The picturesque in Giovanni Verga's Sicilian collections

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Last Modified
  • March 21, 2019
Creator
  • Greenfield, Jessica Turner Newth
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Romance Studies
Abstract
  • Giovanni Verga's Sicilian short story collections are known for their realistic portrayal of the Sicilian peasant farmers and their daily struggles with poverty, hunger and injustice. This study examines the way in which the author employs the pictruresque in his Sicilian novelle and argues that there is an evolution in this treatment from picturesque to non-picturesque. Initially, this study will examine the elements and techniques that Verga uses to represent the picturesque and how that treatment changes and is utilized or actively destroyed as his writing progresses. For the purposes of this dissertation, a definition of the picturesque will be established and always associated with descriptions of nature. In this study, the picturesque will correspond to those descriptions of nature that prove pleasing for a painting. By looking at seven particular novelle in Vita dei campi and Novelle rusticane, I will show that Verga's earlier stories are littered with picturesque elements. As the author's mature writing style, verismo, develops, Verga moves through a transtitional phase and ultimately arrives at a non-picturesque portrayal of Sicily in his short stories.
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  • In Copyright
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  • "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures (Italian)."
Advisor
  • Luisetti, Federico
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Place of publication
  • Chapel Hill, NC
Access right
  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • March 18, 2013

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