English
226: Verga
| To get the course started, we will read and discuss Italian
author Giovanni Verga's dramatic short story, "La Lupa," "The
She-Wolf." This story has been translated into many languages and
made into a play, a film, and even an opera. First published in
1883 in the collection "Cavalleria Rusticana" (in English, "Rustic
Chivalry"), "The She-Wolf " tells a story of lust, jealousy, and
betrayal among poor peasants in late 19th-century Sicily. Like
most of Verga's best work, this story is remarkably realistic, in
detail and in perspective. It is also gripping despite the tragic
bleakness of its subject matter.
Text: Here
is the entire story, offered online as an excerpt from the Penguin
edition of Cavalleria Rusticana: "The
She-Wolf." I would urge you to print it out and read it in
hard copy, especially since it's only 3 pages long. (Tip: The
stories
by Tolstoy and Kafka, which we will read next
week
and the following week, are much longer. So if you don't want to
have to print out close to a hundred pages, you'd be wise to plan ahead
and see if you can find them in an old anthology or in a collection in
the
library.) Links: The Penguin
Site includes two paragraphs on Verga's
Life & Style, A brief,
readable two-page Overview of
Verga compliled by Jacqueline Gomperts can be found on a
Sicilian travel site. Here are
some short Excerpts on the She-Wolf
from critical articles discussing the story. |
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