Walter Pater : Reception, Rewriting, Adaptation

Walter Pater: Reception, Rewriting, Adaptation revitalises the field of Pater studies at the
intersection between Italian and international critical traditions on the fin de siècle.
Much can be said on Pater in the light of recent critical pronouncements. The renewed focus on his
role as a classicist, or as a precursor of twentieth-century cultural theory, or as a sophisticated
practitioner of intertextuality, all offer material for discussion. Walter Pater: Reception, Rewriting,
Adaptation adopts these trends to read Pater’s work from the perspective of diverse forms of
intertextuality that are recurrent in his perception of past and present Western culture.
Pater was such a multifaceted author that the imbricated presence of a variety of texts, not
necessarily literary, in his writings is anything but surprising. In particular, both classical and
modern myths are a constant in his appropriations and may provide fresh ideas for further research.
Pater’s reception and rewriting of Italian culture is another underexplored topic and a main concern
of this volume. The diverse modes of appropriation here selected and combined will allow us to
gain a new appreciation of the complexity of Pater’s textuality.