The romance of Anglo-Italian studies : brief fictions of Francesco Marroni

Abstract

Anglo-Italian cultural interactions occur in various dimensions. In a primary dimension, English and Italian people encounter one another or one another's books and cultural products. In a secondary dimension, the original or primary incidents of inter-cultural encounters become the objects of study as in the books that we write or the papers that we present at conferences. Works of fiction, like many of the short stories of Francesco Marroni, may then treat inter-cultural exchanges in a tertiary dimension as well. As English and Italian scholars interact in these stories, the AngloItalian academic context itself becomes the site of romance.