Description
Giovanni Ruffini (1807-1881) was an Italian-born and Italian-raised intellectual, who became a prose writer in English during his years of political exile (1833-1848) and self-exile (1848-1874). He discovered his literary vocation after moving from London to Paris, where he composed the whole of his work, to be published in Great Britain. Only years later, his novels would be translated into French and Italian. Ruffini’s literary career is a prime example of transnational Italian literature, seen as a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural activity, carried out beyond the borders of the Italian peninsula, far away from the territories and the institutions that considered themselves as the guardians of the authentical Italian culture, due to a strong and exclusive bond between Italian language, Italian territory and Italian local cultural life.Nevertheless, Ruffini’s authorship of his literary work in English remains problematic. Two female friends of his contributed actively to the compositional process, as some of the remaining manuscripts of his Risorgimento-themed narrative clearly testify. In order to try to determine whether Ruffini is to be considered the single author of a series of novels, or whether these have been written by two or even by three authors, we will first examine them from an external point of view, i.e., looking at the graphical aspects of the remaining manuscripts of Lorenzo Benoni (1853) and Doctor Antonio (1855). External criteria, though, are often insufficient when carrying out an exercise on authorship attribution: language and style remain essential aspects. Thus, we will turn to stylometry and its recent methods, in order to obtain a first clearer view on four novels published under Ruffini’s name between 1853 and 1863.
| Periode | 14 nov 2022 |
|---|---|
| Mate van erkenning | International |