
The Library
Post-truth narrative : narrative trends, cultural agency and political commitment in Italian literature in the age of post-truth
Tools
Zappalà, Emiliano Sebastian (2021) Post-truth narrative : narrative trends, cultural agency and political commitment in Italian literature in the age of post-truth. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
|
PDF
WRAP_Theses_Zappala_2021.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (2148Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3847883
Abstract
Post-truth narrative : narrative trends, cultural agency and political commitment in Italian literature in the age of post-truth
This study examines the topics of cultural agency and literary commitment against the backdrop of the cultural and social developments of post-truth – a definition that entered public discourse after the Oxford English Dictionary chose it as its word of the year in 2016. In my research, I identify in this term the signs of an epochal shift that began at the end of the last decade and has now reached its culminating phase. After outlining the general terms of the subject and describing the theoretical aspects involved in the study of the post-truth phenomenon, I analyse in detail its political, social, and cognitive transformation, as well as the effects that the digital revolution had in modifying contemporary cultural paradigms. This is followed by a survey of the Italian literary debate, which in the last decades has been particularly attentive to matters concerning the role of culture and fiction within the changing contemporary political climate. After examining some of the central theories of the Italian critical framework – also related to realism, postmodernism, and hypermodernity –, I propose new models of cultural agency and literary commitment that adapt to the posttruth turn. I go on to identify, through textual analysis, the main features of what I provisionally define as post-truth narrative. In particular, I highlight these narrative traits by examining texts that fall into two categories in which the confrontation with key aspects of ongoing political and cultural change is particularly pronounced, namely novels that focus on historical events of the past, and novels that address social issues concerning the present time. I conclude by considering that of post-truth narrative as a theoretical model that well frames the relationship between politics and fiction in the current scenario, and which can also be applied outside the boundaries of Italian literature.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics J Political Science > JA Political science (General) P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures |
||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Truthfulness and falsehood, Italian literature -- 21st century -- History and criticism, Italian literature -- Political aspects, Communication in politics -- Italy | ||||
Official Date: | December 2021 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | School of Modern Languages and Cultures | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Burns, Jennifer | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | 208 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
![]() |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year