Emilio Salgari: una mitologia moderna tra letteratura, politica, società. Vol. I: Fine secolo 1883–1915: la verità di una vita letteraria; vol. II: Fascismo 1916–1943. lo sfruttamento personale e politico by Ann Lawson Lucas
2019; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 114; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/mlr.2019.0086
ISSN2222-4319
Autores Tópico(s)Italian Fascism and Post-war Society
ResumoMLR, ., Emilio Salgari: una mitologia moderna tra letteratura, politica, società. Vol. : Fine secolo –: la verità di una vita letteraria; vol. : Fascismo –. lo sfruttamento personale e politico. By A L L. (Biblioteca dell’‘Archivum Romanicum’, Serie I: Storia, Letteratura, Paleografia) Florence: Olschki. . pp. (vol. ); pp. (vol. ). € (vol. ); € (vol. ). ISBN –––– (vol. ); –––– (vol. ). e first two volumes of Ann Lawson Lucas’s vast study unveil the fascinating, complex, and intricate history of Emilio Salgari’s works and reception from the end of the nineteenth century to the Fascist period. e meaningful interplay with cinematic adaptations and translations of Salgari’s works abroad is also included in the analysis, broadening the scope of the work and pointing to other aspects of Salgari’s transnational reception. Two further volumes will be published by Olschki in future years: the third will be on Salgari’s fortune from the Second World War to the end of the twentieth century, while the fourth will be devoted to the creation of a comprehensive catalogue of Salgari’s editions and bibliography. e value of Lawson Lucas’s study is twofold. On the one hand, this work is a precious source for Salgari scholars, as it brings to light fragments of a less familiar history. e meticulous research aims to dispel the mythology created around Salgari and reveals extremely complex relations between the author (and posthumously his family) and his publishers. On the other hand, these two volumes serve as a remarkable contribution for every scholar of the history of Italian publishing. While detailing the works of Salgari, they trace the history of some of the most important Italian publishers (mostly Bemporad, but also Paravia and Vallardi, to name just three), as well as their working practices and commercial strategies to target adult and young audiences. To unravel this history, Salgari’s editions are closely scrutinized in all their paratextual features. e work adopts a chronological approach. e first volume traces the history of Salgari’s life, intertwined with analysis of his extensive literary production of adventure tales and novels. Lawson Lucas guides the reader through the maze of the writer’s literary works, from his beginnings in La Nuova Arena of Verona to the last years of his life and literary consecration. She locates the genesis of his cultural reception through archival sources, interviews, and critical appraisals of Salgari’s production, as well as by systematically reviewing his works published in newspapers and in book format, including works published anonymously or under different pseudonyms. She signals two key issues in Salgari’s reception. First, she traces the difficulties over the attribution of his works, which was to lead to a confused authorial situation, one that was further complicated by the completion and revision of works started by Salgari and assigned by publishers to ghost writers aer his death. Second, the tragic death of the writer was to enshrine myths that were built around Salgari, the most famous being the question of the veracity of the travels he recounts in his writings. e truthfulness of his journeys was validated by journalists and—towards the end of his life, for commercial reasons—also by himself. With his death, all obituaries described him as a ‘capitano Reviews di marina mercantile’ and ‘presented him above all as a writer for the young’ (, ). e second volume focuses on the vicissitudes of Salgari’s authorial legacy and the appropriation of his works by the Fascist regime. As Lawson Lucas points out, ‘sotto il fascismo cominciava a rivelarsi la parte più disastrosa della fortuna salgariana, coiè l’industria della creazione di opere fasulle’ (, ). Not only were posthumous volumes commissioned by Salgari’s sons, but new novels were published as authored by Salgari (for example, between and Luigi Motta published new novels with the combined signature ‘Motta—Salgari’). Salgari also became a protagonist in the fight between the journal Il Raduno and Italian publishers , especially Bemporad, blamed both for having exploited the writer and for his eventual suicide. e so-called caso Salgari, which ended up pitting the Fascist press against press and publishers which adhered to more neutral positions, opened the way to the Fascist reinterpretation of the writer’s work. Salgari’s...
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