Dino Buzzati and Anglo-American Culture: The Re-use of Visual and Narrative Texts in his Fantastic Fiction

This book investigates the relationship between Dino Buzzati’s fiction and Anglo-American culture by focusing on his re-use of visual texts (Arthur Rackham’s illustrations), narrative sources (Joseph Conrad’s novels), and topoi belonging to such genres as the seafaring tale, the ghost story and the Christmas story. Tracing Buzzati’s recurring theme of the loss of imagination, Dino Buzzati and Anglo-American Culture shows that, far from being a mere imitator, he carries on an original and conscious reworking of pre-existing literary motifs. Especially through the adoption of intertextual strategies, Buzzati laments the lack of an imaginative urge in contemporary society and attempts a recovery of the fantastic imagery of his models. Alongside a reconsideration of Buzzati’s intertextuality, this book offers new insights into Buzzati’s fantastic fiction, by highlighting its playful and ironic component as opposed to the more overtly pervading sense of gloominess and nostalgia. Furthermore, while filling a gap in the critical study of Buzzati in the English-speaking world, the book contributes towards a general reassessment of an author who, although regarded as minor for many years, can rightly be ranked among the masters of twentieth-century fantastic literature.