Book Description

This study examines the necessity of reading retrospectively. In this manner, the reader who comes along after the composition of an author's opus may better understand the author's earlier works after reading a later one. In contrast to a reader contemporary to the text, who does not have the opportunity of 'hind-sight, ' this special reader (recto-lector) draws on information gathered from a later text in order to understand a previously composed text. For example, the relationship between Aldo Palazzeschi's: riflessi (1908) and his later manifestoes (1914-1915) amply demonstrates the value and necessity of such a reading process: this is especially true with regard to non-canonial writers as is Palazzeschi. The retro-lector of: riflessi, therefore, comes away with an interpretation both different and more complete than that which the contemporary reader would acquire after a strict canonical reading. Along with works by Palazzeschi, 'Semiotics of Re-reading' also examines poetry by Guido Gozzano and short fiction by Italo Calvino