Introduction

Following the publication in the early 1980s of The Conquest of America, dealing with the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the Sixteenth Century, Todorov turned his attention to more historical (and often) more controversial topics, including World War II, the Holocaust, and life in concentration and death camps. Annachiara Mariani discusses how Paolo Sorrentino's sixth feature film, Youth, offers an "acute insight to the director's philosophy of polarities and dichotomies"; Mariani identifies the "marginalization and (ab)use of women and male dominance as recurrent themes in his filmography, [and] particularly in his 2015 Youth." [...]Dennis Wiseman offers a touching personal reflection on the life and times of the novelist Harry Crews, based on his personal encounter with the writer as well as Ted Geltner's recent 2016 biography of Crews's tumultuous life.