The Expression of the Inexpressible in Eugenio Montale's Poetry

• An important contribution, not just to Montale studies but to an understanding of Modernist European and English poetry generally.
• Examines important issues about figurative language, silence, and negation.

Readership: Scholars and students of Montale and of European Modernist poetry.

Clodagh J. Brook, Lecturer in Italian Studies, University of Birmingham

"The grasp of European modernist literature shown in Brook's work is firm; although the story has been told before, it is a pleasure to read such a nuanced, yet concise, review of Dante's and Leopardi's views on inexpressibility, of modernism's debt to symbolist poetry, and of Nietzsche's role in the fracturing of certainties that underpinned prior vast systems of thought in which the ability of language to express fully had not been put into radical doubt ... thoughtful and thought-provoking book." - Modern Language Review

Preface
1: Introduction: The Development of the Inexpressibility Topos in European Literature
2: Eugenio Montale and the Inexpressible
3: Metaphor and Figurative Language
4: Negation
5: Silence
Appendix: Differentiating Figurative Language from 'Dead' Metaphor and Literal Language
Bibliography
Index