Can the unprecedented rise of the historical genre in Italy after 1980 be explained out of the «Umberto Eco effect» alone, as many critics believe? Why are so many Italians nowadays inclined to believe in their Celtic origins? How many middle Ages were there and do we actually live in a high-tech version of them? Has Italy ever been unified? This book discusses the ongoing literary quest for new collective identities in the present-day Italian nation challenged by European integration, globalisation and the burgeoning regionalism, and shows the intricate routes of historical revision on which contemporary Italian fiction embarks.

Gala Rebane studied Romance philology, art history and intercultural communication in Saint-Petersburg, Siena and Chemnitz. In 2010 she did her PhD at the Philosophical Faculty of the Chemnitz University of Technology. Her research interests include present-day Italian literature, popular film and cultural studies. She is a member of staff at the department of social theory and social psychology at the University of Bochum and is doing research on the new concepts of relationships and marriage in the contemporary French and Spanish cinema.

Leseprobe

Contents: Contemporary historical novel – Literary constructions of collective identities – Epoch-specific topoi of collective memory in Italy – Italian national history – Postcolonial historical revision – Cultural effects of globalisation and European Unification in Italy – North Italian regionalisms – Roman legacy – Present-day medievalism – Renaissance – Seicento – Risorgimento.