Moderna. Semestrale di Teoria e Critica della Letteratura. 10. 2. 2008

The title is designed not so much to demarcate the boundaries of a historical period or of a finite time period, but rather to represent a motif and a perspective. A motif, because the themes of modernity from a pattern, which can at times be discerned even in pre-modern or non-modern authors; a perspectiv, because the point of view from which the various problems will be approached is that of modernity.
Moderna aims to be characterized first and foremost as an offering the fruits of study and research. Although springing from an academic background, it by no means proposes to act as the mouthpiece of a corporation; far less does it wish to be a mere receptacle of disparate materials. This review will endeavour to become a tool for methodological debate and assessment of literary tools. The first section is therefore devoted to the theory of literature.
The second section will cover the field of criticism. We intend to pursue a model of literary criticism that will succeed in combining attention to textual specificity and philological and formal aspects with a specifically hermeneutic interest focusing on the historicization, actualization and enhancement of the individual works. That is to say, a contribution can be made to the revival of literary criticism by proposing examples of critical writing that have a broader scope than the microphilologism or hermeneutic mysticism that dominate today's scene. Furthermore, we will endeavour to propose several monographic numbers, or at least numbers with unifying themes and topics, so that each issue of the journal have a homogeneous character.
The third section will propose an appraisal, including a bibliographic overview, of an author, a movement or a critical problem that has recently formed the centre of attention in a scholarly circles. Since there is certainly no dearth of journals and publications which contain extensive bibliographical repertoires arranged on a century by century basis, we have instead selected a formula that will provide the maximum of information on a given specific theme and a first critical evaluation.
A fourth section will also be included Discussioni. Here the journal will host contributions that centre on the same theme but may present differing, or indeed opposite, viewpoints, thereby encouraging debate on the topics involved.