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BOLLETTINO '900 - Segnalazioni / A, febbraio 2000
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Silvio D'Arzo: a critical evaluation
(PhD, 2000, University College London)
The main aim of my research was to write a critical monograph on Silvio
D'Arzo, a minor but very interesting contemporary Italian novelist (Reggio
Emilia, 1920-1952). Although many essays, articles and even some books had
been written on D'Arzo (and the proceedings of two congresses were also
available), a complete study dealing with the different aspects connected
to the life and the activity of this writer was still missing.
I prepared an exhaustive and up-to-date bibliography of the creative works
by D'Arzo (this was at times made difficult by the sheer number of
periodicals to which the author contributed, often not to be found in most
libraries in Italy) and of the critical studies on him. The bibliography
is therefore quite an important result of my thesis, and will constitute a
fundamental starting point for any future study on D'Arzo.
Another problem I had to face was the "philology" of D'Arzo's texts: the
editorial situation of many of them is complicated, since there are
different versions and editions of the same text. I tried to offer an
analysis and sometimes a possible solution of these problems.
What I then did was to place D'Arzo in the literary context of Italian
narrative in the Thirties and Forties (the decades in which he worked
most). This study helped to define D'Arzo's place within the history of
contemporary Italian literature. Although D'Arzo did not belong to any
particular literary movement, it can be useful to see him in the context
of his day in order to evaluate his importance and his influence on the
following generations of writers.
The other points I focused on in my study include D'Arzo's life, his
narrative production (short stories and novels), his writings for
children, his poetry, his critical essays on English and American
literature (which testify to his wide literary interests), his
correspondence with other writers and with publishers, his critical and
editorial "(s)fortuna".
Bollettino '900 - Electronic Newsletter of '900 Italian Literature
versione e-mail - PRESENTAZIONI / A, dicembre 1999. Anno V, 6.
Editor: Federico Pellizzi; Redazione: Daniela Baroncini, Eleonora Conti,
Silvia Dall'Olio, Stefania Filippi, Anna Frabetti, Elisa Soverini;
Dipartimento di Italianistica dell'Universita' di Bologna, Via Zamboni 32,
40126 Bologna, Italy, Fax +39 051 2098555; tel. +39 051 2098595/334294.
Reg. Trib. di Bologna n. 6436 del 19 aprile 1995 - ISSN 1124-1578
URL: http://www.unibo.it/boll900/
http://www.comune.bologna.it/iperbole/boll900/
http://oliva.modlang.denison.edu/~pellizzi/
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/boll900/
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