Origin and Identity: Essays on Svevo and Trieste »

Italo Svevo, although neglected until the last few years of his life, is now acknowledged as a writer of international stature alongside his contemporaries Kafka, Proust and Joyce. These essays focus on his three novels, Una Vita, Senilita and La coscienza di Zeno. Drawing on new biographical and critical research, key issues are explored such as Svevo's Jewishness; his debt to psychoanalysis; sexuality and love; structure and irony; and time and narration. The opening chapter is devoted to Trieste, which features so prominently in his oeuvre. This book will provide both the general reader and the student with a valuable re-evaluation of a unique writer of genius. Elizabeth Schachter has taught at the University College of North Wales and is at present a Lecturer in Italian at the University of Kent. She has published not only on Italo Svevo, but also on Eugenio Montale and Giovanni Verga. For several years she was the editor of Pirandello Studies.