Rosengarten, Frank
Through Partisan Eyes
My Friendships, Literary Education, and Political Encounters in Italy
Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2014, 207 p.
Through Partisan Eyes explains how and why the eminent scholar Frank Rosengarten specialized in Italian literature and history. It tells why he saw Antonio Gramsci, Ada Gobetti, and Norberto Bobbio as representative figures of a democratic and socially progressive Italy; it discusses the reasons why he developed an early interest in the novels of Ignazio Silone and Vasco Pratolini; and speaks of his work as co-founder of the journal Socialism and Democracy.
All those interested in the history, and relevance to today's world, of the experiences and ideas of Italian Anti-Fascists from 1919 to 1950 will profit from this volume. It is of particular interest, and is directed to, people in the United States and in Italy who wish to deepen their understanding of the interrelations between socialism and democracy. The fields of interest of potential readers includes Italian history and culture, the Italian and French resistance movements, political theory, 20th-century history, the ideologies of Fascism and Communism, literary history, literary criticism, comparative cultures.
Through Partisan Eyes offers insights into the political issues and controversies that marked most of the 20th century and the first decade of the new millennium. It provides an analysis of the leading ideas and trends of thought of Italian anti-Fascist writers from Rosengarten's vantage. But it also looks at these ideas critically and independently. It examines some of the methodological questions that arise in the course of any extensive piece of research but it does so with specific regard to the differences between the political cultures of Italy and the United States that must be taken into account by anyone dealing with the political cultures of both countries.
This book comes to grips with some of the great conflicts of our time, from the early 1950s, when Senator Joe McCarthy launched his anti-communist crusade, through the Viet Nam War and the peace movement, to the breakup of the Soviet Union and its impact on the international socialist movement, and finally to our own moment in time, marked by deep uncertainties and discouraging trends in Europe, Russia, and the United States. Italian developments are seen against the background of these events.
Through Partisan Eyes also includes a description of Rosengarten's relationship with Gramsci specialist Louis Marks, and a chapter dedicated to Rosengarten's work on Gramsci's writings, particularly the Prison Letters, in the 1980s.
| Series | Studi di italianistica moderna e contemporanea nel mondo anglofono; Studi e saggi ; 127 |
| Language | eng |
| Names |
[autore] Rosengarten, Frank |
