Published July 2000
Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society
Edited by Letizia Panizza
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘In her introduction Letizia Panizza writes that one of the aims of the collection is to recover neglected areas of Italian culture and society, which she has done... Many of the essays are quite good; all are informative.’ — Elissa B. Weaver, Renaissance Quarterly 2002, 713-15
- ‘Offers a vast and well-organized view of the position that early modern women occupied in Italy from 1400 to 1650... I highly recommend the collection.’ — Rinaldini Russell, Forum Italicum 36.1, 2002, 214-15
- ‘The above is merely a fraction of the content. There is certainly richness in this volume. Many branches of scholarship gain by having these articles in print and they are an eloquent testimony to the vitality of scholarship in this area.’ — Olwen Hufton, Modern Language Review 97.1, 2002 (full text online)
- ‘This excellent book of essays... retains the liveliness and originality of the conference held at Royal Holloway, University of London, ... with the added bonus that all those given in Italian have been translated, so that - as the editor says - we can benefit from the work of many specialists, some of whose work has not previously been available in English.’ — Alison Brown, Italian Studies LVII, 2002, 171-2
- ‘Without doubt, the most important volume yet published in English on the specific contribution of women to culture and society in Italy in the Renaissance... The coherence of the volume is assured by a number of overarching themes.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies XXXIX, 2003, 480
Published December 2000
Medea in Performance 1500-2000
Edited by Edith Hall, Fiona Macintosh and Oliver Taplin
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘It provides crucial insights into the constantly shifting parameters of performance... Medea in Performance analyses each stage of [Medea's] metamorphosis in theatre, opera and film, and, in a wonderful essay by Margaret Reynolds, makes the important point that the static iconography of Medea is often as dramatically charged as her stage incarnation. The result is an entertaining and informed work.’ — Jane Montgomery, Times Literary Supplement 23 March, 2001, 20
- ‘Sophisticated and elegantly argued treatments... Fills in many gaps in the performance history. Smethurst brings to her stunning close reading of Yukio Ninagawa's internationally acclaimed performance a scholarly knowledge of both Greek and traditional Japanese drama.’ — Helene P. Foley, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 27 April, 2001
- ‘While the book's scope is enormous, its overall design had clearly been thought through with care, the result being that one comes away from it with a real sense of having thoroughly reviewed the subject... a highly valuable contribution to the literature on performance.’ — Richard H. Armstrong, American Journal of Philology 123.2, 2002, 289-93
- ‘This is an important collection, not only as a document in the history of scholarship but also because it touches on themes which demand further exploration.’ — Lorna Hardwick, Classical Review 52, 2002, 357-9
- ‘Makes a strong contribution to cultural studies... Always admirable.’ — Graham Ley, Prudentia XXXIV.2, 2002, 249-51
- ‘Absolutely outstanding chapters by Hall and Macintosh approach performance history as a complex series of interrelations between theatrical practice and audience expectations, literary trends and contemporary debates.’ — Astrid Voigt, Journal of Hellenic Studies 123, 2003, 263-5
Published July 2009
Imagining Terrorism: The Rhetoric and Representation of Political Violence in Italy 1969-2009
Edited by Pierpaolo Antonello and Alan O'Leary
Italian Perspectives 18
- ‘This is a thought-provoking collection that requires the reader to engage with representations and form as critical sites of historical understanding.’ — Derek Duncan, Modern Language Review 106.3, 2011, 889-90 (full text online)
- ‘For many, the murder of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978 by the BR and the various neofascist bombings have become myths or legendary occurrences ones fraught with profound meaning for the human condition. Even some of the former militants and terrorists — the perpetrators, in other words — have participated in these productions (Moro’s killers, for example). In fact, one cannot help be left with the impression that the artists and the ex-militants are really talking to each other.’ — Leonard Weinberg, Journal of Modern History 84.3 (September 2012), 752-54
- ‘This broad-ranging collection of fourteen essays is innovative in offering an extremely rich and multi-faceted portrait of this complex topic... makes a real contribution to show how terrorist brutality was expressed, encoded and schematized by the people involved in these dramatic events even before the violent actions became the object of rhetorical analysis.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 48.4 (October 2012), 490
Published September 2013
The Tradition of the Actor-Author in Italian Theatre
Edited by Donatella Fischer
Italian Perspectives 27
- ‘This is a broad-ranging collection of essays from expert contributors... All sixteen articles, while serving to highlight different periods of theatrical history, revolve around what is widely recognized by now as a constant and distinctive feature of Italian theatre: the centrality of the players and their fundamental dramaturgic role.’ — Francesca Savoia, Modern Language Review 110.3, July 2015, 885-87 (full text online)
Published June 2015
The Reinvention of Theatre in Sixteenth-Century Europe: Traditions, Texts and Performance
Edited by T. F. Earle and Catarina Fouto
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘Sem dúvida, uma perspectiva rica e bastante abrangente do fenómeno teatral na Europa do séc. XVI.’ — Manuel José De Sousa Barbosa, Euphrosyne 45, 2017, 658-60