• Muriel Spark’s Italian palimpsests

    Author(s):
    Carla Sassi (see profile)
    Date:
    2018
    Group(s):
    CLCS European Regions, LLC 20th- and 21st-Century English and Anglophone, LLC Scottish
    Subject(s):
    Scottish literature, Italians--Social life and customs, Motion pictures, Italian, Popular culture, Cross-cultural studies
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Italian culture, Italian cinema, Comparative cultural studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/z7b2-jx68
    Abstract:
    Italy was Muriel Spark’s elective country of residence for 40 years, the first decade of which, from 1967, when she settled in Rome, till the end of the 70s, represented one of the most contradictory and yet intellectually fertile periods of Italian modern history. Notwithstanding such long-lasting and meaningful bond, explicitly represented in a number of her works, her complex relationship with the culture and history of this country remains largely under-investigated. The article contends that Italy plays an important role in the shaping of Spark’s literary imagination, and that ‘Italian palimpsests’ can be traced in her work throughout her career. Taking the palimpsest as a trope of transformation and construction that implies border-crossing and transit, the article focuses on four novels – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Public Image, The Takeover, Territorial Rights – which explicitly engage with Italy and Italianness. From her investigation of the aesthetics of Fascism in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, to her re-vision of Italian filmic and popular culture in The Public Image and The Takeover, and her playful representation of the palimpsestic literary imagination of Venice in Territorial Rights, Spark’s engagement with Italy's high and popular culture is shown to be rich, complex and transformative.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2018.1533184
    Publisher:
    Informa UK Limited
    Pub. Date:
    2018-11-24
    Journal:
    Textual Practice
    Volume:
    32
    Issue:
    9
    Page Range:
    1615 - 1632
    ISSN:
    0950-236X,1470-1308
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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