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Perversion and Modern Japan: Psychoanalysis, Literature, Culture (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)
by Nina CornyetzHow did nerves and neuroses take the place of ghosts and spirits in Meiji Japan? How does Natsume Soseki’s canonical novel Kokoro pervert the Freudian teleology of sexual development? What do we make of Jacques Lacan’s infamous claim that because of the nature of their language the Japanese people were unanalyzable? And how are we to understand the re-awakening of collective memory occasioned by the sudden appearance of a Japanese Imperial soldier stumbling out of the jungle in Guam in 1972? In addressing these and other questions, the essays collected here theorize the relation of unconscious fantasy and perversion to discourses of nation, identity, and history in Japan. Against a tradition that claims that Freud’s method, as a Western discourse, makes a bad ‘fit’with Japan, this volume argues that psychoanalytic reading offers valuable insights into the ways in which ‘Japan’ itself continues to function as a psychic object. By reading a variety of cultural productions as symptomatic elaborations of unconscious and symbolic processes rather than as indexes to cultural truths, the authors combat the truisms of modernization theory and the seductive pull of culturalism. This volume also offers a much needed psychoanalytic alternative to the area studies convention that reads narratives of all sorts as "windows" offering insights into a fetishized Japanese culture. As such, it will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Japanese literature, history, culture, and psychoanalysis more generally.
Perversion and the Social Relation: Sic 4
by Slavoj I Ek Molly Anne Rothenberg Dennis A. FosterThe masochist, the voyeur, the sadist, the sodomite, the fetishist, the pedophile, and the necrophiliac all expose hidden but essential elements of the social relation. Arguing that the concept of perversion, usually stigmatized, ought rather to be understood as a necessary stage in the development of all non-psychotic subjects, the essays in Perversion and the Social Relation consider the usefulness of the category of the perverse for exploring how social relations are formed, maintained, and transformed. By focusing on perversion as a psychic structure rather than as aberrant behavior, the contributors provide an alternative to models of social interpretation based on classical Oedipal models of maturation and desire. At the same time, they critique claims that the perverse is necessarily subversive or liberating. In their lucid introduction, the editors explain that while fixation at the stage of the perverse can result in considerable suffering for the individual and others, perversion motivates social relations by providing pleasure and fulfilling the psychological need to put something in the place of the Father. The contributors draw on a variety of psychoanalytic perspectives--Freudian and Lacanian--as well as anthropology, history, literature, and film. From Slavoj Zizek's meditation on "the politics of masochism" in David Fincher's movie Fight Club through readings of works including William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner, Don DeLillo's White Noise, and William Burroughs's Cities of the Red Night, the essays collected here illuminate perversion's necessary role in social relations. Contributors. Michael P. Bibler, Dennis A. Foster, Bruce Fink, Octave Mannoni, E. L. McCallum, James Penney, Molly Anne Rothenberg, Nina Schwartz, Slavoj Zizek
Perversions of the Market: Sadism, Masochism, and the Culture of Capitalism (SUNY series, Insinuations: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Literature)
by Eugene W. HollandPerversions of the Market argues that capitalism fosters sadism and masochism—not as individual psychological proclivities but as widespread institutionalized patterns of behavior. The book is divided into two parts: one historical and the other theoretical. In the first, Eugene W. Holland shows how, as capital becomes global in scale and drives production and consumption farther and farther apart, it perverts otherwise free markets, transforming sadism and masochism into borderline conditions and various supremacisms. The second part then turns to Deleuze and Guattari's "schizoanalysis," explaining how it helpfully embeds Freud's analysis of the family and Lacan's analysis of language within an analysis of the capitalist market and its psycho-dynamics. Drawing on literature and film throughout to illuminate the discontents of modern culture, Holland maintains that the sadistic relations of production and masochistic relations of consumption must be eliminated to prevent capitalism from destroying life as we know it.
Pessoa in an International Web: Influence and Innovation
by David G. Frier"Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) is Portugal's most celebrated poet of the twentieth century, who wrote under the guise of dozens of literary personalities, or heteronyms. As well as his poetry, however, his work is marked by a constantly inventive and innovative engagement with authors and literary traditions from an astonishing variety of sources, placing him firmly in the worldwide literary canon. The present volume brings together a number of experts at the forefront of Pessoa studies internationally, with chapters examining his literary relations with Italy, Spain, France, England and Portugal, as well as his contextualisation in relation to major philosophers such as Kant and Nietzsche. It features essays examining his work from a range of perspectives to complement the multi-faceted nature of Pessoa himself (psychoanalytical, philosophical, political and artistic) and it includes consideration of his prose masterpiece The Book of Disquiet , as well as of various aspects of his poetic oeuvre."
Pessoa's Geometry of the Abyss: Modernity and the Book of Disquiet
by PauloDe Medeiros"Fernando Pessoa wrote prolifically in many genres until his untimely death in 1935, and he has long been widely recognized as Portugal's most influential twentieth century writer. The publication of the Book of Disquiet in 1982, however, caused a seismic change in the appreciation of his work and its place in Modernism. In that great and vast collection of fragments, Pessoa firmly established his place among the canon of European modernists and radically questioned many of Modernity's assumptions. Alain Badiou, for example, has argued that philosophers are not yet able to assimilate Pessoa's thinking. Paulo de Medeiros's new study, one of the first to be dedicated to the Book of Disquiet, takes up that challenge, exploring the text's connections with photography, film, politics and textuality itself, and developing comparisons with D. H. Lawrence, Walter Benjamin, and Franz Kafka. Paulo de Medeiros is Professor of Modern and Contemporary World Literatures in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick."
Pestilence in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature (Studies in Medieval History and Culture)
by Byron Lee GrigsbyPestilence in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature examines three diseases--leprosy, bubonic plague, and syphilis--to show how doctors, priests, and literary authors from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance interpreted certain illnesses through a moral filter. Lacking knowledge about the transmission of contagious diseases, doctors and priests saw epidemic diseases as a punishment sent by God for human transgression. Accordingly, their job was to properly read sickness in relation to the sin. By examining different readings of specific illnesses, this book shows how the social construction of epidemic diseases formed a kind of narrative wherein man attempts to take the control of the disease out of God's hands by connecting epidemic diseases to the sins of carnality.
Pet Projects: Animal Fiction and Taxidermy in the Nineteenth-Century Archive (Animalibus)
by Elizabeth YoungIn Pet Projects, Elizabeth Young joins an analysis of the representation of animals in nineteenth-century fiction, taxidermy, and the visual arts with a first-person reflection on her own scholarly journey. Centering on Margaret Marshall Saunders, a Canadian woman writer once famous for her animal novels, and incorporating Young’s own experience of a beloved animal’s illness, this study highlights the personal and intellectual stakes of a “pet project” of cultural criticism.Young assembles a broad archive of materials, beginning with Saunders’s novels and widening outward to include fiction, nonfiction, photography, and taxidermy. She coins the term “first-dog voice” to describe the narrative technique of novels, such as Saunders’s Beautiful Joe, written in the first person from the perspective of an animal. She connects this voice to contemporary political issues, revealing how animal fiction such as Saunders’s reanimates nineteenth-century writing about both feminism and slavery. Highlighting the prominence of taxidermy in the late nineteenth century, she suggests that Saunders transforms taxidermic techniques in surprising ways that provide new forms of authority for women. Young adapts Freud to analyze literary representations of mourning by and for animals, and she examines how Canadian writers, including Saunders, use animals to explore race, ethnicity, and national identity. Her wide-ranging investigation incorporates twenty-first as well as nineteenth-century works of literature and culture, including recent art using taxidermy and contemporary film. Throughout, she reflects on the tools she uses to craft her analyses, examining the state of scholarly fields from feminist criticism to animal studies.With a lively, first-person voice that highlights experiences usually concealed in academic studies by scholarly discourse—such as detours, zigzags, roadblocks, and personal experience—this unique and innovative book will delight animal enthusiasts and academics in the fields of animal studies, gender studies, American studies, and Canadian studies.
Pet Projects: Animal Fiction and Taxidermy in the Nineteenth-Century Archive (Animalibus: Of Animals and Cultures #14)
by Elizabeth YoungIn Pet Projects, Elizabeth Young joins an analysis of the representation of animals in nineteenth-century fiction, taxidermy, and the visual arts with a first-person reflection on her own scholarly journey. Centering on Margaret Marshall Saunders, a Canadian woman writer once famous for her animal novels, and incorporating Young’s own experience of a beloved animal’s illness, this study highlights the personal and intellectual stakes of a "pet project" of cultural criticism.Young assembles a broad archive of materials, beginning with Saunders’s novels and widening outward to include fiction, nonfiction, photography, and taxidermy. She coins the term "first-dog voice" to describe the narrative technique of novels, such as Saunders’s Beautiful Joe, written in the first person from the perspective of an animal. She connects this voice to contemporary political issues, revealing how animal fiction such as Saunders’s reanimates nineteenth-century writing about both feminism and slavery. Highlighting the prominence of taxidermy in the late nineteenth century, she suggests that Saunders transforms taxidermic techniques in surprising ways that provide new forms of authority for women. Young adapts Freud to analyze literary representations of mourning by and for animals, and she examines how Canadian writers, including Saunders, use animals to explore race, ethnicity, and national identity. Her wide-ranging investigation incorporates twenty-first as well as nineteenth-century works of literature and culture, including recent art using taxidermy and contemporary film. Throughout, she reflects on the tools she uses to craft her analyses, examining the state of scholarly fields from feminist criticism to animal studies.With a lively, first-person voice that highlights experiences usually concealed in academic studies by scholarly discourse—such as detours, zigzags, roadblocks, and personal experience—this unique and innovative book will delight animal enthusiasts and academics in the fields of animal studies, gender studies, American studies, and Canadian studies.
Petardos encendidos en la boca
by Paul Gladish ButtNo protestes: estamos mejor que el año que viene. Y recuerda: Es por tu bien. España, época actual. Aunque en realidad, podría ser cualquier lugar del mundo civilizado. La moderna sinarquía versión actual del antiguo gobierno conjunto de los príncipes tiene un nuevo, contundente objetivo: la Economía. Así, con mayúsculas. Economía por encima del pueblo. Economía como pretexto para los abusos y la injusticia. Economía como justificación para arruinar a todos en nombre del bien común, el bien de la patria, concepto que, en la mente obtusa de los políticos, se confunde con el bien de la población, y que no necesariamente significa bienestar para todos. Porque la población, es un recurso sacrificable. Este libro es un auténtico, valiente, irreverente yo acuso, a través de una mirada a seis micro cosmos, seis relatos desgarradores de gente común, que ajena al teje-maneje de las altas esferas, sufre, indefensa, las consecuencias de las decisiones que se toman arriba. Este es un libro sobre la pobreza, sobre precipitarse en caída libre a la ignominia y la miseria. Es un libro sobre el abandono, el ostracismo, la resignación, la desesperación. Somos como un enjambre de abejas sometidas a una reina que no tiene cerebro. Y el enjambre nos abandona cuando ya no somos de utilidad. Porque todo es por nuestro bien. Aunque nos metan petardos en la boca y a veces, esos petardos estallen y nos vuelen la cara.
Pete and Jem: A Grammar Tales Book to Support Grammar and Language Development in Children (Grammar Tales)
by Jessica HabibPete and Jem are having lots of fun playing in the snow until they run into each other and fall over. Targeting Subject-Verb sentences and present progressive verbs, this book provides repeated examples of early developing syntax and morphology which will engage and excite the reader while building pre-literacy skills and make learning fun, as well as exposing children to multiple models of the target grammar form. Perfect for a speech and language therapy session, this book is an ideal starting point for targeting client goals and can also be enjoyed at school or home to reinforce what has been taught in the therapy session.
Pete the Cat 12-Book Phonics Fun! (My First I Can Read)
by Kimberly Dean James DeanPete the Cat helps kids learn to read with phonics! Who knew reading could be so groovy?This set of 12 simple and fun Pete the Cat storybooks is an excellent choice to share with your beginning reader. It’s a fun way to learn to read and as a supplement for activity books for children ages 3 to 6. Enter into the world of reading with My First I Can Read! Reviewed by a phonics expert, these 12 short full-color books feature repeated examples of short and long vowel sounds and common sight words. Each of the simple stories in this box set is designed to teach kids how to master reading while rocking out with Pete the Cat.Phonics teaches children the relationship between letters and the sounds they make. A child who has mastered these relationships has an excellent foundation for learning to read and spell. According to the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, a child who has learned phonics has a method to recognize familiar words and “decode” unfamiliar ones.
Petem-ho!: Manual de català per a boomers i millennials
by Xavier Mas Craviotto Clara Soler Mañé Gerard Viladomat MonterdeUn llibre indispensable sobre l'argot juvenil perquè els boomers i els millennials no acabin fent cringe! Això és un manual de català per a tu, boomer o millennial -naturalment, si hi ha algun lector curiós de la generació Z o Alfa, benvingut-. En aquestes pàgines podràs resoldre dubtes existencials sobre aquestes paraulotes i expressions que diem els més joves. Intentarem ajudar-te a entendre per què els adolescents xerren com xerren. S'han acabat les cares de circumstàncies quan el teu net, fill o nebot parla amb un codi indesxifrable. El desxifrarem, no et preocupis! Ja no faràs el préssec a les xarxes quan no entenguis les piulades de l'influencer jove de torn. Podràs veure sèries adolescents tranquil i sense patir. Vaja, que aquest llibre serà tota una teràpia de rejoveniment lingüístic, ja ho veuràs! A punt? Doncs relaxa't i respira...
Peter Bagge: Conversations (Conversations with Comic Artists Series)
by Kent WorcesterFor fans of Peter Bagge (b. 1957) and his bracing satirical writing and drawing, this collection offers a perfect means to track how he describes his career choices, work habits, preoccupations, and comedic sensibility since the 1980s. Featuring a new interview and much previously unavailable material, this book delivers insightful, occasionally gossipy, sometimes funny, and often tart conversations. His career has intersected with the modern history of comics, from underground comix and indie comics to comics journalism and graphic nonfiction. Bagge's detailed, garrulous, and often grotesquely funny (and discomfiting) work harks back to the underground generation, recalling Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, while also pointing forward to the emergence of alternative comics as a distinct genre. His signature series, the rawly humorous Hate (1990-1998) and his editorship (1983-1986) of the often outrageous Weirdo magazine, founded by Crumb, established Bagge as a leading voice in alternative comics, and his rude, wildly expressive cartooning makes him a counterpoint to the still introspection of recent literary graphic novels. In his career over three decades, Bagge has left his mark on various formats and genres, as a prolific cartoonist, an accomplished musician, and a sometime essayist, editor, and animator. While his creative output encompasses autobiographical comics, graphic nonfiction, magazine illustrations, gag cartoons, minicomics, political commentary, superhero parodies, comic strips, animated videos, and one-page humor pieces, Bagge stands out for creating continuity-based graphic stories that revolve around sharply defined, over-the-top fictional characters. Libertarians know him for his comics journalism, as his graphic biography of Margaret Sanger in 2013 reaches new audiences. While some have lazily branded Bagge as a grunge-era visual satirist, his creative restlessness and expanding body of work make it difficult to confine him within any single genre, cultural niche, or historical moment.
Peter Blake's ABC
by Peter BlakeBritish Pop artist Peter Blake has an eye for the quirky and the overlooked. Best known for designing the cover of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Blake has never stopped working This charming ABC is composed from the extensive collection of objects and ephemera he has gathered in his studio during his long career. Designed in close collaboration with the artist, Peter Blake's ABC displays the strong graphic sensibility and the love of popular culture for which he is renowned. This charming book will delight young and old alike. Images removed.
Peter Carey: The Making of a Global Novelist (New Directions in Book History)
by Keyvan AllahyariPeter Carey: The Making of a Global Novelist recounts Peter Carey’s literary career from his emergence in the Australian literary scene as a contributor to local literary magazines to when he published his fiction exclusively with large conglomerate publishers. As Australia’s most decorated author for a period nearing half a century, Carey’s career gives unparalleled insights into the global contemporary publishing and the making of global literary prestige from the periphery, and significant cultural currency for Australian literature and culture worldwide. Carey’s fiction is not only a product of the global dynamic in literary publishing of the last quarter of the twentieth century, but also it holds something of its productive tension for Australian writing and writers. Allahyari retraces the fraught synthesis of an individual literary proclivity with a growing commercial cultural appetite: the coincidence of Carey’s career with the conglomeration of global publishing pushed further towards anti-elitist, popular aesthetics.
Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus: A Mysterious Profile (Mysterious Profiles)
by Faye KellermanThe USA Today–bestselling author details how she became a crime novelist and how she created her acclaimed husband-and-wife detective team.In 1986, Faye Kellerman introduced LAPD detective Peter Decker and widowed yeshiva teacher Rina Lazarus in her crime novel, The Ritual Bath. The debut won Kellerman the 1987 Macavity Award for Best First Novel and turned into a long-running bestselling series. But how exactly did it all come about?In this autobiographical piece, Kellerman discusses the origins of Decker and Lazarus and answers common questions from readers. Like, how much does she resemble her character, Rina? And how have Peter and Rina evolved? But Kellerman also talks about her own life as an author, mother, and wife. She shares what it’s like being married to a fellow novelist, and how exactly she carved out a place for herself in the world of crime writing.Praise for the Decker and Lazarus Novels“Exceptionally fine suspense.” —San Diego Union-Tribune“Faye Kellerman is a master of mystery.” —The Plain Dealer“Tautly exciting.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review“Reading a good thriller is very much like taking a great vacation: half the fun is getting there. Faye Kellerman is one heck of a tour guide.” —Detroit Free Press“Surprising twists and engaging subplots will keep readers turning the pages to the satisfying conclusion.” —Publishers Weekly
Peter Handke: Erzählwelten - Bilderordnungen
by Rolf G. RennerDer Band präsentiert die Werke Handkes von den Hornissen (1966) bis zu Das zweite Schwert (2020) in Einzelanalysen und erschließt zugleich übergreifende Orientierungen von Handkes Schreiben. Die autoreflexiven Spuren, die das experimentelle Frühwerk des Autors prägen, werden in einer mittleren Phase durch eine Rückkehr zu traditionellen Formen des epischen Erzählens und literarischen Vorbildern fortgeschrieben, die philosophisch geprägt ist. Im Spätwerk entsteht aus diesen Ansätzen eine umfassende Poetologie des Erzählens, die alle Texte miteinander vernetzt. Dabei verdichten sich schon vorher entwickelte Motive zu übergreifenden Themenkomplexen. Neben der Realität des Krieges, der Beziehung zwischen Bild und Schrift, Text und Film treten gesellschaftliche und mediale Entwicklungen der Moderne in den Vordergrund. Der Bezug von Handkes Texten auf Bilder der malerischen Tradition und visuelle Strategien seines Schreibens erhalten dabei besonderes Gewicht.
Peter Handke: Narrative Worlds – Pictorial Orders
by Rolf G. RennerThe volume presents Handke's works from Hornissen (1966) to Das zweite Schwert (2020) in individual analyses and at the same time opens up overarching orientations of Handke's writing. The autoreflexive traces that characterise the author's experimental early work are perpetuated in a middle phase by a return to traditional forms of epic narrative and literary models that is philosophically influenced. In the late work, these approaches give rise to a comprehensive poetology of narrative that links all the texts together. In the process, previously developed motifs are condensed into overarching thematic complexes. Alongside the reality of war, the relationship between image and writing, text and film, social and media developments of modernity come to the fore. The reference of Handke's texts to images of the painterly tradition and visual strategies of his writing are given special weight. This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Peter Handke by Rolf G. Renner, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.
Peter Jennings: A Reporter's Life
by Lynn Sherr Kate DarntonThe words of Peter Jenningss family, friends, and colleagues paint an intimate and comprehensive portrait of the late, legendary journalist and news anchor.
Peter Kuper: Conversations (Conversations with Comic Artists Series)
by Kent WorcesterPeter Kuper (b. 1958) is one of the country’s leading cartoonists. His artwork has graced the pages and covers of numerous newspapers and magazines, including Time, the New Yorker, Mother Jones, and the New York Times. He is a longtime contributor to Mad magazine, where he has been writing and drawing Spy vs. Spy for two decades, and the cofounder and coeditor of World War 3 Illustrated, the cutting-edge magazine devoted to political graphic art.Most of the interviews collected here are either previously unpublished or long out of print. They address such varied topics as world travels, teaching at Harvard, Hollywood deal-making, climate change, Spy vs. Spy, New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, and World War 3 Illustrated. Among the works examined are his books The System, Sticks and Stones, Stop Forgetting to Remember, Diario de Oaxaca, and adaptations of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Kuper also discusses his graphic novel Ruins, which received the Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Novel in 2016.Along with two dozen images, this volume features ten lively, informative interviews as well as a quartet of revealing conversations, conducted in collaboration with Kuper’s fellow artist Seth Tobocman, with underground comix legends Robert Crumb and Vaughn Bodé, Mad magazine publisher William Gaines, and Jack Kirby.
Peter Pan's Shadows in the Literary Imagination (Children's Literature and Culture)
by Kirsten StirlingThis book is a literary analysis of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in all its different versions -- key rewritings, dramatisations, prequels, and sequels -- and includes a synthesis of the main critical interpretations of the text over its history. A comprehensive and intelligent study of the Peter Pan phenomenon, this study discusses the book’s complicated textual history, exploring its origins in the Harlequinade theatrical tradition and British pantomime in the nineteenth century. Stirling investigates potential textual and extra-textual sources for Peter Pan, the critical tendency to seek sources in Barrie’s own biography, and the proliferation of prequels and sequels aiming to explain, contextualize, or close off, Barrie’s exploration of the imagination. The sources considered include Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s Starcatchers trilogy, Régis Loisel’s six-part Peter Pan graphic novel in French (1990-2004), Andrew Birkin’s The Lost Boys series, the films Hook (1991), Peter Pan (2003) and Finding Neverland (2004), and Geraldine McCaughrean’s "official sequel" Peter Pan in Scarlet (2006), among others.
Peter S. Beagle's “The Last Unicorn”: A Critical Companion (Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon)
by Timothy S. MillerThis book assesses the work of one of the foundational figures of American fantasy, Peter S. Beagle. Through its focused analysis of The Last Unicorn, this study contextualises Beagle’s work in relation to the popularity of the fantasy genre, following its growing success in the aftermath of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In addition, through reference to the film adaptation of The Last Unicorn and also Beagle’s other works, this study highlights the author’s longevity and the influence that his metafictional and comedic work has had on contemporary fantasy.
Peter Taylor: A Writer's Life (Southern Literary Studies)
by Hubert Horton Mcalexander"Splendid. . . . McAlexander's biography only makes it clearer than ever that Peter Taylor was our last great southern man of letters."--Chicago Tribune "For those of us to whom Taylor's writing is among the chief glories of 20th-century American literature, Peter Taylor: A Writer's Life has much to tell us about how he emerged from what he called 'the small old world we knew...in Tennessee' and explored that world with such acuity, clarity, and unsentimental love."--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World "McAlexander has done a splendid job of tracing the progression of Taylor's writing through the circumstances of a surprisingly frenetic life...Anyone interested in the evolution of fiction writing in the last century will be delighted to come upon this volume...fascinating, sometimes amusing, and often heartbreaking."--New York Times Book Review Hubert H. McAlexander's accomplished portrait of Peter Taylor (1917-1994) achieves a remarkable intimacy with this central figure in the history of the American short story and one of the greatest southern writers of his time. McAlexander knits together the facts of Taylor's life in a compelling, seamless account: his deep and distinguished family roots in Tennessee; his close bonds with writers from three generations, including Allen Tate, Robert Lowell, and James Alan McPherson; his establishment of the dysfunctional family as a force in American literature; and his perseverance as a writer, finally rewarded with the Pulitzer Prize at age seventy. Exhaustively researched and engagingly written, Peter Taylor presents a vivid picture of the man, the artist, and his literary milieu.
Petrarch and Boccaccio in the First Commentaries on Dante’s Commedia: A Literary Canon Before its Official Birth (Young Feltrinelli Prize in the Moral Sciences)
by Luca FiorentiniThis text proposes a reinterpretation of the history behind the canon of the Tre Corone (Three Crowns), which consists of the three great Italian authors of the 14th century – Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Examining the first commentaries on Dante’s Commedia, the book argues that the elaboration of the canon of the Tre Corone does not date back to the 15th century but instead to the last quarter of the 14th century. The investigation moves from Guglielmo Maramauro’s commentary – circa 1373, and the first exegetical text in which we can find explicit quotations from Petrarch and Boccaccio – to the major commentators of the second half of the 14th century: Benvenuto da Imola, Francesco da Buti and the Anonimo Fiorentino. The work focuses on the conceptual and poetic continuity between Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio as identified by the first interpreters of the Commedia, demonstrating that contemporary readers and intellectuals immediately recognized a strong affinity between these three authors based on criteria not merely linguistic or rhetorical. The findings and conclusions of this work are of great interest to scholars of Dante, as well as those studying medieval poetry and Italian literature.