Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Culture and Literature

The Denatured Wild

Contributions by Viola Ardeni, Massimo Lollini, Ilaria Tabusso Marcyan, Stefania Nedderman, Adele Sanna, Meriel Tulante, Marguerite Waller Edited by Pasquale Verdicchio

Not available to order

Publication date:

23 August 2016

Length of book:

168 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498518888

The essays in this volume provide a theorization of what we might call the “denatured” wild, in other words a notion of environmental “restoration” or "reinhabitation" that recognizes and reconfigures the human factor as an interdependent entity. Acknowledging the contributions of Marco Armerio, Serenella Iovino, Giovanna Ricoveri, Patrick Barron and Anna Re among others, Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Culture and Literature: The Denatured Wild negotiates the ground within the historicizing, theoretical perspectives, and surveying spirit of these writers. Despite the central role that nature has played in Italian culture and literature, there has been an evident lack of critical approaches free of the bridles of the socio-political manipulations of nationalism. The authors in this collection, by recognizing the groundbreaking work of many non-Italian ecocritics, challenge the narrowly defined conventions of Italian Studies and illuminates complexities of an Italian ecocriticism that reveals a rich environmentally engaged literary and cultural tradition.

Introduction. Pasquale Verdicchio

Marcovaldo Or The Seasons In The
City. Adele Sanna
In Dino Buzzati’s Il Segreto Del Bosco Vecchio. Viola Ardeni
Il Bosco Degli Urogalli. A Lieu De Mémoire. Stefania Nedderman
Le Ragione Dell’aragosta.
Marguerite Waller
Ch. 8 Toxic Disorder And Civic Possibility: Viewing The Land Of Fires From The
Phlegraean Fields. Pasquale Verdicchio

If ecocriticism is the attempt to shape new vocabularies for an age of environmental crises, this collection, masterfully conceived and edited by Pasquale Verdicchio, invites us to think Italy as a mobile reality beyond ecological clichés, whether of “Great Beauty” or irredeemable decadence. Encompassing a rich array of subjects, genres, and voices, Ecocritical Approaches to Italian Literature and Culture:The Denatured Wild tells us of a country that, in spite of its cultural ambivalences and political contradictions, teems with ecological creativity and visions of future. If there is a book with which anyone studying Italian ecocriticism should start, this is the one.