This study examines the necessity of reading retrospectively. In this manner, the reader who comes along after the composition of an authorOs opus may better understand the authorOs earlier works after reading a later one.

Anthony Julian Tamburri received his B.S. in Italian from Southern Connecticut State University, his M.A. in Italian from Middlebury College, and his Ph.D. in Italian from the University of California at Berkeley. He teaches Italian at Purdue University, and his research interests focus chielfly on Italian studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including literary theory, the Italian avant-garde, literature and the arts, and Italian American Studies.