Dear all,

I am delighted to announce the birth of the “Archivio Novellistico Italiano” (ArNovIt), the first Journal devoted to the Italian Novella and its afterlife.

The first issue can be freely downloaded at: http://www.arnovit.it

For subscriptions and any information concerning the journal: info@arnovit.it

For submissions: redazione@arnovit.it

Igor Candido
Assistant Professor, Trinity College Dublin

ARNOVIT. From the Novellino to Basile.

Editorial Board:

Editor: Renzo Bragantini (Sapienza, Università di Roma)

Associate Editors: Igor Candido (Trinity College Dublin), Maria Cristina Figorilli (Università della Calabria), Roberto Gigliucci (Sapienza, Università di Roma), Elisabetta Menetti (Università d Modena e Reggio Emilia), Teresa Nocita (Università dell’’Aquila), Pietro Petteruti Pellegrino (Accademia dell’’Arcadia), Pasquale Stoppelli (Sapienza, Università di Roma), Franco Tomasi (Università di Padova).

Editorial Coordinator: Pietro Petteruti Pellegrino

Advisory Board: Giuliana Adamo (Trinity College); Zygmunt Baranski (University of Cambridge and University of Notre Dame); Paolo Cherchi (University of Chicago); Giorgio Ficara (Università di Torino); Elsa Filosa (Vanderbilt University, Nashville); Manuele Gragnolati (Université Paris-Sorbonne [Paris IV]); Bernhard Huss (Freie Universität Berlin); Andreas Kablitz (Universität zu Köln); Joachim Küpper (Freie Universität Berlin); Simone Marchesi (Princeton University); Michael Papio (University of Massachusetts, Amherst); Gerhard Regn (LMU München); James Simpson (Harvard University); H. Wayne Storey (Indiana University, Bloomington); Susanna Villari (Università di Messina).

Renzo Bragantini, Introduction

The «Archivio Novellistico Italiano» (ArNovIt) aims to create a forum for research and discussion on one of the most thriving and long-lasting genres of the Italian literary tradition. Surprisingly, as yet no scholarly journal assumes this topic as its main research focus. The Archivio’s subtitle, From the Novellino to Basile, delimiting the chronological span of the journal’s main focus, is far from being redundant. After Basile, in fact, Italian narrative began to change profoundly and soon arrived at dismantling the literary framework that had hitherto constituted the novelistic tradition: The journal is conceived of as a thorough and systematic attempt to define the literary genre as a whole. And if the genre can be observed through the study of its most prominent authors, the scholarly investigation of ArNovIt will not be confined by the boundaries of the genre itself. This is firstly suggested by the conspicuous European fortune of many Italian short-story collections (not only the Decameron); and secondly, by the fact that the novella, a genre among the most flexible and easily transferable to other literary forms, fostered the creation of a long and illustrious genealogy, both within and without its literary boundaries. An example of the first kind of genealogy can be found in Cervantes’ Novelas ejemplares; an example of the second in the Elizabethan theatre (above all but not limited to Shakespeare).

For all the above-mentioned reasons, ArNovIt aims to become a reference work for the study of a literary genre which spans about three and a half centuries, encompassing different textual experiences as well as various literary practices that are to be found in European literatures – be these coeval or not – provided that they be in some way related to the Italian novella.

The journal will be published once a year. It will have a peer review with reviewers to be selected among scholars not necessarily teaching in Italian Universities. Each issue should include the following rubrics: Essays; Texts; Notes and Discussions; Reviews and Short Notes; Review Articles; Archive (data concerning manuscripts, first and successive editions, etc.)

Given the growing interest of many international scholars for the Italian novella – an interest mainly depending on the European fortune of the genre – the journal will accept articles written in the major European languages (Italian, English, Spanish, French, and German). A journal like ArNovIt will provide fresh information, both with focused and broad attention, about a literary genre both widespread and in need of an attentive and updated investigation.