Stretta è la foglia: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Italian Folktales from Luigi Capuana to Italo Calvino
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Date
2003
Abstract
“Stretta è la foglia: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Italian Fairy Tales from Luigi Capuana to Italo Calvino” is an exploration of the delay in the arrival of the literary fairy tale in Italy, a phenomenon unaccounted for in previous folklore and Italian literature studies. Although recent studies of the Italian fiabe exist, there are few critics who have studied the period of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries as the moment of glory for the genre in Italy. By tracing the evolution of folktales from the rich tradition of oral storytelling in various regions to the emergence of the literary fairy tale in Italy, the project evaluates the impact of dialects and the relatively late unification of Italy on the creation of a national collection of fairy tales.
Two different types of the literary tales are established in this project: original stories such as those written by Luigi Capuana and transcribed, “borrowed,” tales found in Italo Calvino's Fiabe italiane. Informed by the Tale Classification System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, the Structuralist approach of Vladimir Propp, the Psychoanalytical approach employed by Bruno Bettelheim, and Darnton's Socio-historical approach, the dissertation considers how authorial intention emerges from the tales. In compiling his collection, Calvino was guided by the Tuscan proverb, “la novella nun è bella, se sopra nun ci si rappella.” Indeed, like silk, tales are spun, woven and rewoven with ancient and contemporary threads and then disseminated in written and oral form. This dissertation examines how these tales evolve, along with the people who recount them, over the dual expanses of time and space.
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Miele, Gina M., "Stretta è la foglia: Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Italian Folktales from Luigi Capuana to Italo Calvino" (2003). Department of World Languages and Cultures Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 116.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/modernlang-literatures-facpubs/116
