Joseph Francese is Professor at Michigan State University. He is Senior Editor of Italian Culture, and is the author of numerous articles on topics in Renaissance and contemporary literature. He has written monographs on Pasolini, postmodern narrative, and Italian cultural politics in the 1950s. His most recent book is Socially Symbolic Acts: The Historicizing Fictions of Umberto Eco, Vincenzo Consolo, and Antonio Tabucchi.