Virginia Woolf within Italian Literary Periodicals

Twentieth century is considered, by Italian literary critics, as the “Century of Periodicals”, because it was within literary and cultural periodicals that literature (Italian and foreign) was mostly discussed. It was in those periodicals that the most important authors of the period – Joyce, Eliot, Proust, Woolf – were first introduced, examined and translated. The reception of Virginia Woolf in Italy will be here discussed through the analysis of the articles and the translations appeared in Italian literary periodicals in the years between the two World Wars (1927-1945), to analyze her growth through the eyes of her Italian contemporaries, who could read her novels without being influenced by all the apparatus criticus now existing. The most important critical aspects of her reviews will be analyzed, from which it can be seen how, if in a first moment Italian critics linked the works of Mrs. Woolf to those of Joyce and Proust, within a few years they were able to identify her own style and identity. Italian critics mainly focused their attention on three themes, quite dear to the writer: the “form” of prose, the psychological aspect of her novels and the creation of characters. The analysis will be literary as well as sociological, thanks to the examination of Woolf’s first translations, and their reception by Italian readers and critic, and also thanks to the analysis of her editing adventure with her Italian editor, Arnoldo Mondadori, which is today the greatest publishing house in Italy.