Does it Ever Rain in Italy? Metaphors of Landscape and Weather of Italy in British Fiction (1946-2001)

Abstract

Arising from the poetic aspirations of Dante, Petrarch or Bocaccio, the Italian art, the ancient Roman grandeur, consecutively, the beauty of the landscape and the attractive people, the contemporary perspectives on Italy are the outcome of a tradition which reached its climax with D.H. Lawrence and this is where this essay proceeds to explore the metaphor of Italian landscape and the sun during the second half of the twentieth century British fiction. I argue that temporal acuity also transforms British writers’ perception of this “idyllic” country where the sun seems to shine continuously with the implication that it never rains. I contend such unrealistic paradisical image of the postwar period gradually lends to the introduction of rain in harmony with the characters` mood and transformation of Italy. This essay covers the fiction of Linklater, Waugh, Murdoch, Golding, Brookner, Parks, Dibdin, Spark and Woodhouse.

Keywords

• Italy in British Literature
• the Italian sun
• rain
• Tim Parks
• Michael Dibdin
• Muriel Spark
• Anita Brookner
• Sarah Woodhouse

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