Descrizione

Ein tadelloses Exemplar. - Writing Colonisation: Violence, Landscape, and the Act of Naming in Modern Italian and Australian Literature offers a unique comparative analysis of modern Italian and Australian literature which has never been attempted at such length and depth. The book investigates the relation between language, violence, and colonialism through comparing and contrasting selected texts in the Italian and Australian tradition (Dino Buzzati, Ennio Flaiano, Guido Ceronetti, Patrick White, David Malouf, Randolph Stow, and Barbara Baynton) and submitting them to a close analysis. The literary analysis is complemented by a critical reflection on philosophical discussions of language in continental philosophy, especially in the works of Walter Benjamin, Maurice Blanchot, and Martin Heidegger. The book provides innovative insights into colonialism, shedding new light and ideas on the works of the authors under analysis. The book argues for a novel reading of Italian and Australian texts and employs this reading to interrogate the ways in which language has been deployed to negotiate the colonial experience � especially in relation to the interface between language and landscape � and relates this experience to Western interpretation of religious texts (e.g., Genesis), which have often been used as a justification of colonial exploitation. The book is an excellent reference for courses on comparative literature and postcolonial literature. - Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements vii -- Introduction 1 -- PART ONE -- Chapter One: Landscape 11 -- 1. Definition of landscape: framing the world 12 -- 2. Mysterious and unknown landscape 14 -- 3. Utopia of no-place 19 -- 4. Terror and paranoia about place 22 -- 5. The sublime 24 -- Chapter Two: The Frontier That Frames the Desert: Dino -- Buzzati's II deserto del tartari and Patrick White's Voss 27 -- 1. Stories 28 -- 2. War and desert 29 -- 3. "These who died of landscape" 33 -- 4. The journey to the desert 36 -- 5. Imagining and becoming the desert 40 -- 6. Exploration and waiting 45 -- Chapter Three: Apparitions in the Desert: Drogo and Voss Meet the Unknown 47 -- 1. TheTartars and the inland sea 48 -- 2. Apparitions and bunya bunya 54 -- 3. Undone by the desert 58 -- PART TWO -- Chapter Four: The Act of Naming 65 -- 1. Naming beyond the frontier 66 -- 2. Primeval language and Genesis 69 -- 3. Existence and speech 72 -- Chapter Five:"Silence, the Virtue of Speaking:"David Malouf's An Imaginary Life 81 -- 1. Ovid, the sad exile 83 -- 2. The translation of a world 88 -- 3. Fragments of pure language 92 -- 4. Beyond the river of silence 97 -- Chapter Six:"An Angelic Rape:"Guido Ceronetti's Difesa -- delta luna e altri argomenti di miseria terrestre 101 -- 1. Guido Ceronetti and the moon 102 -- 2. An ambiguous oracle: the Bible and the dominion over the universe 104 -- 3. The first naming: a mesmeric caress over the universe 110 -- 4. "Et indi vanno al regno de la luna:" myth, footprint and violation 115 -- PART THREE -- Chapter Seven: "Le colonie si fanno con la Bibbia alia mano:" -- Ennio Flaiano's Tempo di uccidere 127 -- 1. Historical background 130 -- 2. The African landscape as a stage and the Orientalist gaze 131 � 3. -- Mariam:"something more than a tree, something less than a woman" 138 -- 4. Naming in the African biblical setting 139 -- 5. Sleeping in a tomb 143 -- 6. Leprosy: the manifestation of guilt 148 -- Chapter Eight: Visionaries and Prophets in Barbara Baynton's -- "The Chosen Vessel" and Randolph Stow's Tourmaline 153 -- 1. "And has Thou chosen me?": the elusive smile of the Madonna 155 -- 2. Saint or whore? The interpretation that kills 163 -- 3. The mouthpiece of God in the desert 165 -- 4. Christianity, theTao and the land on its own terms 172 -- Conclusion 179 -- Bibliography 237 -- Index of Names 251 ISBN 9781433123986