Constructing the Novel

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter, we map out the development of the novel under the Fascist regime. We outline the process of structuring the national novel under a dictatorship from a theoretical standpoint. Firstly, we discuss how and why the novel in general—as a form rooted in construction—and the new realist one in particular, assumed a privileged position within the Italian literary field of the 1920s and 1930s. In doing so, we also show how it contributed to the construction of the idea of State art, in both aesthetic and economic terms. Secondly, we examine the tensions between the creation of Italian novels and the publication of translations. Our conclusion is that the project of constructing a new Italian novel form in the context of State art was often eclipsed in popularity by foreign production.

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