Diana Glenn

Diana Glenn is currently National Head of the School of Arts at the Australian Catholic University. Her books include Dante’s Reforming Mission and Women in the Comedy (2008) and recent jointly edited collections with Graham Tulloch, Border Crossings (2016) and Italian Identities (2020).

Diana Glenn reviews 'The Oxford Handbook of Dante' edited by Manuele Gragnolati, Elena Lombardi, and Francesca Southerden

September 2021, no. 435 • 19 August 2021

With its finely honed critical readings and ‘transversal connections’, The Oxford Handbook of Dante is a timely and masterful collection of forty-four chapters presenting contemporary critical insights from a broad choice of intellectual fields that range from Italian and European perspectives to Anglo-American approaches. Highlighting Dante’s expansive outreach over the centuries, the edito ... (read more)

Diana Glenn reviews 'Italians in Australia: History, memory, identity' by Francesco Ricatti

January–February 2020, no. 418 • 26 July 2019

In its interrogation and negotiation of contemporary theoretical frameworks and practices at the core of the Italian–Australian migration complex, Francesco Ricatti’s comprehensive study offers a fresh and lucid understanding of the interrelation of core issues and processes affecting settlement and governance of immigration strategies for Italian arrivals in Australia during the past one hund ... (read more)

Diana Glenn reviews 'Claretta: Mussolini’s last lover' by R.J.B. Bosworth

June-July 2017, no. 392 • 31 May 2017

This fascinating volume on the fate of Clara (Claretta) Petacci, mistress to Benito Mussolini, by distinguished historian R.J.B. Bosworth, is a meticulously researched and multi-layered account tracing the fateful relationship between the fascist dictator and his younger paramour. From the genesis of the affair to its well-known aftermath, Bosworth enlivens our understanding of the vicissitudes of ... (read more)

Diana Glenn reviews 'Dante: The story of his life' by Marco Santagata

May 2016, no. 381 • 26 April 2016

This sumptuous volume by Marco Santagata, professor of Italian Literature at the University of Pisa, offers the reader a richly documented and often gripping account of the development, peregrinations, and shifting fortunes of the celebrated poet Durante (Dante) Alighieri. Comprising ten chapters, the volume has an internal division in two parts, with the first covering Dante's life in Florence an ... (read more)

Diana Glenn reviews 'The Divine Comedy' by Dante Alighieri, translated by Clive James

December 2014, no. 367 • 24 November 2014

During a visit to Adelaide in 2013 as a keynote speaker at the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies ‘Re-imagining Italian Studies’ conference, Professor Martin McLaughlin (Agnelli-Serena Professor of Italian Studies and Fellow of Magdalen College) made the following observation about Clive James’s translation of The Divine Comedy: There are many innovations in Clive James’s version tha ... (read more)