Matilde Serao : International Profile, Reception, and Networks

Romani, Gabriella and Fanning, Ursula and Mitchell, Katharine, eds. (2022) Matilde Serao : International Profile, Reception, and Networks. Classiques Garnier, Paris. ISBN 9782406128519 (https://doi.org/10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-12853-3)

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Abstract

Matilde Serao is still today all too often remembered as a Neapolitan writer who belonged to a large cohort of nineteenth-century regional Italian writers, striving for national recognition. And yet, Matilde Serao enjoyed international renown, as she was translated into all major languages of Europe. The purpose of this volume is to assess the scope of such international renown and present a collection of essays which investigate Serao’s influence abroad as well as her work as understood in a setting beyond the Italian national borders. Some of the questions we pose are: What was the impact of Serao’s travels on her own writing and profile as a local, regional voice of Italian literature? How did her work influence the work of international authors? How was she received abroad? And in what sort of newspapers and periodicals was her work published in translation? From a study on Serao in Finland and Sweden to her reception in France as well as Holland and Bulgaria, our project intends to challenge the notion of Serao as a local writer, a consideration which has not only obfuscated the reality of her international fame but also diminished the impact that her work as a national Italian author had on both the national and international literary world. The idea of the volume was conceived during a conference in which the three editors of the book presented a session on Matilde Serao. The contributors to the volume are international scholars who have previously worked on Serao or are familiar with the figure of Serao in light of their research on other international writers. Until now, the international profile of Serao has been limited geographically to France and more in general to the apocryphal statements of appreciation by Edith Warton and Henry James; with this volume the editors aim at creating a mapping of her influence that is more comprehensive.

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