MACMILLAN Posthumanism in Italian Literature and Film: Boundaries and Identity (Italian and Italian American Studies)

As humans re-negotiate their boundaries with the nonhuman world of animals, inanimate entities and technological artefacts, new identities are formed and a new epistemological and ethical approach to reality is needed. Through twelve thought-provoking, scholarly essays, this volume analyzes works by a range of modern and contemporary Italian authors, from Giacomo Leopardi to Elena Ferrante, who have captured the shift from anthropocentrism and postmodernism to posthumanism. Indeed, this is the first academic volume investigating narrative configurations of posthuman identity in Italian literature and film.     Review “This very welcome book adds new voices and compelling critical perspectives to the burgeoning interest in philosophical posthumanism and the representation of the post-human within Italian Studies. A captivating assembly of analysis which justifies the editor’s claim that Italy is “the nest of post-humanist culture.” (Pierpaolo Antonello, Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge, UK) “This volume of essays makes a powerful argument for the distinctiveness of the Italian contribution to contemporary debates on the posthuman. The contributors to Posthumanism in Italian Literature and Film: Boundaries and Identity show how the culture that gave the world modern European humanism has also produced some of the most radical and searching critiques of what it is to be human in the modern and late modern age.” (Michael Cronin, Professor of French, author of Eco-translation (Trinity College Dublin)) “Brilliantly edited by Enrica Maria Ferrara, Posthumanism in Italian Literature and Film expands the canon of posthumanist literary studies, enriching it with unexpected topics and voices. In a dazzling sequence of chapters on Leopardi, Pirandello, Elena Ferrante, Gianni Celati, Michelangelo Antonioni, and a number of contemporary storytellers and filmmakers, the authors of this fascinating book follow the human as it emerges from a tangle of organic and inorganic substances, DNA and energy sources, mobile phones and microbes, technology and politics. An engaging read, it is yet another testimony to the established presence of Italian culture on the scene of posthumanities.” (Serenella Iovino, Professor of Italian Studies and Environmental Humanities (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)) “Electing continuity and hybridization with alterities as the main cradle of existentiality, posthumanist thought may well be considered as a distinctive feature in the Italian culture of the last few decades. The re-evaluation of Giacomo Leopardi’s work, with the underlying legacy of Giordano Bruno’s panpsychism,  inspires a new fascinating literature, more extrovert and emphatic than traditional intimist narratives, and in many ways more welcoming towards relationships and otherness. In this context, the present volume has the merit to offer a punctual panoramic view of Italian literary posthumanism.” (Roberto Marchesini, Philosopher and Ethologist, and the author of Over the Human: Post-Humanism and the Concept of Animal Epiphany) “This wide-ranging volume seeks to expand our knowledge and understanding of the varied and intriguing ways in which Italian literature and film have engaged with the complex relationships between humans, technology, animals and non-human phenomena. The essays, which are located productively in relation to existing scholarly debates, draw effectively on recent and more classic theoretical reflections to explore a range of issues relating to posthuman embodiment, social alienation, and existential and ethical concerns. They offer original and compelling contributions to scholarship that enrich and expand ongoing debates about this increasingly crucial topic.” (Charlotte Ross, Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham, UK) From the Back Cover ‘This volume of essays makes a powerful argument for the distinctiveness of the