Kafka’s Italian Progeny

This book explores Kafka’s sometimes surprising connections with key Italian writers, from Italo Calvino to Elena Ferrante, who shaped Italy’s modern literary landscape.

Saskia Elizabeth Ziolkowski is an assistant professor of Italian in Romance Studies at Duke University.

"Ziolkowski’s innovative research fills a gap in Italian comparative literature and explores the Kafkian tradition in Italy, one that has not been examined up until today."

Salvatore Pappalardo, Department of English, Towson University :

"With an impressive command of scholarship in both German and Italian, Saskia Elizabeth Ziolkowski engages with a range of debates, from questions of canonization in world literature to genre theory pertaining to detective fiction, realism, and animal studies."

Michael Subialka, Department of French and Italian, University of California, Davis:

"The prismatic effect of viewing modern Italian literature through Kafka in multiple senses – thematic, formal, and as an historical force drawing together dispersed writers – captures a complex literary scene that defies the easy labels of movements and periods. Intervening into an impressive range of critical debates, this book will interest scholars working on contemporary topics including the changing representation of motherhood, animal fiction, detective novels, and the contours of realism and modernism."