Gazes on America in Italian Culture of the First Half of the 20th Century

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13132
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02040:European literature-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
• Principal Investigator: Kokubo Marie 東京外国語大学, 大学院総合国際学研究院, 准教授 (00815277)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: イタリア / アメリカ / 文化 / 文学 / ２０世紀

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study focuses on an investigation and analyses of discourses on and representations of American society, culture, and people, as produced by Italian artists and writers in the first half of the 20th century, shedding light on the various relationships of the discourses and representations to the respective historical backgrounds of those persons and to their respective reactions to modernity. It also explores the relationships between American culture and a number of writers who spent their childhood and adolescence in Italy in the first half of the 20th century and played important roles in Italian culture from the mid-20th century on. Analyses of their works reveal how the American culture that they absorbed in childhood and adolescence influenced their later activities.

Free Research Field

近現代イタリア文化

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

20世紀前半のイタリアにおけるアメリカをめぐる言説・表象に関しては、1930年代から1940年代前半にかけての左翼知識人のアメリカ文学への傾倒がよく知られており、それについては多くの先行研究が存在するが、文学以外の領域やその前後の時代については十分に注目されてこなかった。領域や時代の枠を超え、より広い視座からアメリカをめぐる言説と表象の複雑な様相と変遷に光を当てたことに本研究の学術的な意義がある。