Thesis--Breslau. / Includes bibliographical references (5th prelim. p. ).

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Abstract The purpose of this article is to interpret a selection of El Greco’s Italian paintings (1560-1576) based on Bible texts in which ideas current during the Catholic Counter- Reformation are symbolised. At the age of nineteen El Greco, who was born in Crete in 1541 and was initially an icon painter in the Byzantine tradition, went to Venice. Through study and experiment, and by following the examples of other artists who had achieved artistic mastery and was of proven Catholic orthodoxy, he educated himself as an artist in the Western manner. Even during his years as an apprentice El Greco’s art is proof that he aspired to the highest humanly accessible values exemplified by Renaissance artistic theory, humanism and Christian spirituality — all of which later came to fruition in an unprecedented original combination in Toledo, Spain, where he settled permanently in 1577.

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This thesis constitutes the first detailed study of the life and works (published and unpublished) of the writer Giovanna Zangrandi (1910-1988). It is a study of the relationship between autobiography, fiction and history in her writing, in the light of recent developments in the criticism of autobiography and of feminist historiography and literary criticism. It aims to place Zangrandi's work in its historical and literary context and pays particular attention to the periods of fascism, the Resistance and neorealism. The thesis considers the nature of autobiography, and the implications of women writing about themselves, and analyses Zangrandi's use of autobiography, highlighting the inevitable intrusion of fiction into such writing. It uses that analysis, along with material including Zangrandi's unpublished diaries and testimonies of people who knew her, to write a biography of Zangrandi and to examine the way that she writes about the fascist period and the Resistance. The question of representing real life in fiction, rather than autobiography, is also discussed, with reference to Zangrandi's first novel and to neorealism. It is shown that, as well as her constant interest in the lives of women, her attitude to history and traditions of the Cadore, the mountainous region in the north of the Veneto, where she lived all her adult life and where nearly all her novels, short stories and autobiography are set, is of considerable importance. Her writing about the Cadore can be seen both as an attempt to write herself into those traditions, and as a means of expressing her commitment to improving society. Moreover, it is argued, her commitment takes the form of both autobiography and fiction as her concern to write about lived experience is balanced by a constant interest in the story-telling tradition of the Cadore and an interpretation of fiction that judges it to be an integral part of everyday life.

Auteurist approaches developed in the 1950s studied films as a means of personal expression, valuing those directors who could bring an individual quality to their films as 'auteurs' . More recent theories of subjectivity and textuality have displaced the centrality of the director as author of meanings in the film texts, but have had difficulty in explaining the continued importance accorded to directors in interviews and writing about their films. The interaction of directorial intention, film industry, and the use of other media to communicate the director's ideas to audiences is an area of continued theoretical concern. It is the aim of this work firstly to examine how Francesco Rosi has managed to constitute himself as an 'auteur' within the institutional structures of the Italian film industry, and the constraints which these impose. Between 1958 and today Rosi has made fifteen films, the majority of which to a greater or lesser extent engage with the reality of contemporary Italy. He works within the mainstream of the Italian film industry. His work can, however, be located within that narrow band of 1- 2% of films produced each season which can be designated 'art' or 'quality' cinema, as opposed to more or less formulaic genre products. This study aims to show that the institutional structures of the Italian film - and latterly media - industries have a primary influence both on the particular narrative patterns Rosi has at his disposal, and on the particular types of films which Rosi as director is financed to make. Secondly, I examine elements of Rosi's films which mark him out as an 'auteur'. Through close textual analysis, I identify recurring visual, rhetorical and narrative choices which can be shown to signal the presence of the 'auteur', Rosi, in the film texts, and to constitute his style.

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Using an expanded and adapted conception of the Bildungsroman (or novel of development or formation), this thesis examines representations of Italian Australian identities through an analysis of selected English-language literary and film narratives produced by individuals of Italian descent in Australia since World War II. It draws upon critiques of the genre of the traditional Bildungsroman to further contribute to the conceptualisation of a related genre, the ethnic bildungsroman. In applying an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis critically analyses the processes of ethnic identity formation in these Italian Australian narratives in various socio-historical and literary contexts, with particular reference to the intersection of gender and ethnicity. It is argued that not only can the development of individual protagonists’ identities be read in each text, but the narratives selected here chart the journeys of ethnic identification made by Italian Australian protagonists and the varying trends in their modes of identification. This study focuses upon a selection of fiction, biography and autobiography that narrates these identities. These narratives both directly and indirectly address experiences of being of Italian heritage in Australia at various times throughout the twentieth century. It argues that the narrative representation and, more importantly, the narrative self-representation of ethnic identities are integral parts of migration and settlement processes, as well as significant steps in opening up dialogues amongst and between various Australian identities. (For complete abstract open document)

This PhD presentation comprises two pieces of work: I The Italian Diaspora in Australia and Representations of Italy and Italians in Australian Narrative ( Research thesis) II An Olive Branch for Sante (A novel) ………………. In the Introduction of my research titled: Diaspora: A Theoretical Review, I look at the evolution of diasporic Studies and how the great movements of people that have occurred in the past one hundred and fifty years have altered our perception of what is undoubtedly a global phenomenon. In Chapter One, which I have titled: In Search of an Italian Diaspora in Australia, I consider the kinds of socio-cultural nuclei that have evolved among the Italian population of Australia, out of the mass migration which occurred largely in the post war years. I discuss Italian migration as a whole, the historical and political conditions which brought about mass migration and the subsequent dispersion of Italian nationals, their regrouping into various clusters and how these fit into the patchwork that is the contemporary Australian society. Finally I review the conditions in the host country which facilitated or hindered particular socio-cultural formations and how these may differ from those occurring in other countries Chapter Two deals with, The Narrative of Non-Italian Writers. The chapter looks at the images and myths of Italy perpetrated in the literature written by English-speaking authors over the centuries. I begin with the legacy left by British writers such as E.M. Forster, then move on to Australian writers of non-Italian background, such as Judah Waten, Nino Culotta (John O' Grady) and Helen Garner. In Chapter Three: Italo-Australian Writers, I focus on two writers: Venero Armanno and Melina Marchetta, both born in Australia of Italian parents. This section ties in with the earlier discourse on the continuity of the Italian Diaspora in Australia, into the second and subsequent generations. In Chapter Four, titled: Literature of Nostalgia: The Long Journey, I will reflect upon my own journey as a writer, beginning with my earlier work, including the short stories and the plays, and concluding with a close look at the present novel, which is a companion piece to the research. The novel complements the research in that it deals with the eternal issues of migration: displacement, change and identity. The protagonists are two young people: Ira-Jane and Sante. The first is not a migrant, but she is touched by migration, insofar as an old Italian couple play grandparents to her, in the early years of her life. When they return to Sicily the child is left with her neglectful and unstable mother. At age twenty-four Ira-Jane goes to Sicily on an assignment, and there she tries to get in touch with her 'grandparents'. She meets up with eighteen-year-old Sante who turns out to be her half brother. The novel's structure juxtaposes two countries, two cultures, two way of looking at the world. It sets up a series of contrasts: the old society and the new, past and present, tradition and innovation, stability and change, repression and freedom. The end of the novel proposes a symbolic bridging between two countries, which are similar in some ways, very different in others. It offers not a solution but a different approach to the eternal dilemma of people living in a diaspora, inhabiting an indefinite space between two countries and for whom home will always be somewhere else.