While the writing of Carlo Emilio Gadda (1893-1973) is renowned for its linguistic and narrative proliferation, the best-known works of Samuel Beckett (1906-89) are minimalist, with a clear fondness for subtraction and abstraction. Despite these face-value differences, a close reading of the two authors' early prose writings reveals some surprisingly affinitive concerns, rooted in their profoundly troubled relationship with the literary medium and an unceasing struggle for expression of an incoherent reality and a similarly unfathomable self.
Situating Gadda and Beckett at the heart of...

The present edited collection of essays on the Sicilian author Goliarda Sapienza includes contributions from established and emerging scholars working in the field of contemporary women's writing. Essays in this volume examine Sapienza through multiple perspectives, taking into account the articulation of subjectivity through autobiographical writing and the complex representation of gender and sexual identities. Also considered here is Sapienza's oblique position within the Italian literary canon, with contributions moving beyond isolated textual analyses whilst attempting to situate the...