This volume explores the dynamic and productive cultural forces engendered by exiles, wanderers, and diasporic communities in Britain and Italy over more than five centuries. It investigates the historic resonance of transnational encounters and movements between two European cultures that look back on a long history of cross-fertilisation. Drawn from a range of academic disciplines including literary studies, history, musicology, art history and bibliography, it presents the ways in which exiles, emigres, intermediaries and their attendant cultural perspectives interact with the sometimes...

The contributions investigate the ways in which numerous institutions of English literature shape the literary field. While they cover an extensive historical field, ranging from the Early Modern period to the 18th century to the contemporary, they focus not only on literary texts, but also on extra-literary ones, including literary prizes, literary histories and anthologies, and highlight the various ways in which these negotiate the processes that constitute the literary field. All contributions assert that there is no such thing as literature outside of institutions. Great emphasis is...