‘Explores the ways in which Montale demystifies his own status as a great modernist, satirizes historical progress and current social life, places himself as a 'ghost' among other ghosts, awaiting his dissolution into non-being which may or may not imply some hidden divine presence, and enters into the 'trivial' contingencies of everyday life... From what may have been the old poet's isolated and disillusioned position, he hits the mark time and again, as this well-crafted study shows.’ — Rebecca West, Modern Language Review 98.2, 2003, 479-80 (full text online)
‘Let me declare myself at the outset: this is an excellent piece of work. It is the quintessence of scholarship: meticulously researched, methodologically sound and lucidly written... I cannot emphasise strongly enough the importance of this volume: every student of Montale should be encouraged to read Ó Ceallacháin's perceptive, and above all, comprehensible interpretations of Montale's later poetry. It goes without saying that the notes, bibliography and indices are impeccably produced.’ — Elizabeth Schächter, Italian Studies LVIII, 2003
‘Effectively charts the continuities and changes in the the relationship between the poet and his history.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies XL.2, April 2004, 237
Bibliography entry:
Ceallacháin, Éanna Ó, Eugenio Montale: The Poetry of the Later Years (Legenda, 2001)
First footnote reference:35 Éanna Ó Ceallacháin, Eugenio Montale: The Poetry of the Later Years (Legenda, 2001), p. 21.
Subsequent footnote reference:37 Ceallacháin, p. 47.
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