"An original and significant contribution to scholarship in the fields of 20th-century poetry, Italian literature, and European literature. . . . The rose demonstrates both the skeletal similarities between ancient and recent lyric and the peculiar marks that distinguish the poetry of our time from its traditional heritage." Beverly Allen, Syracuse University

Thomas Peterson surveys the use of the rose topos in 20th-century Italian poetry, providing an illuminating cross-section of the work of all the major poets, and the movements in which it appears. He examines the development...

The Revolt of the Scribe in Modern Italian Literature offers a perceptive re-assessment of Italian literary culture, focusing on the nature of modernity through the literature of those who revolt against established norms and expectations. By exploring selected works from authors such as Deledda, Foscolo, Ungaretti, Bertolucci, and Valeri, Thomas E. Peterson considers the categories of vatic poetry, the feminine voice, and the writings of those situated on Italy's cultural periphery.

As practitioners of literary Italian, Peterson argues that these authors are conscious of...

Petrarch's Rerum vulgarium fragmenta, a collection of lyric poems on sacred and profane love and other subjects, has traditionally been viewed as reflecting the conflicted nature of its author. However, award winning author Thomas E. Peterson argues that Petrarch's Fragmenta is an ordered and coherent work unified by narrative and theological structures.

By concentrating on the poem's reliance on Christian tenets and distinguishing between author, narrator and character, Peterson exposes the underlying narrative and theological unity of the work. Building on recent...