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Neo-Victorianism, settler (post)colonialism and domesticity in Patrick White’s Voss (2019)
Journal Article
Boccardi, M. (2022). Neo-Victorianism, settler (post)colonialism and domesticity in Patrick White’s Voss. Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 57(2), 261-275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021989419846926

This article reads Patrick White’s 1957 novel Voss as an early example of Neo-Victorian fiction, a relatively recent but critically well-established category of postwar and contemporary fiction that has not yet been deployed with reference to Voss. I... Read More about Neo-Victorianism, settler (post)colonialism and domesticity in Patrick White’s Voss.

The naturalist in the Garden of Eden: Science and colonial landscape in Jem Poster's Rifling Paradise (2006) (2016)
Journal Article
Boccardi, M. (2016). The naturalist in the Garden of Eden: Science and colonial landscape in Jem Poster's Rifling Paradise (2006). Victoriographies, 6(2), 112-130. https://doi.org/10.3366/vic.2016.0227

This essay seeks to supplement an established critical tradition that reads natural history in neo-Victorian fiction from a postmodern and largely de-politicised perspective. I argue that the figure of the naturalist can be used to revisit natural hi... Read More about The naturalist in the Garden of Eden: Science and colonial landscape in Jem Poster's Rifling Paradise (2006).

Barry Unsworth's Morality Play: Narrative, detection, history (2016)
Journal Article
Boccardi, M. (2016). Barry Unsworth's Morality Play: Narrative, detection, history. postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies, 7(2), 204-213. https://doi.org/10.1057/pmed.2016.9

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Morality Play is a historical detective novel set in the late fourteenth century and published in 1995, at a time of flourishing for historical fiction in Britain. This article argues that the novel shares some of the... Read More about Barry Unsworth's Morality Play: Narrative, detection, history.

A.S. Byatt (2013)
Book
Boccardi, M. (2013). A.S. Byatt. Palgrave Macmillan

A. S. Byatt is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed contemporary writers. This new study provides a lively and detailed exploration of her fiction and non-fiction, and examines Byatt's work in the light of postmodern concerns with languag... Read More about A.S. Byatt.

The contemporary British historical novel: representation, nation, empire (2009)
Book
Boccardi, M. (2009). The contemporary British historical novel: representation, nation, empire. Palgrave

This is the first full-length study of a genre that has had increasing critical attention and popular appeal at the turn of the twenty-first century. The book combines a contextual and theoretical framework for the success of historical fiction in Br... Read More about The contemporary British historical novel: representation, nation, empire.

Exploding taxonomies, exhibiting textuality: J.G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur (2009)
Book Chapter
Boccardi, M. (2009). Exploding taxonomies, exhibiting textuality: J.G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur. In C. Patey, & L. Scuriatti (Eds.), The Exhibit in the Text: The Museological Practices of Literature, 241-255. Peter Lang

The essay examines how collecting and textual accumulation provided the British Empire with a range of symbolic practices to extert indirect control over the colonised territory. The chapter centres on J.G. Farrell's satire of imperial ideology in hi... Read More about Exploding taxonomies, exhibiting textuality: J.G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur.

The story of colonial adventure (2008)
Book Chapter
Boccardi, M. (2008). The story of colonial adventure. In D. Malcolm, & C. A. Malcolm (Eds.), A Companion to the British and Irish Short Story, 19-34. Wiley-Blackwell

The chapter examines the nature and scope of the colonial short story, with reference to authors such as Kipling, Conrad, Conan Doyle and Somerset Maugham. The Companion itself is a valuable resource for students and scholars in the field.

'Pedlars of their nation's past: Douglas Galbraith, James Robertson and the new historical novel' (2007)
Book Chapter
Boccardi, M. (2007). 'Pedlars of their nation's past: Douglas Galbraith, James Robertson and the new historical novel'. In B. Schoene (Ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature, 97-105. Edinburgh University Press

The essay examines two post-devolution Scottish historical novels and relates their subject matter and narrative strategies to the competing discourses of Scottishness from Walter Scott's Waverley to the devolution settlement.

Biography, the postmodern last frontier: Banville, Barnes, Byatt and Unsworth (2001)
Journal Article
Boccardi, M. (2001). Biography, the postmodern last frontier: Banville, Barnes, Byatt and Unsworth

The article examines four novels by well-known contemporary authors, which share a biographer for protagonist. These texts are read in light of postmodern theories of narrative and history.