Title: Plotting the past
First published: 1996
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.
Subjects: Historical fiction, Italian, History and criticism, Italian Historical fiction, Italian fiction, Italian fiction, history and criticism, Historical fiction, history and criticism
Time periods: 19th century, 20th century
LC classification: PQ4181.H55 D45 1996