Gabriele D'Annunzio and World Literature: Multilingualism, Translation, Reception

by Elisa Segnini (Editor), Michael Subialka (Editor)

Overview

Gabriele D’Annunzio was an internationally renowned artist and one of the most prominent public figures in Italy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His novels and poetry stirred the enthusiasm of James Joyce and Henry James in the English-speaking world and his repute stretched far beyond – in France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Japan and South America, D’Annunzio became a pivotal node in the broad networks of decadent exchange. This volume offers an overview of the global dynamics of D’Annunzio’s work, from his engagement with multilingualism and translingual writing to the international circulation and reception of his production. Featuring chapters by international scholars, it re-evaluates D’Annunzio with a critical eye and a transnational scope and offers a global assessment of the place that Dannunzian decadence holds in the constitution of a conflicted movement – one that is profoundly cosmopolitan and yet also problematically nationalistic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399506861
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2025
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Elisa Segnini teaches Italian and Comparative Literature at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on fin-de-siècle fiction and on Italian literature in a world literature perspective. She is the author of Fragments, Genius and Madness: Masks and Mask Making in the fin-de-siècle imagination (2021) and of several articles on multilingualism in fiction.

Michael Subialka teaches Comparative Literature and Italian at UC Davis, where he researches modernism focusing on literature and philosophy. He is the author of monograph Modernist Idealism: Ambivalent Legacies of German Philosophy in Italian Literature (2022). He previously co-edited a special issue of Forum Italicum on D’Annunzio (51:2, August 2017).

Table of Contents

‘Introduction’, Elisa Segnini and Michael Subialka

Part 1. A Poetics of Fusion: Cultural Appropriation, Multilingualism, Translingual Writing

1. ‘D’Annunzio and the Classics’, Pietro Gibellini, translated by Stuart Oglethorpe 2. ‘D’Annunzio and Japanisms’, Mariko Muramatsu3. ‘Il Piacere as a Multilingual Text and its Afterlife in Translation’, Elisa Segnini4. ‘The original soul of the race": La figlia di Iorio and Italian Dialects’, Sarah Zappulla Muscarà and Enzo Zappulla, translated by Stuart Oglethorpe5.‘The "Latin sister": D’Annunzio’s Relationship to French’, Filippo Fonio

Part 2. Translators as Transcultural Negotiators

6. ‘Gabriele D’Annunzio and Georges Hérelle: Virility, Machismo, and the Homo-erotic’, Clive Thomson7. ‘After Hérelle: André Doderet, the (In)visible Translator’, Annalisa Ciano8. ‘"An Artist in Translation": D’Annunzio, Arthur Symons, and Symbolist Drama’, Stefano Evangelista8. ‘Gabriele D’Annunzio and Karl Gustav Vollmoeller: From Classical Culture to the Attractions of Motor Power’, Adriana Vignazia, translated by Stuart Oglethorpe

Part 3. D’Annunzio’s Global Fin-de-siècle Reception

9. ‘Fin-de-Meiji as Fin-de-siècle: D’Annunzio and Japanese Literature’, Noriko Hiraishi10. ‘D’Annunzio’s Feminine Archetypes, Nationalist Ideology, and Catalan Modernism’, Assumpta Camps, translated by Alessia Zinnari11. ‘Gabriele D’Annunzio and the Austrian Reception after Italy’s Entry into the War’, Arturo Larcati, translated by Peter Bruckner

Part 4. Complex Legacies

12. ‘D’Annunzio and Argentina: from Elitist Snobbism to Nationalist Peronism’, Sandro Abate, translated by Alessia Zinnari and Sophie Maddison13. ‘Gabriele D’Annunzio in the United States: Politics and Stereotypes’, Guylian Nemegeer and Mara Santi14. ‘D’Annunzio’s Legacy in Post-Revolutionary Russia’, Elda Garetto and Sofia Lurie, translated by Stuart Oglethorpe15. ‘From "Great Italian Poet" to "Fascist Writer": D’Annunzio and Arabic Culture’, Hussein Mahmoud and Christine Samir Girgis16. ‘Morlach’s Blood in Fiume’s Mensa: D’Annunzio and the Intimate Adriatic’, Russell Scott Valentino17. ‘Infatuated with Il Vate: Mishima’s Transnational Mimesis of D’Annunzio as Decadent Poet, Patriot, and Celebrity’, Ikuho Amano18. ‘D’Annunzio in the Twenty-First Century’, Elisa Segnini and Michael Subialka　　

Editorial Reviews

This edited collection tells a compelling story about Gabriele D’Annunzio’s role in transnational and translingual literary and cultural exchanges in the fin-de-siècle. It does so by using the highly productive framework of world literature, offering a refreshing shift in research perspective and methodological framing which helps to reposition D’Annunzio and Italian Decadent culture in a much broader context of transnational flow of artistic and cultural influences.

[…] The focus on a transnational and cultural contextualization of D’Annunzio’s multifaceted literary production is the much needed ground upon which we can better appreciate the standing, influence, and legacy of this figure who, for the duration of the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, was the only Italian writer to truly transcend national borders.

Modern Language Review - Giuliana Pieri

This wide-ranging and informative collection makes a strong case for seeing D'Annunzio as among the key figures in modern world literature. Persuasively demonstrating how D'Annunzio had a broad influence across Europe, East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, the collection covers topics including D'Annunzio's wide reading in world literature, as well as the author’s relationship with his translators and his global reception. The book makes a valuable contribution to world literature studies, as well as to the burgeoning scholarly interest in the global fin de siècle.

Matthew Potolsky