Achille Castaldo is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies in the Department of French and Italian at Emory University.

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Condemned to See 1. Of Hunger Artists and Ascetic Images 2. Hidden Things 3. Voyaging in an Unknown Land 4. Dead and Restless: "The Silence of Reason" 5. The City and Its Depths: Journey to Italy Epilogue: Ars Moriendi Notes References Index

"Ascetic Images stands out as a highly original, rigorously researched, and cogently argued intervention in the fields of Italian studies, film/visual studies, and literary theory. Castaldo pursues the elaboration of a reading method attuned to both the formal complexities of the aesthetic object and the specificities of the historical context with remarkable lucidity. His formal analyses of Ortese and Rossellini are impeccable and inspiring. Even more remarkably, Castaldo devotes the same kind of attention to theoretical texts that too often are read only for their 'content,' carefully combining narrative semiotics (Greimas), Marxist critique of ideology (Jameson), and phenomenology (Ingarden, Merleau-Ponty)." — Domietta Torlasco, author of The Rhythm of Images: Cinema beyond Measure

Achille Castaldo is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies in the Department of French and Italian at Emory University.

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Condemned to See 1. Of Hunger Artists and Ascetic Images 2. Hidden Things 3. Voyaging in an Unknown Land 4. Dead and Restless: "The Silence of Reason" 5. The City and Its Depths: Journey to Italy Epilogue: Ars Moriendi Notes References Index

"Ascetic Images stands out as a highly original, rigorously researched, and cogently argued intervention in the fields of Italian studies, film/visual studies, and literary theory. Castaldo pursues the elaboration of a reading method attuned to both the formal complexities of the aesthetic object and the specificities of the historical context with remarkable lucidity. His formal analyses of Ortese and Rossellini are impeccable and inspiring. Even more remarkably, Castaldo devotes the same kind of attention to theoretical texts that too often are read only for their 'content,' carefully combining narrative semiotics (Greimas), Marxist critique of ideology (Jameson), and phenomenology (Ingarden, Merleau-Ponty)." — Domietta Torlasco, author of The Rhythm of Images: Cinema beyond Measure

Achille Castaldo is Assistant Professor of Italian Studies in the Department of French and Italian at Emory University.

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Condemned to See 1. Of Hunger Artists and Ascetic Images 2. Hidden Things 3. Voyaging in an Unknown Land 4. Dead and Restless: "The Silence of Reason" 5. The City and Its Depths: Journey to Italy Epilogue: Ars Moriendi Notes References Index

"Ascetic Images stands out as a highly original, rigorously researched, and cogently argued intervention in the fields of Italian studies, film/visual studies, and literary theory. Castaldo pursues the elaboration of a reading method attuned to both the formal complexities of the aesthetic object and the specificities of the historical context with remarkable lucidity. His formal analyses of Ortese and Rossellini are impeccable and inspiring. Even more remarkably, Castaldo devotes the same kind of attention to theoretical texts that too often are read only for their 'content,' carefully combining narrative semiotics (Greimas), Marxist critique of ideology (Jameson), and phenomenology (Ingarden, Merleau-Ponty)." — Domietta Torlasco, author of The Rhythm of Images: Cinema beyond Measure