Wednesday, April 4, 7:00 PM
In conjunction with the Primavera Italiana Festival

"Even at his most meta-level, Lentricchia aspires to Joycean riffs (with Utica his Dublin) on memory, desire, and the struggles of fathers and sons."

-Kirkus Reviews

World-renowned scholar and literary theorist, Frank Lentricchia is Katherine Everett Gilbert Professor of English and Literature at Duke University. His previous scholarly works-which include After the New Criticism, Ariel and the Police, and Modernist Quartet-have been called "must reads for anyone interested in contemporary critical discourse." More recently, he has published a trio of novels-The Edge of Night, Johnny Critelli and The Knifeman, and The Music of the Inferno-that focus on Italian-American protagonists in 1950s Utica, where Lentricchia grew up. About The Music of the Inferno, Jay Parini writes, "Lentricchia's novel frames the American experience in ways that, for me, were revelatory. It is a brilliant piece of fiction, able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best writing in America today." In addition to his longer work, Lentricchia has contributed essays to numerous magazines, including Harper's, Lingua Franca, and the London Review of Books. His latest book, Lucchesi and the Whale (Post-Contemporary Interventions), will be published by Duke University Press in February 2001.