Enlightening Encounters traces the impact of photography on Italian literature from the medium’s invention in 1839 to the present day. Investigating the ways in which Italian literature has responded to photographic practice and aesthetics, the contributors use a wide range of theoretical perspectives to examine a variety of canonical and non-canonical authors and a broad selection of literary genres, including fiction, autobiography, photo-texts, and migration literature. The first collection in English to focus on photography’s reciprocal relationship to Italian literature, Enlightening Encounters represents an important resource for a number of fields, including Italian studies, literary studies, visual studies, and cultural studies.

Giorgia Alù teaches in the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Sydney.

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Nancy Pedri is professor of English at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada), where she has taught since 2006. She edited “Mixing Visual Media in Comics” for ImageText and “The Narrative Functions of Photography in Comics” for Image [&] Narrative; she coedited “Sexuality and Mental Illness in Comics” for the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. Her coauthored article on “Focalization in Graphic Narrative” won the 2012 James Phelan Award for the Best Essay in Narrative.

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‘A groundbreaking exploration of the impact of photography on Italian literary texts, published from mid-19th century onward… Essential.’

Choice Magazine vol 53:01:2015