Brian Richardson

Guido Bonsaver

Giuseppe Stellardi

Throughout the centuries, the Italian peninsula has played an important role as a crossroads where different cultures met, transformed and continued their journeys. This volume retraces some of these crossings, in the fields of literature, architecture and cinema: from the influence of the classical heritage, to the origins and diffusion of the Italian Renaissance, to the role of individuals in the discovery and transmission of knowledge, and the dialogue in and through translation with other national cultures, European and beyond. The volume marks the retirement of Martin McLaughlin from the Agnelli-Serena Chair of Italian Studies at the University of Oxford and celebrates his highly distinguished career in Italian studies. Professor McLaughlin's research has ranged from classical literatures to the Renai-ssance and to modern and contemporary literature. He has published a host of ground-breaking books, edited volumes, articles and book chapters on a wide range of topics, as well as outstanding translations of Calvino and Eco. No less significant have been his teaching, his roles in the running of academic journals and monograph series, and his contributions to the life of the academic community.

Essays in Honour of Martin McLaughlin

Cultural Reception, Translation and Transformation from Medieval to Modern Italy

Robert Samuel Clive Gordon

Recent work on the cultural history of modern Italy has radically challenged received opinion about the relationship of state and culture during the twentieth century. In this interdisciplinary book the complex interactions and negotiations of control are elucidated by way of case studies of major authors, filmmakers and artists and their encounters with censorship, patronage and other forms of direct state intervention from Mussolini to Berlusconi; analytical surveys of different periods, media and culture industries; and new research into Fascist censorship, the Resistance and its imprint in the collective memory, the introduction of television in the 1950s and the terrorism of the 1970s.

Culture, Censorship and the State in Twentieth-century Italy

letteratura in tensione

Elio Vittorini

"Elio Vittorini holds a major position in 20th-century Italian literature thanks to both his narrative production and his activity as editor and militant intellectual. This work aims to present the English-speaking reader with a comprehensive study of the author, his times and his work. Particular attention has been paid to the interconnection between Vittorini's work as a fiction writer and his political commitment which saw him move from revolutionary fascism to communism, to independent left-wing militancy. The combination of extensive archival research with a re-appraisal of his fiction and of his editorial activity provides a full picture reaching beyond the traditional restricted view of Vittorini as the anti-fascist author of ""Conversazione in Sicilia""."

Elio Vittorini: The Writer and the Written

Emma Bond

Federico Faloppa

Italy is one of the most recent immigratory destinations in Europe, having long been one of the continent's most important sources of emigration. Due to its strategic position in the Mediterranean, the Italian peninsula is a crossroads of complex transnational movements and represents a unique and dynamic context for the study of contemporary migration and its representation through the diverse channels of media, literature and film.&ltBR> The product of a two-year interdisciplinary research project into representations of migration to Italy, this volume brings together scholarly contributions from the fields of migration studies, linguistics, media, literature and film studies as well as essays by practitioners and activists. It provides both a multi-faceted snapshot of how diverse representations of immigration capture experiences and affect decision-making dynamics and an in-depth study of how media, literature and cinema contribute to the public perception of migrants within the destination culture.

Representing Migration in Contemporary Media and Narrative

Destination Italy

«Prima di Benito Mussolini, nessun capo del governo italiano dedicò una simile attenzione alla produzione editoriale del proprio paese. Il Duce, forse per abitudine professionale da esperto redattore qual era, forse per appagare le sue ambizioni d'intellettuale autodidatta, lo fece costantemente, durante l'intero Ventennio. In questo modo, divenne una sorta di primo censore dell'editoria italiana.» Il progetto fascista si proponeva di plasmare le opere e la volontà degli scrittori italiani. Dalla soppressione dell'opposizione liberale e socialista alla collaborazione più o meno genuina di sedicenti scrittori fascisti, dai rapporti con il Vaticano all'emergere delle politiche antisemite, il libro propone un viaggio originale nel Ventennio attraverso vicende spesso dimenticate della censura libraria. Al centro di ogni capitolo uno scrittore, un editore famoso o una storia particolarmente significativa: dal fascismo della 'seconda ora' di Brancati agli entusiasmi strumentali di Mondadori; dalla rabbiosa censura contro Sambadù, amore negro di Maria Volpi agli equilibrismi di Bompiani; dalle autocensure di Margherita Sarfatti alla barbarie delle leggi razziali. I concreti atti di protesta di personaggi come Piero Gobetti, Roberto Bracco e Benedetto Croce risaltano ancor maggiormente perché appaiono come picchi isolati in una distesa di piatto conformismo e di compromessi opportunistici.

Storie di letteratura, dissenso e ipocrisia

Mussolini censore

The history of totalitarian states bears witness to the fact that literature and print media can be manipulated and made into vehicles of mass deception. Censorship and Literature in Fascist Italy is the first comprehensive account of how the Fascists attempted to control Italy?s literary production. Guido Bonsaver looks at how the country?s major publishing houses and individual authors responded to the new cultural directives imposed by the Fascists. Throughout his study, Bonsaver uses rare and previously unexamined materials to shed light on important episodes in Italy?s literary history, such as relationships between the regime and particular publishers, as well as individual cases involving renowned writers like Moravia, Da Verona, and Vittorini. Censorship and Literature in Fascist Italy charts the development of Fascist censorship laws and practices, including the creation of the Ministry of Popular Culture and the anti-Semitic crack-down of the late 1930s. Examining the breadth and scope of censorship in Fascist Italy, from Mussolini?s role as ?prime censor? to the specific experiences of female writers, this is a fascinating look at the vulnerability of culture under a dictatorship.

Guido Bonsaver

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