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{en} Angela M. Jeannet - Giuliana Katz, eds. Natalia Ginzburg: A voice of the twentieth century. Toronto, Ont. : University of Toronto Press, 2000.

Abstract

A prominent and prolific Italian writer, Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991) is known for her novels, plays, short stories, and essays. This collection brings together, for an English-speaking audience, a variety of critical perspectives on Ginzburg's work. The essays, all by North American scholars, examine the author's entire production. The topics examined include Ginzburg's struggle to define herself as a woman, a writer, and an intellectual; her interpretation of the relationship between historical events and private lives; her reflections on the women's movement and the changing nature of the family; and her mastery of a distinctly personal writing style. What emerges here is a nuanced and complex portrait of Ginzburg and her work. The reader is given a sense of the importance of her contribution, not only as a writer but as a witness to the events of the twentieth century. The volume also includes a chronology, a bibliography, and translations of some of Ginzburg's lesser-known writings, including three articles, a poem, and a one-act play.

Contents

An interview with Natalia Ginzburg / Peg Boyers -- Natalia Ginzburg between fiction and memory : a reading of Le voci della sera and Lessico famigliare / Luigi Fontanella -- Natalia Ginzburg's early writings in L'Italia libera / David Ward -- Natalia Ginzburg : making a story out of history / Angela M. Jeannet -- The personal is political : gender, generation, and memory in Natalia Ginzburg's Caro Michele / Judith Laurence Pastore -- Writing the self : the epistolary novels of Natalia Ginzburg / Peg Boyers -- Sagittarius : a psychoanalytic reading / Giuliana Sanguinetti Katz -- Natalia Ginzburg and the craft of writing / Eugenia Paulicelli -- The eloquence of understatement : Natalia Ginzburg's public image and literary style / Jen Wienstein -- Feminism and the 'absurd' in two plays by Natalia Ginzburg / Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio -- Three articles by Natalia Ginzburg (translated by David Ward) : I nostri figli, Chiarezza, Cronaca di un paese -- The wig, a play by Natalia Ginzburg (translated by Jen Wienstein).