Oxford Companion To Italian Literature, The

Description:
Embracing the whole of Italian literature, from the early thirteenth century to the present, The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature takes a broad view of what constitutes literature, covering historical writing, travel writing, theatre, and philosophy as well as the novel, poetry, literary dialogues, and critical theory. Providing generous coverage of canonical figures - from Dante and Petrarch to Montale and Calvino - it also contains a wealth of short entries on significant minor figures. The Companion also explores Latin literature written by Italian authors - a major feature of Renaissance culture - and Italian dialect literature; and highlights articles which place the writers and their works in their wider social, historical, artistic, and political context. The 2,400 alphabetically-arranged entries provide clear, up-to-date coverage of Italian literature, making this an essential reference for specialists and non-specialists alike. Written by expert contributors, the entries reflect the current state of international scholarship, which has developed in many different and exciting directions in recent years.

Review:
I have consulted this book for almost a year for research, teaching, and editorial work, and in all cases, but especially for editing, it has proved an invaluable, user-friendly, and quick provider of reliable information ... an outstanding pioneering work ... a very fine volume that scholars will find indispensable. Modern Language Review The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature is an essential purchase for relevant libraries and will equally prove a critical reference source in Italian collections. The work can be very strongly recommended. Chris Taylor, Curator French and Italian Collections, National Library of Scotland The entries are invariably clearly written, accurate, reliable and informative. They are thoroughly cross-referenced. Chris Taylor, Curator French and Italian Collections, National Library of Scotland Coverage is remarkably balanced between the different periods, taking in writers from Dante to Tabucchi. Chris Taylor, Curator French and Italian Collections, National Library of Scotland Scholars and students of Italian literature have been waiting for the appearance of an Oxford companion to Italian literature with a good deal of anticipation and no doubt impatience for several decades ... finally they have an Oxford Companion of their own to place on the reference shelf and one which lives up to the kudos of the sister volumes for French and German. They will no doubt be uncorking the Chianti in Italian departments around the English-speaking world. Chris Taylor, Curator French and Italian Collections, National Library of Scotland ... impressive list of contributors ... a substantial achievement. Italian Studies It is the first - and therefore greatly to be welcomed - attempt to provide a reference work in English similar in scope to the Oxford Companions to French, German, and English literatures, as well as literature in translation. Italian Studies This first Companion to Italian Literature to appear in English is as complete, reliable and useful as any such enterprise could be ... it contains nearly 2,400 articles which cover almost every writer of reputation active over a period of about nine centuries ... All aspects of literature are here, not only creative writers but also historians, philosophers, critics, throughout the ages. Masolino D'Amico, Times Literary Supplement It is a delight to open the volume at random and read the first entry that catches the eye. Indeed, two copies of The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature are needed, one in the study and the other beside the bed. Rivista (the Journal of the British-Italian Society) ... indispensable as a work of reference. Rivista (the Journal of the British-Italian Society)

Table of Contents:
Introduction; List of the More Important Entries; Reader's Guide; Abbreviations; List of Contributors; Chronological Conspectus; Maps; A-Z ENTRIES