Ecocriticism and Italy Ecology, Resistance, and Liberation [Paperback]

Winner of the American Association for Italian Studies Book Prize 2016

Written by one of Europe's leading critics,Ecocriticism and Italyreads the diverse landscapes of Italy in the cultural imagination. From death in Venice as a literary trope and petrochemical curse, through the volcanoes of Naples to wine, food and environmental violence in Piedmont, Serenella Iovino explores Italy as a text where ecology and imagination meet. Examining cases where justice, society and politics interlace with stories of land and life, pollution and redemption, the book argues that literature, art and criticism are able to transform the unexpressed voices of these suffering worlds into stories of resistance and practices of liberation.

Serenella Iovino is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Turin, Italy. She is a past president of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment (EASLCE) and her previous books includeEcologia Letteraria(2006) and, as co-editor,Material Ecocriticism(2014).

Acknowledgments

Introduction

I. Bodies of Naples: A Journey in the Landscapes of Porosity

II. Cognitive Justice and the Truth of Biology: Death (and Life) in Venice

III. Three Earthquakes: Wounds, Signs, and Resisting Arts in Belice, Irpinia, and L'Aquila.

IV. Slow: Piedmont's Stories of Landscapes, Resistance, and Liberation.

Works Cited

Index

The book offers insightful stories of ecological struggle that provide illuminating examples of the interconnectivity of human and nonhuman landscapes, showing how forms of resistance have been developed and acted in a variety of texts and contexts. The scrupulous and rigorous research of this work is coupled with a beautiful writing style, which effortlessly traverses and connects various disciplines, and is an inspired labour of love by the author for her country, its people, places, and literature. -Ecozol³+