Fragments of Impegno

Jennifer Burns

Italian Perspectives 9

Legenda

31 January 2002  •  210pp

ISBN: 978-1-902653-37-2 (paperback, forthcoming)

ContemporaryItalianHistoryFiction


With the Tangentopoli corruption scandals of the early 1990s, Italy is purported recently to have experienced a period of political change comparable to the period immediately following World War II. This latter being the socio-political environment in which the concept of impegno - political commitment - in literature became current, this volume asks whether an equivalent moment of constitutional crisis in the 1990s has had a comparable impact on perceptions of the role of the writer and of literature in Italian society. The volume traces the development of impegno in post-war Italian prose literature using the metaphor of fragmentation: the monolithic notion of commitment to an overarching political agenda has splintered, facilitating a fragmentary attention to specific issues. Part One examines the early impegno debate through the critical works of Vittorini, Calvino, Pasolini, tracing it forward into the 1960s and 1970s. The remaining three parts study in detail the 'fragments of impegno' offered by contemporary authors: Tabucchi, Ramondino, De Carlo, Tondelli, Ballestra, and African immigrant writers, including Fazel, Melliti and Methnani. This range of authors and texts illustrates the ways in which socio-political issues are explicitly or implicitly addressed, represented, or embedded in contemporary Italian literature.

Bibliography entry:

Burns, Jennifer, Fragments of Impegno, Italian Perspectives, 9 (Legenda, 2002)

First footnote reference: 35 Jennifer Burns, Fragments of Impegno, Italian Perspectives, 9 (Legenda, 2002), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Burns, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Burns, Jennifer. 2002. Fragments of Impegno, Italian Perspectives, 9 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Burns 2002: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Burns 2002: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)


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