Italian Music in Dakota

The Function of European Musical Theater in U.S. Culture

By (author) Andrea Mariani

Book cover: Italian Music in Dakota

Extent: 250 pages

Publisher: V&R unipress

Subjects: American Studies, Literary Studies

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(March 2017)

ISBN: 9783847106555

6.1 x 9.13 inches

Price: $62.00

In stock

The major focus of this book is to verify the impact of European opera on some major authors (such as Whitman, Melville, Dickinson, James, Santayana, Merrill) who exemplify the function of opera as an instrument of self definition and occasion for the search of deeper truths.


The intersection between literature and music is a major feature in Anglo-American cultural history. The present volume analyzes the transatlantic migration of European opera and its appropriation by some of the most important literary figures of the United States. The presence of opera in literary texts is always “operative” and results in artistic outputs possessing more articulated and tense vectors of meaning. The comparative method applied confirms the musical sensitivity of masters such as Poe, Whitman, Melville, Dickinson, Wharton, Cather, reveals the intriguing contradictions in the poetics of Emerson, Thoreau and James and vindicates the role of some minor figures who, through their involvement in the world of musical theater, contributed to the intercultural context.

  • By (author) Andrea Mariani