Maria Corti's The siren song

The Siren Song is a translation from Italian of Maria Corti’s Il canto delle sirene (Bompiani 1989), a novel about intellectual seduction that tracks the history of sirens and explores the themes of the myth. The first narrative about sirens written by a woman, the novel merges fiction and nonfiction, and is in the form of linked stories of sailors and artists seduced by the unknown in various forms. An afterword by the translator surveys the history and literature of sirens, profiles Maria Corti and why she has been overlooked despite being a contemporary of Eco and Calvino, and describes the translator’s approach, influenced by feminist theory as well as the form and content of the novel itself.