Romano Luperini and Pietro Cataldi. Romano Luperini and Pietro Cataldi. La Scrittura E L'interpretazione. Storia Della Letteratura Italiana Nel Quadro Della Civilta E Della Letteratura Dell'occidente. Vol. 3 (Book Review‪)‬

Romano Luperini and Pietro Cataldi. La scrittura e l'interpretazione. Storia della letteratura italiana nel quadro della civilta e della letteratura dell'Occidente. Vol. 3: Dal Naturalismo al Postmoderno, Tomes I-II. Palermo: Palumbo, 1999. These two tomes comprise the second half of Luperini and Cataldi's work, of which the first two volumes cover Italian literary history respectively up to and from the CounterReformation. The last 160 years are thus accorded as much space as the previous six centuries. This reflects escalating literary productivity, but also privileges modernity and contemporary relevance, to the extent, for instance, that not much less space is given to "il classico del secolo" Montale (41 pages), than to Petrarch (43 pages). This is partly the effect of not very closely considering earlier Italian literature written in Latin, but more largely springs from the pedagogical intent of the work, which is implicitly aimed at students in the licei and in the early years of university.