Robinson Crusoe and the others. On the early conceptualization of the English novel in the Italian press

The publication of Robinson Crusoe in 1719 represents a milestone in the history of western literature, marking the beginning of a new literary genre, the realistic fiction. From then, the new genre had a huge impact on the audiences and the cultural milieus of the time, in and outside Britain. To play a pivotal role in the international dissemination of information about this new “literary object” was the periodical press: the many journals of the time were in fact instrumental in the propagation of ideas, moral values, new stylistic and narrative features connected to the English novels through announcements and reviews. In the European context, the Italian literary press was quite exceptional, as it was not immediately receptive towards the new narrative form coming from England: the first reviews of English novels started appearing consistently only in the second half of the 18th century. This article aims at investigating how the English novels were reviewed, censored, introduced to the Italian public by the periodical press of the late 18th century. The study will focus in particular on the Venetian journals directed by Elisabetta Caminer Turra (Giornale Enciclopedico, Nuovo Giornale Enciclopedico, Nuovo Giornale Enciclopedico d’Italia), and will show how the controversial nature of English novels started a debate on their moral values, which in Italy was carried on under very specific circumstances.