Plotting the past
Subtitle: metamorphoses of historical narrative in modern Italian fiction
By: Cristina Della Coletta.
Series: Purdue studies in Romance literatures ;; v. 12
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: West Lafayette, Ind
Language: eng; ita
Number of pages: 268
Subjects: Historical fiction, Italian -- History and criticism; Italian fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Italian fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism
Description: Through an examination of nineteenth- and twentieth-century theoretical work and novels, Della Coletta presents an authoritatively original recasting of the notion of the historical novel.

Della Coletta's analysis of these novels suggests that genres are ideological units molded by culture and history, and that current ideologies shape the literary representation of the historical past. This innovative case study thus illuminates not just the twentieth-century Italian historical novel but also the function of literary genres as a whole.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-260) and index.