The Poetics of the Margins ― Mapping Europe from the Interstices

This volume contains a selection of the proceedings of a conference on European problems of identity titled Europe and its Others, which was held in St Andrews in July 2007. It looks at some of the histories and stories that connect the European margins to an imagined or imaginary centre of this complex continent as seen mostly from within, and with self-reflective insights from literary, socio-historical and cinematic perspectives. By following the marginal route created by the essays, the volume juxtaposes, as in a mosaic, a range of artistic discourses produced in many European languages. Each of these discourses highlights a different perception of belonging or not belonging to Europe; and each of these discourses brings to the fore in its respective society a fresh perspective on new European territories seen not as ‘the other’ but rather as contiguous tiles in a mosaic of idiosyncrasies. Lying one next to the other, these territories engage in dialogue poetically – harmoniously or dissonantly – in an attempt to create through their juxtaposition an enigmatic poetic discourse of the margins.

Rossella M. Riccobono is a Lecturer in Italian at the University of St Andrews. Her research interests range from twentieth-century poetry and narrative to contemporary Italian cinema. She has published on Cesare Pavese, Eugenio Montale and film director Mario Martone. She is currently completing a monograph on Eugenio Montale and researching a new volume dedicated exclusively to the poetry of Cesare Pavese.