Kaputt (novel)

1944 novel by Curzio Malaparte
Kaputt
Book cover for Kaputt (1946 English language edition)
AuthorCurzio Malaparte
TranslatorCesare Foligno
LanguageItalian
PublisherEditore Casella
Publication date
1944
Publication placeItaly
Published in English
1946
Pages645

Kaputt is a 1944 autobiographical novel by the Italian writer Curzio Malaparte.

Plot

The book was inspired by Malaparte's experiences as a war correspondent at the Eastern Front of World War II. It presents itself as Malaparte's personal witness account of intense violence and cruelty, but the content is largely fictional.[1]

Reception

The book was an international success. Already at the publication, several European critics received the book's narrator as a fictionalised author persona, and the book as an attempt from Malaparte to position himself after Italy's defeat and his own past as a fascist sympathiser.[1] When the English translation was published in 1946, Kirkus Reviews received it as a true account and called it "a subtly brilliant piece of writing" where Malaparte is "whipping the sensibilities to a sharp awareness of the degradation of Europe, of the utter collapse of morality, integrity, and so on".[2]

Translations

The book was translated into Lithuanian by Tomas Venclova [3]


References

  1. ^ a b Hope, William (2000). Curzio Malaparte: The Narrative Contract Strained. Market Harborough: Troubador. pp. 82–86. ISBN 1-899293-221.
  2. ^ "Kaputt". Kirkus Reviews. 1 November 1946. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  3. ^ "Kaput - Curcio Molaparte; Tomas Venclova; | Tyto Alba". tytoalba.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2024-01-10.

Further reading

  • Hope, William (1999). "The narrative contract strained: The problems of narratorial neutrality in Malaparte's Kaputt". The Italianist. 19 (1): 178–192. doi:10.1179/ita.1999.19.1.178.
  • Walker, Robert G. (2010). "Malaparte and Literary Strangeness: A Critical Preface to Kaputt". The Sewanee Review. 18 (2): 270–282. doi:10.1353/sew.0.0252. JSTOR 40801276.
  • New York Review of Books
  • v
  • t
  • e
Curzio Malaparte
Essays and
journalism
Fiction
  • Woman Like Me (1940)
  • Kaputt (1944)
  • The Skin (1949)
  • The Kremlin Ball (1971)
Other works
Works about
  • Gruber's Journey (2008 drama film)
  • Malaparte: A Biography (2011 biography)
Miscellaneous
  • Casa Malaparte
  • Premio Malaparte
  • The Skin (1981 film)


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